Markus Güdel

Swiss-born Markus Güdel is an internationally in-demand lighting designer, who has developed his deep expertise in lighting complex stage productions and spatial concepts over many years of practical experience. Through close collaborations with directors and dramaturgs, he has refined his artistic style and developed his understanding of how light structures spaces, develops atmosphere and informs emotions.

His work encompasses lighting design and technical direction for theatre, music theatre, concert and crossover productions. In 2003 he founded light.vision Lichttechnik GmbH, which he has led as managing director and project manager ever since.

Alongside his work as a designer, Markus Güdel works in various functions with cultural figures such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Reto Bieri, and with institutions such as the Lucerne Festival, the Gstaad Menuhin Festival and the Menuhin Festival Academy, the Mizmorim Chamber Music Festival in Basel, Le Théâtre in Emmen and the Zentralschweizer Jugendsinfonieorchester ZJSO. His roles include producer, technical director, board member and consultant.

His recent projects have included the concert programme Radix — Wurzeln im Exil (Radix — Roots in Exile) with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Camerata Bern, the musical Elegies for Angels, Punks and Raging Queens at Theater Basel and a collaboration with Reto Bieri at the Ittingen Whitsun Concerts. This summer he is lighting designer for Les Adieux at the Salzburg Festival, and at the Musikfest Berlin in autumn 2026 he will be lighting designer for Wolfgang Rihm’s Tutuguri with the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra under the direction of Jörg Widmann.

Markus Güdel was born in 1983 in Lucerne. Alongside his creative studies he achieved a degree in law (MLaw) from the University of Lucerne. From 2011 to 2014 he worked as a lawyer in a Lucerne law firm. Since 2015 he has advised and represented cultural professionals on legal matters in the culture sector, under the label kulturjurist.ch.