Michael Haefliger has been involved with major European festivals throughout his career, initially as a Juilliard-trained performing artist and, since 1999, as the executive and artistic director of the Lucerne Festival. His career as a solo violinist included engagements in the early 1980s at such festivals as those in Lucerne, Interlaken and Spoleto. In 1986, he co-founded the Davos Festival, also known as the Young Artists in Concert Festival, where he served as director until 1998. Prior to this, he was the artistic director at the Collegium Novum Zürich. Currently, Haefliger is a board member of the Avenir Suisse Foundation, the Davos Festival Foundation, the UBS Cultural Foundation and the Pierre Boulez Foundation. He serves as chairman of the jury for the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award. He is an alumnus of the Juilliard School of Music, St. Gallen University and Harvard Business School.