Expo 2025 Osaka: Virtual Hall® brings the public into the heart of the OSR

Swiss innovation on show in Osaka

At the World Expo in Osaka, music also opened a window onto Swiss innovation. On 10 July 2025, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR) and Cybel’Art presented Virtual Hall® in the Swiss Pavilion’s event space. This encounter was part of the orchestra’s Asian tour, spanning China, Korea and Japan.

Guests were invited to experience the project with Meta Quest headsets. From Osaka, they could thus find themselves virtually within a symphonic ensemble: not merely facing the orchestra, but close to those who bring the music to life.

Cover photograph: presentation of Virtual Hall® at the Swiss Pavilion. © Cybel’Art Ltd/Virtual Hall®.

Real artists, a different place for the listener

Virtual Hall® is based on 360° capture of concerts and real performers. The visitor can look around and choose among several viewpoints to observe gestures, exchanges between sections and the orchestra’s collective energy.

Born from the OSR’s initiative and developed by Cybel’Art, the project puts technology at the service of a deeply human encounter. It does not replace the live concert: it offers a new way to approach it, to feed curiosity and to hear a familiar work differently.

From immersion to the live concert

The programme for this event combined the discovery of Virtual Hall® with a guided tour and a concert at the Swiss Pavilion. The official announcement notably presented Kenji no Niji by Ezko Kikoutchi, a commission from the OSR announced as a world premiere, as well as Mozart’s Quintet for Clarinet and Strings in A major, KV 581.

The same ambition linked these experiences: to share music, through the presence of the performers as well as through the new possibilities of immersion.

For more information

Read the official announcement on Vitality.swiss, the public diplomacy programme of the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan and its partners.

Credits for the three photographs: © Cybel’Art Ltd/Virtual Hall®.