A Summer of Transformation in the Swiss Alps: Gstaad Menuhin Festival 2025 Approaches its Grand Finale

The 69th edition of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy, running through 6 September 2025, has been a season of profound artistic reflection and renewal. Under the theme “Wandel” – German for “transformation” – this summer’s programme explores the many ways music responds to migration, displacement, longing, and homecoming.

Grouped into four thematic strands – Origin, Escape to Exile, Inner Emigration, and Nostalgia – the concerts navigate the emotional and historical layers of movement and belonging. It is a season shaped by farewells and fresh beginnings, both musically and institutionally.

At the heart of the programme are eight major concerts in Gstaad’s iconic Festival Tent. Highlights include Gabriela Montero’s fiery Latin Concerto (9 August ), the return of Khatia Buniatishvili with a dazzling solo recital (10 August), and the celebrated Jussen brothers in a double piano concerto by Mendelssohn alongside Shostakovich’s powerful Symphony No. 5 (16 August).

Audiences can also look forward to a film screening with live orchestra (Les Choristes, 17 August), Bellini’s Norma in concert with soprano Sonya Yoncheva (22 August), and a colourful Bizet evening featuring Marina Viotti and Cyrille Dubois (23 August). On 29 August, Sol Gabetta joins the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich for a poignant programme of Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich. The final Tent concert (30 August) brings Verdi’s Requiem to life with an all-star cast and the Zurich Opera Orchestra and Chorus under Gianandrea Noseda.

This summer also marks a historic leadership transition: after 24 years as Artistic Director, Christoph Müller hands the baton to Daniel Hope, the internationally acclaimed violinist and long-time friend of the festival. Hope’s personal connection to Gstaad runs deep – he made his debut here in 1992 under the watchful eye of Yehudi Menuhin himself.

The symbolic handover will be celebrated on 6 September in Saanen Church with a genre-spanning closing concert themed around music and migration. With Hope at the violin and the bandoneon at its heart – the quintessential “instrument of exile” – the evening promises to be both emotionally resonant and artistically bold.

For tickets and information, visit gstaadmenuhinfestival.ch or call +41 33 748 81 82