Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy

Training for young professional musicians

 

The Gstaad Academy is a unique learning and networking platform in Europe for some of the most promising young professional artists of their generation. It offers them the opportunity to work with artists of international renown and to perform in public at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, created in 1957 by Yehudi Menuhin, during which numerous concerts and musical events are organized.

The challenge

"The field of conducting is dominated by competition and the opportunities to lead are very limited."

Ludwig Carrasco

"Every lesson, suggestion, or piece of advice should lead to the possibility of trying and experiencing for oneself what works and what doesn’t."

François Lopez-Ferrer 

The Edmond de Rothschild Foundations offer support to the Gstaad Conducting Academy, which consists of some fifteen young conductors selected for their exceptional talent. During the three-week program at the Academy, the students experience conducting the chamber orchestra and the symphony orchestra, attend master classes given by renowned conductors such as Neeme Järvi, Leonid Grin and Jaap van Zweden, and participate in meetings with professionals and with the public, who make the festival a center of excellence in its field.

Our ambition

The aim of the project is to set up an unprecedented training program enabling the professionalization of young talents and to make it possible to introduce young conductors to the great voices and musicians that make the Gstaad Menuhin Festival the summit for music lovers world wide.

Developing the skills of young musicians

By providing them with a variety of high quality complementary training

Helping conductors hone their talent

By offering them practical experience with a professional orchestra at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival

Helping young talents become professional

By giving them the opportunity to lead a large Swiss orchestra thanks to the Neeme Järvi Award

Our solutions

Mentoring

Specific training sessions for young professionals and the opportunity to perform in the prestigious setting of an international music festival

Networking

Meetings and exchanges between talented young musicians, distinguished professors and internationally recognized professionals

Professionalization

Accompany the best young talents in their entry into the professional world with the Neeme Järvi Award

Results

12

young conductors selected for the 6th edition

16

Academy final concerts since 2014

9

Festival concerts since 2014

6

academies: conducting, voice, piano, strings, digital and baroque

"The Gstaad Conducting Academy is a magnificent and extremely valuable institution: three weeks of intensive work with the top musicians of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra under the direction of exceptional teachers—this is simply unique in the world!"

Joseph Bastian
 Winner of the Neeme Järvi prize 2016

"The Gstaad Conducting Academy is a unique opportunity not only for the conductors but also for the orchestra musicians, enabling them to get in touch and to rediscover the fundamental elements of ensemble music.”

Vlad Stănculeasa      
First violin of the Gstaad Festival Orchestra

The way forward

  • Continue to increase the influence of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival
  • Support the development of the sixth edition of the Program

Contact us 

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