Verbier Festival

For two weeks every summer, classical music fills the streets of Verbier and its surroundings. Over the last quarter of a century, the Festival has established itself as one of the biggest events on the international music calendar, a place where the greats can perform in the rarest intimacy and where the baton is also passed to the next generation.

The story began when Swedish artistic producer Martin T:son Engstroem fell head over heels in love with Verbier, its ski runs, and its unrivalled views of Les Grands Combins. Far removed from the hubbub of the modern world, immersed in the overwhelming silence of the mountains, a group of enthusiasts began to form around him before, in 1994, the Verbier Festival came into being, modest in size but ambitious in spirit. Music lovers flocked to a marquee on Médran, at the foot of the slopes, where they sat on the stage enthralled by the performances by the young Russian violinist Maxim Vengerov and compatriot and piano prodigy Evgeny Kissin. In the intimate surroundings of this tiny venue, the musicians became one with their instruments.

Twenty-six years later, those loyal early guests are still here, alongside the great classical performers of the day. The Verbier Festival has flourished over the years. In addition to recitals, concertos and orchestras, it now welcomes opera, jazz and world music influences, choral music, and surprise recitals. Year after year, its Rencontres Inédites series brings together men and women who have never performed with each other before, creating some perfect musical matches in the process.

Here there is no dashing between concerts from one side of the world to the other. This is an event where artists melt into the audience and listen to one another. The Verbier Festival is much more than a beautiful setting and a summit meeting of the greatest talents. It is a gathering of personalities, an opportunity for sharing, with a special human chemistry of its own, hence that sense of warmth felt by its fans.

An academy and an orchestra
The beating heart of the festival, the Verbier Festival Academy took on a mission at a very early stage of its life: to unearth and train new generations of performers. “Young people are so important. They’re the ones who bring energy,” says Martin T:son Engstroem. Every summer, dozens of musicians aged between 15 and 30 spend three to five weeks in Verbier attending masterclasses given, along with concerts, by the leading maestros of our times. The emphasis is on absorbing and passing on knowledge, with young musicians anxious to learn and their elders keen to teach. The result is a Verbier Festival that nurtures budding virtuosos and gives them a launch pad. In seeking to spread the word, the Festival now has its own orchestra in residence, made up of former Academy students. Regarded as one of the finest training orchestras in the world, it represents a rite of passage for tomorrow’s greats of the global musical scene. From 17 July to 2 August this year, Verbier is the only place to be.