The Swiss Chamber Music Festival provides a highlight in the diverse festival landscape of Switzerland and sets an unmistakable accent with the promotion of young musicians, exciting programming and style encounters.
The starting point of the festival is the Orpheus Swiss Chamber Music Competition, which has existed since 1974 and annually honours chamber music graduates from Swiss music academies. The ensembles taking part in the competition face the high-calibre jury - currently led by Bern musician and cellist Thomas Demenga - which awards prizes to six to seven ensembles each. Among other things, these ensembles will be offered an attractive concert opportunity.
For decades, the prizewinners' concerts took place in the city of Zurich and then wandered for a few years until they found a new home in the Bernese Oberland in 2011. The Swiss Chamber Music Festival was born!
However, the programme not only includes music for adults, but also - in collaboration with the regional music school - for children. The programme management also looks beyond stylistic boundaries, with folk music playing just as central a role at the Swiss Chamber Music Festival as jazz, for example. The Swiss Chamber Music Festival aims to push boundaries and break down fears of contact: Concerts are therefore repeatedly held in surprising locations, in gymnasiums, on the Engstligenalp, in the BLS maintenance centre or, for the first time in 2024, in the AFA bus hall in Frutigen.
The next edition of the Swiss Chamber Music Festival will take place from 13 to 22 September 2024.
Advance ticket sales start on 1 June 2024.