Verbier Festival to feature host of international stars

Verbier Festival: featuring a host of international stars Keystone-SDA

The 33rd Verbier Festival will take place from Thursday until August 2 in the resort of Val de Bagnes. The programme features around 60 classical music concerts, including three operas, around 100 masterclasses and numerous free events.

The opening concert will be conducted by the Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, who is making his long-awaited return to the Verbier Festival after a nine-year absence. The day before, the opening ceremony will be entirely Valais-based, featuring performances by the Valais Brass Ensemble and the Oberwalliser Vokalensemble.

Other renowned conductors will take to the podium over the following days, including Simon Rattle, Lahav Shani, Gianandrea Noseda, Mikhail Pletnev and Daniel Harding, the organisers said in a press release.

World-renowned soloists such as Martha Argerich, Joshua Bell, Khatia Buniatishvili, Janine Jansen, Alexandre Kantorow, Leonidas Kavakos, Evgeny Kissin, Yunchan Lim, Nikolai Lugansky, Mischa Maisky and András Schiff will be taking part. This line-up is joined by singers including Gerald Finley, Renée Fleming, Magdalena Kožená, Peter Mattei, Thomas Quasthoff and Bryn Terfel.

The 2026 programme also features three operas: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Così fan tutte (July 18), Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle (July 24) and Giuseppe Verdi’s La Traviata (August 2), as well as several signature evenings organised by Rencontres Inédites.

Platforms for emerging talent

On July 24, following Béla Bartók’s opera, the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra will give a free concert to celebrate its 20th anniversary. Its programme – a surprise – will be revealed at the very moment the concert begins.

The second pillar of the festival, the Academy, will once again bring together the finest young talents of their generation. In 2026, it received a record number of over 2,400 applications from 81 countries. This year, 227 young artists representing 43 countries are taking part in the Academy and Orchestra Training programmes.

Alongside the main programme, UNLTD, the festival’s creative laboratory, offers more than 50 events providing a different way to experience the festival, ranging from intimate concerts at the resort’s cinema and open-air performances at La Chaux to busking and musical walks.

This year, the Verbier Festival Kids programme features, among other things, Peter and the Wolf, to mark the 90th anniversary of Sergei Prokofiev’s work. Finally, 20 free talks, open to all – with speakers including architect Kengo Kuma, designer of the future Verbier Cultural Centre (July 18) – are also being organised as part of this summer event.

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Translated from French, reviewed by an English Department journalist.