The Swiss Chamber Music Festival is a high point in the Swiss festival landscape, with a focus on promoting young musicians, exciting programming and encounters of styles. The starting point for the festival is the Orpheus Swiss Chamber Music Competition, which has been running since 1974 and each year rewards graduates of Swiss chamber music conservatories. The ensembles taking part in the competition face a high-level jury, currently headed by Bernese musician and cellist Thomas Demenga, who awards prizes to six or seven ensembles each. Among other things, these ensembles will be offered an attractive concert opportunity.
For decades, the prize-winners' concerts were held in Zurich, then wandered around for a few years before settling in the Bernese Oberland in 2011. The Swiss Chamber Music Festival was born!
Since then, exceptional musical talent has been promoted every year in the municipalities of Adelboden, Frutigen and Kandersteg, in collaboration with the Orpheus Swiss Chamber Music Competition.
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 barriers: for example, popular music plays just as central a role at the Swiss Chamber Music Festival as jazz. The Swiss Chamber Music Festival wants to break down boundaries and break down barriers: that's why concerts are regularly organised in surprising places, in gymnasiums, on Engstligenalp, in the BLS conservation centre or, for the first time in 2024, in the AFA bus hall in Frutigen.
The next Swiss Chamber Music Festival will take place from 5 to 14 September 2025.
Advance ticket sales start in spring 2025.