2026 Programme Announcement and Ticketing Opening

November 21, 2025 – Verbier (Switzerland) — After a 2025 edition marked by unprecedented artistic and public success (ticket sales up 21% compared to 2024), the Verbier Festival unveils today the programme for its 33rd edition, which will take place from July 16 to August 2 2026.

Over 60 Mainstage concerts, and close to 100 masterclasses, and numerous free events will be offered to audiences during these 18 days in the heart of the Valais resort.

Faithful to its values of excellence and discovery, and with young talent development at the core of its mission, the Verbier Festival will present many unmissable events for music lovers from around the world. Notable artists this year include:
 

The Festival’s 33rd edition will open officially on Thursday July 16, 2026 with a ceremony followed by a concert highlighting leading Swiss ensembles: the Oberwalliser Vokalensemble and the Ensemble de Cuivres Valaisan.The Opening Concert on July 17, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen in his highly anticipated return to Verbier

(his last appearance, Elektra in 2017, remains unforgettable), will feature Wagner’s Götterdämmerung finale scene and Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie.Discovering and nurturing the most promising talents remains a core priority of the Verbier Festival. This year, audiences will hear pianist-composer Tsotne Zedginidze, violinists Amira Abouzahra, Stephen Waarts, Yamen Saadi and Paloma So, violist Timothy Ridout, and cellist Pablo Ferrández, several of whom are alumni of the Verbier Festival Academy.

This mission is embodied in the Festival’s resident training orchestras: the Verbier Festival Orchestra (100 musicians aged 18–28, 25 nationalities, selected from over 1,200 candidates) and Verbier Festival Junior Orchestra (60 musicians aged 15–18, 40 nationalities, selected from over 300 candidates).

The Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2026. A true global ambassador of the Festival, the VFCO undertakes major tours and recordings throughout the year. In 2026 it will perform: China at the first Shenzhen Verbier Festival (January 30–February 8, 2026), South Korea (April), Japan, including Suntory Hall, Tokyo (October 14, 2026). Many publications and special events are planned to mark this anniversary. The orchestra is composed exclusively of alumni of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, now established as soloists or principals in major international orchestras.

Widely regarded as a benchmark among international summer music academies, the Verbier Festival Academy — uniting the Soloists & Ensembles and Atelier Lyrique programmes — will once again welcome nearly 60 young artists to work with today’s foremost masters. Nearly 100 public masterclasses will be offered free of charge, led by distinguished artists including Renée Fleming, András Schiff, Steven Isserlis, Richard Goode and Nikolaï Lugansky.
The Prix Yves Paternot, awarded to the most accomplished and promising musician of each year’s Academy, celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2026. A special concert reuniting several past laureates will take place on July 21.

UNLTD, Verbier Festival’s creative laboratory, will present around 20 events, including 6 concerts at the Verbier Cinema featuring artists as diverse as Sandrine Piau, the Cesária Évora Orchestra, Adèle Charvet (in a concert dedicated to Joséphine Baker), a ciné-concert tribute to Miles Davis marking the centenary of his birth with trumpet player Shems Bendali, the Franco-Cameroonian duo OKALI, and a trio led by Cuban pianist Rolando Luna. Other concerts, present in innovative formats, will include the world premiere of a reimagining of In a Silent Way, Miles Davis’s cult album, by the string quintet Wooden Elephant. UNLTD’s Open Air progamme (Balades musicales and high-altitude concerts) will be announced early in 2026.

Finally, the Festival continues to broaden its engagement with young audiences through an ever more dynamic VF KiDS offering: year-round workshops and performances in schools throughout the cantons of Valais, Vaud and Fribourg, and a varied line-up of activities during the Festival. Highlights include: Peter and the Wolf, illustrated with children’s drawings and visuals by multimedia artist Marc Philippin; What on Earth!, the award-winning stage work by ensemble inn.wien that explores our relationship with the planet through music, movement and visual imagination; the annual Storytellers performance, featuring Terrokois, a new creation by René-Claude Emery with Prix Yves Paternot Laureates, Trio Concept.

Remaining faithful to its values and origins, the Verbier Festival continues to renew itself and expand internationally through the launch of the Shenzhen Verbier Festival (21 concerts and a series of masterclasses with leading soloists), an ambitious audiovisual strategy, and major touring projects for the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra planned through the 2028/29 season.

A 33rd Festival edition shaped by connection, generosity and artistic friendship, the qualities that continue to define Verbier.

Dates : July16 – August 2, 2026