UNLTD: Another way to experience the Verbier Festival

Immersive projects, walks, dialogues: Stephen McHolm presents UNLTD, the Verbier Festival’s eclectic programme. Explore music differently! Interview with Stephen McHolm, Director of the Academy and Cultural Development.

“Curiosity is the starting point for all UNLTD musical adventures.”
Stephen McHolm, Director of Academy & Cultural Development

Cesária Évora Orchestra © LaureN Pasche

UNLTD is often described as the “festival within the Festival.” What is its philosophy?

Today, many of us discover music without worrying about categories. A single playlist can bring together Bach, Miles Davis, Cesária Évora or Schubert. It is this curiosity that gave birth to UNLTD (“Unlimited Music”), a programme that invites you to explore music without borders.

For us, there is no classical music on one side and other genres on the other: there is music in all its diversity. UNLTD is therefore not another festival, but a different way of experiencing the Verbier Festival, by creating a dialogue between repertoires, artists and ideas.

UNLTD features multiple formats—major concerts, Open Air, ideaLAB, immersive experiences… What are you looking for through this diversity?

This curiosity is expressed in many ways. It can be found in a concert like the Cesária Évora Orchestra, a project around Miles Davis, a musical walk in the mountains or an ideaLAB, where music dialogues with science, philosophy or health. Each proposal invites you to listen differently. We are committed to creating moments of encounter, where artists and the audience exchange naturally around music. The formats change, but the ambition remains the same: to offer musical experiences that inspire exploration and sharing.

What do you want the audience to take away from the UNLTD experience?

I hope that everyone leaves with a discovery: an artist, a work or simply a new way of listening. Our starting point is not the audience we want to attract, but the artistic experience we want to create. The greatest reward is seeing people discover the Festival through UNLTD, and then wanting to explore all its other facets. If UNLTD makes people want to continue this musical journey, then it will have fully fulfilled its mission.

DISCOVER THE UNLTD PROGRAMME

The quest for musical emotion

Every summer, the Verbier Festival brings together some of the world’s greatest artists. Beyond virtuosity, what unites musicians and music lovers is the same aspiration: to give rise to that very special emotion that transforms a performance into an unforgettable moment.

It is this search for musical emotion that also drives Stenheim. Founded in the heart of the Valais Alps in 2013, the company’s mission is to reproduce music with a realism, dynamics and presence that bring the listener closer to the live performance. In just over a decade, this young Swiss company has established itself as one of the world’s leading names in high-fidelity.

Its speakers, designed and manufactured in Switzerland, combine high-precision engineering, exceptional components and elegantly understated design. Today, they are present in over forty countries and recognised by enthusiasts and the specialist press alike for their ability to reproduce music with naturalness, transparency and emotion.

This success was born of a simple conviction: the more faithful the reproduction is to the original performance, the more the musical emotion is preserved. This is a conviction we naturally share with the artists and organisers of the Verbier Festival. Musical emotion cannot be explained. It is heard.

This is why we are pleased to invite festival-goers to discover the world of Stenheim at the Jukebox, an immersive audiovisual space integrated into the Pavillon des Combins. Throughout the event, live broadcasts of selected concerts as well as a selection of archival recordings from the Verbier Festival will be reproduced on our system.

Whether you are a seasoned music lover, a classical music enthusiast or simply curious, we invite you to come and listen, compare and discover how faithful musical reproduction can extend this emotion far beyond the concert hall.

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The Verbier Festival wishes to express its deepest gratitude to its patrons, sponsors, partners and public institutions for their support and generous contributions.