The Sion Festival 2025 opens with a musical marathon
The 61st edition of the Sion Festival, co-curated by Pavel Vernikov and Janine Jansen, kicks off with an intense, sparkling weekend full of surprises. One of Europe’s oldest boys’ choirs, the St. Florianer Sängerknaben, will take you on a journey through time and style at the opening concert in Sion Cathedral on Friday 15 August.
Immediately afterwards, in front of the Cathedral, the first notes of Musique en fête will be heard, a huge feast of music that will continue uninterrupted until the evening of Saturday 16 August. Shattering musical boundaries, 17 free concerts will take you around the city of Sion to discover exceptional artists from near and far.
On Sunday 17 August in the church of Hérémence, to round off the first weekend of the festival, a grandiose concert will bring together two great violinists, Janine Jansen and Candida Thompson, and an impressive string ensemble for a flamboyant interpretation of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
The Sion Festival continues on 22 August with the ensemble Il Suonar Parlante, bringing together baroque and contemporary music. On the weekend of 23-24 August, the young Ilumina ensemble, led by violist Jennifer Stumm, will build a bridge between Brazil and Europe.
From 26 August, the Sion Festival will take up residence at NODA BCVS for a series of prestigious symphonic and chamber concerts with big names on the programme: Janine Jansen, Martin Fröst, Pablo Ferrández, Janoska Ensemble or Ekaterina Shelehova. In the new concert hall in Sion at NODA BCVS, you can also marvel at the best candidates of the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition 2025 during the 3rd round and the final from 28 August!
We look forward to sharing these wonderful musical moments with you.
The team of the Fondation Sion Violon Musique
Friday 15 August, 5 pm | Sion Cathedral | St. Florianer Sängerknaben
With its millenary history, this boys’ choir from St. Florian, near Linz, embodies both an age-old musical tradition and a model of innovation in the choral arts. In this opening concert, the choir will move effortlessly from sacred music to Austrian heritage, via pop and gospel classics
Friday 15 August, 6.30 pm < Saturday 16 August, 7.30 pm | Sion town | Musique en fête
For 24 hours non-stop, music will resonate in the streets of Sion, between dance and virtuosity. Highlights of this free mini-festival include the Opus13 string quartet, young prodigy Dmitry Ishkhanov and the famous Paganini Ensemble Wien, as well as local artists like Valentin Conus, Estelle Revaz, Sarah Pagin, Louis Delignon or DJ St-Paul
Sunday 17 August, 5 pm | Church of Hérémence | Janine Jansen & Candida Thompson
Janine Jansen, accompanied by an impressive string ensemble conducted by Candida Thompson, will offer a programme of contrasts, between the luminous virtuosity of Vivaldi’s famous Four Seasons (300 years after their publication) and the poignant dramatic intensity of Mendelssohn’s Quartet in F minor, the composer’s last work.
