Sion Festival: artistic co-direction Pavel Vernikov - Janine Jansen from 2024
Janine Jansen will share the artistic direction of the Sion Festival with Pavel Vernikov – Artistic Director for the last ten years – from 2024. A regular guest of the festival and a professor at the HEMU – Valais-Wallis with strong ties to the capital of Sion, the Dutch violinist has committed herself for at least two years. She will contribute to the development of the event in a spirit of continuity.
“The idea came to me quite naturally”, explains Pavel Vernikov. “Janine Jansen is a great friend and a great musician. I encouraged her to take part in the cultural life of Sion. She was delighted to take over from me at the HEMU – Valais-Wallis. [where she has been teaching since summer 2019, the first two years co-teaching with Pavel Vernikov. Ed]. I also invited her to become more involved in the Sion Festival. Her involvement in the artistic direction was an obvious choice.” Janine Jansen has been performing at the Sion Festival for ten years. In recent years, she has been given “carte blanche” for two or three concerts at each edition.
“It is a big honour and privilege to have been asked by Pavel Vernikov to work together with him as artistic co-director of Sion Festival. I have huge admiration and respect for him as a musician, pedagogue and human being and am very inspired by all that he has done for the musical life in Sion and for the Sion Festival in particular”, says Janine Jansen. “I have a special place in my heart for this beautiful small city ever since visiting it for the first time as a child. It is a place I now call home and I look forward very much to working closely together with my dear friend Pavel to create some exciting programmes for the future editions of the festival.”
Future programming at the Sion Festival will undoubtedly reflect the different personalities and career paths of the two violinists, who are separated by a generation. “Janine Jansen likes to bring in young artists, today’s stars, for exceptional chamber music concerts in particular. The festival’s loyal artists and Pavel Vernikov’s ever-refreshing fantasy will continue to be on show”, says Olivier Vocat, President of the Foundation Sion Violon Musique.
There will also be great synergies with the International Chamber Music Festival in Utrecht, which Janine Jansen founded 20 years ago and of which she is Artistic Director. An initial collaboration is already planned for 2024.
Janine Jansen’s concerts at Sion Festival 2023
- Wednesday 30 August, 7.30pm, Ferme-Asile Sion
- Sunday 3 September, 5pm, Ferme-Asile Sion