Lovers and Loss
No. 3 – March 2023
A Co-Production with the Lucerne School of Music
Dear friends of GAIA,
The evening of 4 May 2023 is dedicated to a particularly multi-layered collaboration.
At 19:30 in Scherzligen church in Thun, GAIA will present some of the most important Hungarian composers of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as two world premieres.
Armenian composer Aregnaz Martirosyan (*1993), who studies with Dieter Ammann, and Swiss composer Urs Peter Schneider (*1939) have composed pieces for the GAIA Music Festival 2023 inspired by their origins and the folk music from the cultures they identify with.
Both pieces have been studied and prepared by students of the Lucerne School of Music in a specially-designed module as part of their "Interpretation in Contemporary Music" course and will be premiered on 4 May.
The evening begins with a pre-concert introduction and talk with Aregnaz Martirosyan, moderated by Marc Kilchenmann, who is a bassoonist, researcher, university lecturer, composer, improviser, and publisher.
Join us for a concert experience that transcends geographical borders and builds a bridge for cross-generational gatherings.
Yours,
The GAIA Festival Team
Opening concert – Of Love and Other Drunkenness
No. 2 – March 2023
Dear friends of GAIA
On 3 May 2023 at 7.30 pm, the 14th edition of GAIA Music Festival will begin with a concert in the Town Church of Thun.
In the Romantic tradition, music is, time and again, associated with madness, either as a cause or a cure. And who would deny that love and its confusions are inextricably linked to the causes of untold madness? While in real life excess can be exhilarating but exhausting and dangerous, the portrayal of it on stage is a pleasure to be enjoyed without unwanted consequences. During this concert, we can inwardly yearn, suffer, moan and slur our way through the debauchery of the world, yet leave the scenes of all manner of escapades with radiant enthusiasm and no hangover at all.
Gwendolyn Masin describes the programme: "The incentive for Of Love and Other Drunkenness was to bring songs of the streets to the concert hall. Connecting Boccherini’s impression of after-hours in Madrid; Irish-born Garth Knox’s storytelling of being a stranger, to Argentinian Piazzolla’s symbiosis with Buenos Aires’ tango tales, this concert celebrates wine’s harvest and earth’s song."
The opening concert features Diana Ketler and Razvan Popovici, Fabio di Casola as well as Erika Stucky and many others from GAIA's burgeoning family of musicians.
Let us revel together!
Herzlich,
das GAIA-Festivalteam
FOLK SONGS – Of Love and Other Drunkenness
No. 1 – February 2023
Dear friends of GAIA,
It's still cold enough outside to feel rather sober, but the heads and hearts of GAIA’s festival team members are already drunk on musical anticipation.
A few weeks ago, we released GAIA Music Festival 2023’s programme. From 1 March, our box office opens!
You can reserve your tickets online on our website or directly via www.kulturticket.ch. This year for the first time, we will offer discounted train tickets to our audience, thanks to our partner SBB. Details are also available online on our website.
We are pleased to announce that we will hold our popular OPENING NIGHT again.
On Tuesday 2 May 2023 at 6.30 pm, 7.30 pm and 8.30 pm at three venues in Oberhofen, you can gain insight into the festival programme. Enjoy three 30-minute concerts at three venues in Oberhofen filled with pieces from the entire 2023 festival programme. Between each concert there is time to stroll to the next venue. The winery, Rebbaugenossenschaft Oberhofen will present a wine-tasting at Klösterli Oberhofen.
This is the GAIA Opening Night
We very much look forward to welcoming you!
Yours,
The GAIA Festival Team
Gift GAIA Music Festival
December 2022
Our programme reveal 2023 is here!
A festival packed with compositions and artists from all over the world. Join us on a journey with music and musicians from Mozart to Brahms, from Erika Stucky to Garth Knox.
Gift your loved ones, friends, or employees an extraordinary musical treat for Christmas: concert experiences at GAIA Music Festival 2023.
Next year’s festival takes place from 2nd to 7th May and is dedicated to Folk Songs and how sharing these creates understanding between peoples. 17 musicians from 12 nations will perform 41 works spanning 4 centuries at 7 concerts in 6 venues.
You can choose between a voucher worth CHF 60 for a concert of the recipient’s choice* or choose one for them at the GAIA Music Festival 2023.
*except for the matinée concert in Oberhofen Castle, for which you can purchase a voucher for CHF 75.
Our detailed programme is now online here.
The festival team and musicians look forward to welcoming you to the 14th GAIA Music Festival and wish you happy holidays.