Folk Songs
No. 11 – Mai 2023
Dear friends of GAIA,
At 7 concerts in 6 venues, 41 works from 4 centuries were performed by 19 musicians from 12 nations. Still drunk on the energy that GAIA always proffers, and, amazingly, untouched by a hangover, we thank you, our audience, who share with us and give purpose to our work.
"The first event of the Gaia Music Festival 2023 showed how lively and refreshing a concert can be when classical and folk music go hand in hand."
Berner Zeitung
Read complete GAIA 2023 Media/Press
Thank you for being part of our story. By giving us your time, trust and support, you help drive our intention forward.
We are hugely grateful to our generous sponsors, supporters, donors and the foundations and institutions that enable and elevate our visions, as well as our committee and volunteers who steer us to success.
On the wings of last week’s inspiration, we are already in the throes of preparing next year’s 15th anniversary edition entitled “Mensch”.
Next GAIA Festival
26 April – 5 May 2024
MENSCH
We can’t wait to see you again!
Yours,
The GAIA Festival Team
Schlosskonzerte Thun
The music continues in the month of June at Schlosskonzerte Thun, with live concerts taking place from 1-30 June.
More information about the programme can be found here.
From the Festival
No. 10 – Mai 2023
Dear friends of GAIA,
Oberhofen, on the Lake of Thun, is transformed since last Saturday. Music floats in the air, there is a sense of excitement everywhere and equally, a sense of homecoming. 41 works spanning four centuries are being rehearsed in Oberhofen’s “Klösterli”, as the public walk the rooms, availing of the free entry to rehearsals.
Last night’s rousing “Opening Night” returned for the first time since 2019. Three concerts took place, three times in succession, across three venues, with audience members milling between each. The subtitle of this year’s edition, “Of Love and other Drunkenness” has, unsurprisingly, encouraged a steady stream of jokes and, along with the wine that flowed freely last night, ensured for more than one anecdote about hangovers today.
Join us as the celebrations continue with this evening’s concert at the City Church of Thun, featuring works by our composer-in-residence Garth Knox, alongside iconic pieces by Boccherini, Piazzolla and the magic that is bound to happen when the incomparable Erika Stucky takes to the stage.
We look forward to raising a glass with you this week at GAIA when we celebrate love, music, and a gathering of cultures!
Yours,
The GAIA Festival Team
The complete festival programme can be found here.
In partnership with SBB we are proud to offer all concertgoers a 30% discount on travel to and from our concerts in Thun and Berne. After purchasing a ticket to the GAIA Music Festival, you will receive a code which can be used online at SBB.ch (hyperlink) when booking a train ticket for the corresponding single or return journey.
Late Night Concert
No. 10 – Mai 2023
Dear friends of GAIA,
On 5 May at 22:30, sisters Evelyn and Kristina Brunner will perform a late-night concert, showcasing their unique sound inspired by traditional Swiss folk music.
Entrance free, collection
The Burehuus restaurant offers drinks and cold platters.
We are very excited to welcome you tomorrow to our Opening Night.
Be part of the crowd that moves from venue to venue, experiencing three different concerts in three different venues.
See you soon!
Yours,
The GAIA Festival Team
The complete festival programme can be found here.
In partnership with SBB we are proud to offer all concertgoers a 30% discount on travel to and from our concerts in Thun and Berne. After purchasing a ticket to the GAIA Music Festival, you will receive a code which can be used online at SBB.ch (hyperlink) when booking a train ticket for the corresponding single or return journey.
Our Artists
No. 8 – April 2023
Dear friends of GAIA,
The GAIA Music Festival nurtures and inspires musicians. We bring emerging artists and acclaimed performers from across the world together to make music in locations around Thun, the Lake of Thun and in Berne. This year’s emerging artists and acclaimed performers are:
Yours,
The GAIA Festival Team
The complete festival programme can be found here.
In partnership with SBB we are proud to offer all concertgoers a 30% discount on travel to and from our concerts in Thun and Berne. After purchasing a ticket to the GAIA Music Festival, you will receive a code which can be used online at SBB.ch (hyperlink) when booking a train ticket for the corresponding single or return journey.
The Godfather
No. 7 – April 2023
Dear friends of GAIA,
In GAIA’s culminating concert, The Godfather, we experience Tchaikovsky, the inspirational godfather of so many composers. In his uplifting sextet “Souvenir de Florence”, undoubtedly one of classical music’s most popular works, we hear a mature composer, who models his sextet on Italian style and musical architecture. However, it is he, Tchaikovsky, who is the icon that his countrymen model themselves on. Arensky’s unusually orchestrated string quartet’s second movement uses as a theme from “Legend”, Tchaikovsky’s piece for voice and piano.
In turn, Glazunov’s string quintet draws on Tchaikovsky’s “Souvenir de Florence”, lending from it the elegance of that work as a foil for the ambition of the folk music that the work utilises.
An evening full of hauntingly beautiful melodies, poetic yearning, evocative themes, and bright, bold chamber music, this final concert of the festival is designed to leave us all in high spirits and wanting more.
Yours,
The GAIA Festival Team
Listen here for some of Arensky’s string quintet, last performed at GAIA in 2009.
The complete festival programme can be found here.
In partnership with SBB we are proud to offer all concertgoers a 30% discount on travel to and from our concerts in Thun and Berne. After purchasing a ticket to the GAIA Music Festival, you will receive a code which can be used online at SBB.ch (hyperlink) when booking a train ticket for the corresponding single or return journey.
Songs and Dances
No. 6 – April 2023
Dear friends of GAIA,
Dance needs rhythm and is movement, beat, strength and apparent weightlessness, driven by music to which the body submits while becoming a work of art in itself. Song, a primal human instinct, is a form of communication more able to express the rich colours of passion than spoken words.
All the pieces in Songsand Dances have folk motifs. The point of departure for this concert’s programme was the duo by Bohuslav Martinů. It accompanied Gwendolyn Masin throughout her childhood, played by her Czech father and Hungarian mother. Madrigals are songs of the Renaissance. The duo, affectionately named after the English madrigals that influenced Martinů, is full of Bohemian and Moravian folk music. Mikhail Glinka was a devotee of Vincenzo Bellini's Bel Canto, whose melodic richness inspired Glinka to write his sextet. Sergey Prokofiev drew inspiration from his ballet "Trapeze" to write his quintet.
Following the matinée concert at Oberhofen Castle, we invite you to share a glass of wine with us.
In partnership with SBB we are proud to offer all concertgoers a 30% discount on travel to and from our concerts in Thun and Berne. After purchasing a ticket to the GAIA Music Festival, you will receive a code which can be used online at online at SBB.ch when booking a train ticket for the corresponding single or return journey.
Yours,
The GAIA Festival Team
Adorned with Borrowed Plumes
No. 5 – April 2023
Dear friends of GAIA,
Borrowing stylistic devices from other cultures has always been one of the most daring but also most rewarding techniques of composition. There is much talk of cultural appropriation (and indeed, exploitation) in recent years, but what about cultural appreciation? Melting exotic ingredients respectfully and knowledgably in the pot, the masters of the profession were rewarded with particularly tasty and popular works.
In Adorned with Borrowed Plumes, we travel through Slavic visions or Irish folk melodies interpreted by Swiss composers Frank Martin and Emil Frey, celebrate the work of Jewish-American composer George Gershwin in his folk opera “Porgy and Bess” envisioned to be sung by an all African-American cast, and hear Hebrew melodies in works by Russian “enemies of the people” – Shostakovich and Prokofiev.
As a prelude to the evening, Her Excellency Ms Hedda Samson, Ambassador of the Netherlands to Switzerland, invites all concert-goers to a free aperitif.
This is followed by an introduction to this controversial topic in a pre-concert talk given by Dr Jörg Scheller, professor of art history at the Zurich University of the Arts, journalist and musician.
Socially relevant issues that could not be more of the moment will be addressed on this evening, both intellectually and artistically.
Experience for yourself who adorns themselves with whose feathers!
Yours,
The GAIA Festival Team
Recording
Sergei Prokofiev
Overture on Hebrew Themes in C minor Op. 34
Quick view of the programme:
6.00 pm
Aperitif offered by Her Excellency Ms Hedda Samson, Ambassador of the Netherlands
6.30 pm
Introduction by Dr. Jörg Scheller (approx. 40 minutes)
Short break
7.30 pm
Concert
Unbounded Friendship
No. 4 – March 2023
Dear friends of GAIA,
"Hofstetten near Thun. That's where I find myself this morning, in a very charming flat, right by the river behind the Bellevue Hotel. I think it is the most beautiful flat I have ever lived in, and I am very happy to have taken the decision to come here." Composer Johannes Brahms wrote these words to his publisher Fritz Simrock on 28 May 1886.
During his musical summer of 1886 spent in Thun, Brahms composed his Piano Trio Opus 101.
Simrock was also the recipient of another message from Brahms. "This fellow has more ideas than all of us. From his scraps, others could pick the main themes in their works,” Brahms wrote about Antonín Dvořák. Although he and Dvořák enjoyed an extraordinary friendship, Brahms seemed almost jealous of Dvořák's gift of "fresh, fun, and rich invention." When Dvořák, who was only eight years younger than Brahms, was still a veritable nobody, Brahms supported him so energetically that his success rivalled that of his great role model during his lifetime. Their friendship was so deep and sincere that their competition always remained just a small part of an inspired exchange.
The concert on 5 May 2023 in Hilterfingen Church features, among other pieces, Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, perhaps one of his best-known works. Dvořák's String Sextet Op. 4 in A major, whose second and third movements are set as Czech folk dances, the Dumka and the Furiant respectively, as well as his Piano Trio No. 4 Op. 90 in E minor, known as the “Dumky” Trio, will also be performed.
We very much look forward to welcoming you to this celebration of the boundless friendship of these two great composers!
Yours,
The GAIA Festival Team
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.