The 2025 Gstaad Menuhin Festival edition explores migration across four dimensions: Origin; Escape to Exile; Inner Emigration; Nostalgia.

Migration stands among the most pressing challenges facing global society today, alongside climate change, conflicts around the world and the ripple effects they bring. Leaving one’s homeland – whether by choice or under duress – and beginning anew in exile often leads to profound ruptures in personal histories. By 2022, nearly 40% of Switzerland’s population had a migration background, underscoring how deeply migration shapes modern society. Embracing the unfamiliar, whether through the local Italian restaurant or the kebab stand at the station, is part of daily life. The 2025 edition of Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy seeks to illuminate the many dimensions of migration through the language of music.

Music has the unique ability to reflect the emotional spectrum of migration, from the pain of displacement to the hope of new horizons. Central topics such as memory, identity and belonging find expression through music, offering a source of resilience and connection. Music becomes a medium for the deep, unspeakable yearning for what is familiar, what is lost and what has been left behind. It also serves as a “repository” for those who are displaced or have a background in migration. It serves as a cultural archive and a means of preserving traditions, while also acting as a conduit for intercultural exchange and the reimagining of social and artistic landscapes.

During the 2025 Festival edition, we explore migration across four dimensions: “Origin”: Music rooted in one’s homeland; “Escape to Exile”: Music born from the experience of flight and exile; “Inner Emigration”: Music by composers living under oppressive political regimes or those who, whether by choice or necessity, turn inward to find a path to self-liberation; “Nostalgia”: A yearning for the homeland left behind, voluntarily or otherwise – capturing the deep ache of homesickness.

In 1957 Yehudi Menuhin and his family moved to Gstaad where he was fascinated and inspired by the elemental power of the region’s natural environment and commanding mountains. He was impressed not only by the Saanenland’s magnificent alpine arena, but also by the meeting of Western Switzerland, German-speaking culture, and the nearby South with its Italian lifestyle. Since Gstaad and its surrounding area also offered an ideal environment for an international education for his children (among others, the «Le Rosey» Institute and the International Kennedy School are based in the Saanenland), Menuhin settled with his family in the area. Walking in the mountains with his children, the city-dweller discovered the natural world of the native population, who were also to inspire Menuhin with their folklore and music.