The Gstaad Menuhin Festival 2023 will be held from 14 July to 2 September 2023 under the title, “Humility”.

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.

The roots of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival go back to the year 1956 when Paul Valentin, the director of tourism at the time, asked Yehudi Menuhin if he would be willing to enhance the summer season with some concerts. Menuhin immediately took to the idea and rang in the birth of the festival only one year later in the Mauritius Church in Saanen. Four musicians came together for “Two Exclusive Concerts” on 4 and 6 August 1957. The four legendary musicians were: Maurice Gendron, cello, Benjamin Britten, piano and harpsichord, Peter Pears, tenor, and Yehudi Menuhin, of course. From then on the summer concerts in the Saanenland came to be called the «Yehudi-Menuhin-Musiksommer». The two events become nine, mainly chamber music concerts and concerts with chamber orchestras, and from 1958 on the famous Zurich Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Edmond de Stoutz also took part. From the beginning the festival was strongly inspired by Menuhin’s intense relationship and interaction with the alpine splendour of the Bernese Oberland. Menuhin’s family (for example, Yehudi’s sisters Hephzibah and Yaltah or his son Jeremy) and friends (including Ernst and Lory Wallfisch, Louis Kentner and Peter Lukas Graf) contributed to the success of the unforgettable chamber music evenings in the beautiful church of Saanen. The spirit of making music with friends would become the festival’s Leitmotif.