Jan Lisiecki 2024 in the Eglise au Bois, St. Moritz Bad - Image: ©Quim Vilar

exhibition

For 85 years, an international music festival has taken place every summer in the churches and grand hotels of the Upper Engadine. Since 1941, the greats of the classical music world have performed here, drawing inspiration from the magnificent mountain scenery, the exceptional venues, and the people around them to achieve their best.

How could such a festival emerge, flourish, and survive to this day in the midst of war? A series of fortunate events and a very special constellation of people made it possible: Because many guests stayed away during the war and hotels had to close, measures to promote tourism were needed. Ernst Schulthess, the music-loving pastor of Sils and Silvaplana, suggested to the local tourism association that they organize a series of first-class summer concerts. He also knew how to engage top-class musicians: His brother, Walter Schulthess, was then the largest music agent in Switzerland and head of the legendary "Zurich Concert Society." He had already co-founded the Lucerne International Music Festival in 1938. Thus, a kind of smaller version of the Lucerne Festival was created in the Engadine.

Wilhelm Backhaus, Pierre Fournier, Paul Sacher, Géza Anda, Clara Haskil, Dinu Lipatti, Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Arthur Grumiaux, Maria Stader, Herbert von Karajan and later Claudio Abbado, Grigory Sokolov and Martha Argerich are just some of the illustrious names that have appeared in the past 85 years.

Since 2008, the Engadine concert weeks have been called the "Engadin Festival," and Jan Schultsz, a pianist and conductor from Amsterdam and Basel, has taken over as director. The original concept has remained the same: to create an atmosphere for both audience and artists that makes the concert experience unique.

To mark the anniversary, the exhibition «85 Years of the Engadine Concert Weeks – Engadine Festival» in the foyer of the Hotel Laudinella in St. Moritz illuminates the origin and development of the festival.

A documentary with numerous pictures and stories about the festival will also be released.

A research project by Nina Debrunner of the Institute for Music Research at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK).

https://www.zhdk.ch/en/research/imr

info

Engadin Festival 2026July 25 – August 7 in the villages of the Upper Engadine: Program and advance ticket sales at www.engadinfestival.ch.

free entry