Gstaad Festival Orchestra - The orchestra of the Fête des Vignerons

The Gstaad Festival Orchestra is proud to have been chosen as official orchestra of the 2019 Fête des Vignerons, one of the country’s most important cultural events. Directed by Ernst van Tiel, the GFO will be recording the symphonic works of the show. Organized only once per generation, the Fête is taking place in Vevey from 18th July to 11th August.

Would you like to experience the Gstaad Festival Orchestra live? Visit us at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival at the concerts with the GFO or at the public parts of the Gstaad Conducting Academy.

Since 1797, the Fête des Vignerons in Vevey, on the shores of Lake Geneva, has honoured the world of wine and the lifestyle of an entire region once a generation! From 18 July to 11 August 2019, this extraordinary spectacle will bring together magical worlds, tradition, emotion and technology in a class of their own. The team around artistic director Daniele Finzi Pasca makes all this possible during the day and evening events in a specially built arena with 20,000 seats. In addition, for the first time this year a Swiss canton will be presented every day as part of the Canton Days. And so Vevey, the only true city of the party, turns into the capital of Switzerland for three weeks!

The Gstaad Festival Orchestra, conducted by Ernst van Tiel, was selected as the orchestra of the Fête. "The Gstaad Festival Orchestra brings together exceptional talents from all over Switzerland", enthuses chief composer Maria Bonzanigo, who is actively supported by her colleagues Jérôme Berney and Valentin Villard. "It is therefore an enormous privilege and of great symbolic power that the symphonic part of the music of the Fête des Vignerons is played by this orchestra. In this way, we can emphasize even more the historical and cultural significance of this event, which is constantly reinventing itself with each generation."

Photo: Fête des Vignerons