Internship at Gstaad Festival Orchestra
About the orchestra
The Gstaad Conducting Academy is the lynchpin of the Gstaad Academy and offers rising conductors an opportunity of working with a professional orchestra - the Gstaad Festival Orchestra (GFO) which is made up of musicians from Switzerland's leading orchestras. Some of the best students from international high schools are selected every year to play with the GFO as interns.
Besides giving several concerts in the scope of the Gstaad Conducting Academy, the GFO represents the Gstaad Menuhin Festival with concerts in Gstaad and on tour.
Jaap van Zweden, the Dutch conductor and Music Director of the Seoul Philharmonic will be leading the Gstaad Festival Orchestra in summer 2025 after already having held the reins of the Gstaad Conducting Academy in 2017, 2018 and 2021 -2024. As an international player, he has been active on three continents over the past ten years. Mirga Gražinyte-Tyla, who has led the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra since 2016, will join also the Gstaad Conducting Academy 2025 for one week. Also Domingo Hindoyan the Chief Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra will join again the Gstaad Festival Orchestra. Alongside major symphonic works such as Dvorák‘s symphony no. 9. and Brahms sympohny no. 3, there is also opera repertoire such as the concert version of Bellini's opera "Norma". The programme also includes solo works such as Mendelssohn's Concerto for 2 pianos in E Major and Gabriela Montero’s Piano Concerto no. 1.
In addition, the students receive individual lessons from their section leader and during the internship an audition training will be organised.
Dates of all projects: 4 August - 26 August 2025
Closing date for applications: 12 January 2025
Please find more detailed information here:
The instruments we're looking for are:
Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Percussion, Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass
Application 2025
The application has to be done via muvac until at latest 12 January 2025.
Students can be recommended by the principals of the GFO or by professors, conductors, etc.
Documents to be submitted
Headshot picture (jpg)
Recommendation letter
The reference letter has to be signed personally by the issuer. As an exception, issuers may directly e-mail the reference letter to sj@gstaadmenuhinfestival.ch (within the application term). In such cases, a file containing respective information is to be provided in the application form.
Audition video recording: Representative video recording of the required repertoire. Unless stated otherwise in the details, the required works may be recorded and sent separately (please only upload videos that do not require any password or any download, e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, etc.).
Detailed requirements for each instrument can be found here.
contact
Lukas Wittermann
Dorfstrasse 60, Postfach
CH-3792 Saanen
+41 33 748 83 38
Write an e-mail