Internship at Gstaad Festival Orchestra
About the orchestra
The Conducting Academy is the lynchpin of the Menuhin Festival 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 Conducting Academy, the GFO represents the Menuhin Festival Gstaad 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 2026 after already having held the reins of the Conducting Academy in 2017, 2018 and 2021 -2025. As an international player, he has been active on three continents over the past ten years. Johannes Schlaefli, will join also the Conducting Academy 2026 again for two weeks. Marco Armiliato, one of today’s most renowned opera conductors and an Honorary Member of the Vienna State Opera, makes his GFO debut, leading them for a week. Alongside major symphonic works such as Beethovens‘s symphony no. 5 and Mozart sympohny no.40, there is also opera repertoire such as the concert version of Pucini's opera "La Bohème". The programme also includes solo works such as Mozart violin concert no. 5 and Elgars Violin concerto.
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: 2 August - 23 August 2026
Closing date for applications: 15 February 2026
Please find more detailed information here:
The instruments we're looking for are:
Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Trumpet, Trombone, Violin, Viola, Cello, Double Bass
Application 2026
The application has to be done via muvac until at latest 15 February 2026.
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@menuhin.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
Seraina Jung
Dorfstrasse 60, Postfach
CH-3792 Saanen
+41 33 748 83 38
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