78th Festival – September 12 to 27, 2025

The 2025 edition of the Festival will continue in the same vein, but with several new features. The major orchestras of Lucerne, Lausanne, Besançon, Biel-Solothurn, Île-de-France, Dijon and Saarbrücken will explore a vast repertoire of works by the great composers (Mahler, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and the anniversaries of Satie, Ravel and Bizet) and female composers to be (re)discovered. Chamber and vocal music retains its prominent place with the Quatuor Parisii, the Cassard Grimal Gastinel trio, a recital by Abdel Rahman El Bacha… and the vocal ensembles Sequenza 9.3 and La Sportelle.
Composer Régis Campo’s residency unfolds with five concerts, from the spectacular theremin concerto to the premiere at the closing ceremony. The opening of the Festival has been redesigned with a new format: the first symphony concert will take place at the Théâtre Ledoux, while eight free concerts will be offered in the heart of the city, combining a variety of styles. The diversity continues with musical escapades (Armenia, South American music and four ‘jazz aperitifs’) and three concerts in Arc-et-Senans, Vesoul and Dole.
A new convivial space at the Kursaal welcomes you before and after the concerts (follow the logo). Finally, the 59th Young Conductors’ Competition, chaired by Michael Schønwandt, will crown the Festival after an intense week: competition, high standards, musicality and suspense will mark these events until the final!

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

Jean-Michel Mathé, Director
Myriam Grandmottet, President
And the Festival team

A look back at an edition that lived up to all its promises with 37 musical events, culminating in the resounding finale of the 59th International Competition for Young Conductors.

With nearly 24,000 festival-goers welcomed during the 16 days of the Festival and Competition, the results of this edition are more than satisfactory: +25% compared to 2023 (the previous year with the Competition).

• The 25 paid concerts attracted more than 13,000 spectators (+18%).
• The 12 free events attracted more than 10,000 people (+34%), thanks in particular to a revamped opening weekend and eight free concerts in the Doubs loop.

Attendance in 2025 returned to pre-pandemic levels, and the new format for the Festival’s opening was widely acclaimed by the public.

Once again, major symphony orchestras punctuated the Festival with high-quality, highly acclaimed concerts: from the astonishing symphonic overture with the Bienne-Soleure Orchestra, to the Soirée Tchaikovsky presented by the Lucerne Orchestra, and the Victor Hugo Orchestra‘s performance of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, not to mention the eagerly awaited Boléro by Ravel with the Île-de-France Orchestra and the Pastoral Symphony with the Lausanne Orchestra conducted by Renaud Capuçon. The symphony concerts were sold out and thrilled festival-goers.

The chamber music events were also a great success, notably the recital by Abdel Rahman El Bacha and the Cassard Grimal Gastinel trio at the Kursaal, as were the vocal concerts programmed at Besançon Cathedral and in Dole (Ensemble la Sportelle) and at the Temple (Sequenza 9.3).

The big band that took over the Place de la Révolution and the Apéro-jazz concerts on the Place Granvelle delighted jazz lovers, while the ‘world music’ programme continued to attract a wide audience (music from South America and Armenia).

Composer Régis Campo made his mark on this 78^th edition right from the start with his astonishing and spectacular theremin concerto Dancefloor with Pulsing, performed by Carolina Eyck. Another highlight was the ‘carte blanche’ given to the Sequenza 9.3 vocal ensemble, which undoubtedly surprised the audience at the Temple du Saint-Esprit.

The world premiere (three times) of his work Delirium Scherzo during the final of the 59^th Young Conductors Competition won over both the audience and the critics.

The twenty candidates shortlisted last spring competed for the Besançon Grand Prix for Conducting before a sympathetic but demanding jury chaired by conductor Michael Schønwandt. According to the jury president, the 2025 edition of the competition was a great success due to the high overall standard of the candidates. This success was shared with the artists and orchestras participating in the competition, in particular the Victor Hugo Orchestra, violinist Nicolas Dautricourt and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie.

After a week of competitions, watched by more than 3,000 spectators, the international jury awarded the Grand Prix to Japanese conductor Satoshi Yoneda. The youngest competitor, Tianyi Xie, won the Audience Favourite and Orchestra Favourite awards, as well as a Special Mention from the jury.

The Final is available to watch again on the Festival’s YouTube channel, where it has been viewed more than 14,000 times! It can also be viewed on Amadeus.tv (China), where it has generated 120,000 views.