Besançon Franche-Comté International Music Festival
Besançon Franche-Comté International Music Festival
The 74th edition of the Besançon International Music Festival, as well as the final rounds of the 57th International Competition for Young Conductors, will take place from 10 to 25 September 2021.
A year ago, was presented a “limited edition” of the 73rd Festival.
It is with optimism that we will soon unveil the programme of the 2021 edition, hoping for a happy reunion with the artists and the concert venues. Not all the clouds have lifted, and there may still be restrictions may still exist in September, but we will do our best to offer you the best possible conditions.
You will find some programmes or artists postponed from 2020, but also many other projects, young talents or ensembles that you love.
We will be celebrating the anniversaries of Saint-Saëns and Stravinsky, among a host of other composers, and Camille Pépin, who will be finishing his residency with us.
Jazz, world music, free concerts and concerts for young audiences will always have a good place in Besançon, while the Festival reinforces its presence in the region.
Finally, the 57th Young Conductors’ Competition, an unmissable highlight, will leave its mark on this cultural season full of hope!
About the Besançon Franche-Comté International Music Festival
The Besançon Franche-Comté International Music Festival is one of the oldest classical music festivals in France and one of the most renowned thanks to its International Competition for Young Conductors which takes place every two years.
The Festival was created in Besançon in 1948 by the conductor of the Concerts Colonne Gaston Poulet, appointed Artistic Director of the Festival, and two Bisontine officials André Falque and André Lehmann appointed respectively President and Secretary-General. Since then, the Festival has taken place every year in September. Open to recitals and chamber music, it is however the symphonic repertoire that has marked its history the most, with the greatest names in conducting: André Cluytens, Carl Schuricht, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Igor Markevitch, Rafael Kubelík, Georges Priest, Lorin Maazel, Charles Dutoit, etc.
The Besançon festival is one of the most important symphonic festivals in France, along with the La Chaise-Dieu music festival and the Saint-Denis music festival.
The festival, which originally took place only in the city of Besançon , set out to conquer all of Franche-Comté. In addition to the concerts given in Besançon (on the Place de la Révolution, at the Kursaal, or the Musical Theater, etc.), numerous performances are given each year in the towns of Franche-Comté. Both in classical concert halls and in unusual places (churches, castles, traditional Comtoises residences), the artists were able to perform in Belfort ( Territoire de Belfort ), Morteau, Pontarlier, Vesoul, Gray( Haute-Saône ), Arlay, Syam, Montigny-lès-Arsures ( Jura ) or even Baume-les-Dames and Baume-les-Messieurs.