| The curtain fell on the Sion Festival 2025 on Sunday 31 August. Co-curated by Pavel Vernikov and Janine Jansen, this 61st edition brought together international stars, rising stars and local artists in diverse and inspiring sceneries and a joyful mix of styles. The 12 paying concerts attracted over 4'000 spectators, with an average occupancy rate of 83%. Hundreds of people also flocked to Musique en fête, which for the first time ran non-stop for 24 hours instead of 12, with 17 free concerts in the town of Sion. Another new feature of this year's festival is the move to NODA BCVS for the third festival week. "What particularly struck me about this year's Festival was the richness of the experiences offered by Pavel Vernikov and Janine Jansen: the discovery of new venues, the joy of reuniting with artists we know and love, and the wonder of new discoveries," says new Managing Director Ruth Puhr. "It is this mix that creates the magic and soul of the Sion Festival." Five concerts were sold out. Among them, the one on 26 August at NODA BCVS with Janine Jansen and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande conducted by Lorenzo Viotti - an unforgettable event organised by NODA BCVS in collaboration with the Sion Festival. A packed house for two other evenings with Janine Jansen, including one at the Church of Hérémence. The Dutch violin star was surrounded by young talents and friends such as Candida Thompson, Martin Fröst, Boris Brovtsyn, Noga Shaham, Pablo Ferrández and Denis Kozhukhin. In a packed NODA BCVS hall, the Janoska Ensemble and the Festival Orchestra rounded off this Sion Festival 2025 with a brilliant reinvention of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. With Janine Jansen and the young virtuosos of the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition, the first chamber music masterpieces and the first great concertos with orchestra brought the brand new hall of NODA BCVS to life. The Competition's three finalists treated the audience to a memorable evening with the South Czech Philharmonic, backed up by winds from renowned Italian orchestras and conducted by Valentin Uryupin. The festival's trademark diversity once again won over the audience: choral music with the St. Florianer Sängerknaben or the Perséides ensemble, vocal music with Ekaterina Shelehova or Sarah Pagin, ancient and contemporary music with Il Suonar Parlante, Brazilian sounds and rhythms with the Ilumina ensemble conducted by Jennifer Stumm, jazz with Valentin Conus, balkan jazz with Alexandru Axenti, chamber music with the Opus13 quartet or the Paganini Ensemble Wien, recitals with Estelle Revaz or Dmitry Ishkhanov... The Sion Violin Music Foundation is looking forward to welcoming the public to the next edition of the Sion Festival, from 21 August to 6 September 2026. | 
