The President's Hikes
“President’s Hikes” bring together music, nature and personal encounters. The walks are led by Festival President Richard Müller, a certified hiking guide and a local deeply rooted in the Saanenland.
With his in-depth local knowledge, experience and passion for the alpine landscape, he leads participants along special routes, to hidden viewpoints and through stories beyond the well-trodden paths.Along the way, space opens up for exchange, shared experiences and new perspectives on music and nature. Small musical impulses along the route transform the mountain landscape itself into a concert hall, carrying forward Yehudi Menuhin’s idea of music as a unifying force. The “President’s Hikes” invite participants to discover the Menuhin Festival Gstaad from a new, unhurried perspective.
Family Matters – Daniel Hope presents the programme for Menuhin Festival Gstaad 2026
Since November 1, 2025, Daniel Hope has been steering the artistic future of the Menuhin Festival Gstaad as its intendant. With his first program, entitled Family Matters, he is deliberately building on the founding idea of the Festival: 70 years ago, Yehudi Menuhin brought friends and companions from all over the world to the picturesque village of Saanen in the Bernese Alps in a spirit of openness and unity. Hope is now carrying on this spirit. From July 16 to September 5, 2026, over 75 concerts will take place in the churches of Saanen and its neighboring villages of Zweisimmen, Lauenen, Gsteig, and Rougemont, as well as in the large Festival Tent in Gstaad. A pivotal innovation is The Summit, a forum for discussing future-oriented questions about music, culture, the economy, and society.
Menuhin festival academy
It is with the idea of perpetuating its commitment to the next generation that Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy created the Menuhin Festival Academy in 2008: a structure in its own right to support an increasingly rich academic offer. At the Menuhin Festival Academy we offer the complete range of master courses addressed to young professionals, as well as all the courses which are aimed at amateur orchestra musicians of all ages.
the Gstaad Concert Hall
A modern concert hall with outstanding acoustics and 1,200 seats is intended to replace the Festival Tent and strengthen Gstaad as a cultural destination. The project is closely linked to the planned multifunctional hall, which will combine sports and events throughout the year. A key first step toward moving this project into the concrete planning phase is seen in the clear approval by the voters of the Municipality of Saanen on 4 April 2025 of the planning costs for the sports and events hall, as well as the clear approval in autumn 2025 of the ZPP zoning plan. Both votes are regarded as a strong signal from the population to the initiators that the overall project is on the right track.
YEHUDI MENUHIN
Lord Menuhin, the founder of the Gstaad classical music festival bearing his name, is still remembered as a world famous violin child prodigy, conductor and humanist. His remarkable humanity, his multi-faceted artistic gifts and his perpetual curiosity were the hallmarks of his creative endeavours. It was in 1957 that this honorary resident of Saanen founded the legendary festival in the Saanenland. The promotion of young talent was just as important to him as playing music amongst friends.
