Classical Music Festivals in 2025
A guide to some of the summer and autumn music-making around the world
This page lists brief details of some of the summer and autumn classical music festivals we're aware of. The list is in start date order, with festivals happening later in the year appearing further down the page. Please let us know if your festival isn't listed. You may find more festivals listed here and there are other articles about classical music festivals here.
Schumannfest Düsseldorf
Thursday 5 June until 30 June 2025
Düsseldorf, Germany
Quoting the text on the landing page of this festival, which begins today: 'Under the powerful motto "Romanticize Yourself", the festival sets out from the Tonhalle and transforms the city into a resonant chamber of Romantic and modern sounds. More than thirty events can be experienced at thirteen different venues. Not only music from the heart of Romanticism and Schumann will be heard: the festival programme includes orchestral concerts, song recitals, chamber music and also jazz and club music.' More information
tonhalle.de/schumannfest-2025
Prisma Festival
Monday 16 until Saturday 28 June 2025
Powell River, British Columbia, Canada
There's lots to see and hear at this Canadian festival by the sea, but the highlight must surely be the first performance of a forgotten Soviet Russian symphony - Alexander Mosolov's Symphony No 3, written in 1958-59.
prismafestival.com
Summer Music in City Churches
Wednesday 18 June until Friday 27 June 2025
City of London, UK
With a focus on choral requiem settings, and the motto 'Eternal Light', this seventh festival is in some ways seen as a replacement for the City of London Festival, which closed in 2016. Highlights include John Rutter conducting the City of London Choir and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in performances of Gabriel Fauré's Requiem and Cantique de Jean Racine, and Richard Blackford's arrangement of Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem, with the City of London Choir conducted by Daniel Hyde.
summermusiccitychurches.com
Thaxted Festival
Friday 20 June until Sunday 13 July 2025
Thaxted, Essex, UK
This English festival features the London Mozart Players, Nicky Spence, The Choir of St George's Chapel, Windsor, and Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin performed by Wild Arts. Previous coverage.
thaxtedfestival.co.uk
Festival dei Due Mondi (Spoleto Festival)
Manifesto Spoleto68 by William Kentridge
Friday 27 June until Sunday 13 July 2025
Spoleto, Perugia, Italy
The sixty-eighth Spoleto Festival, The Song of the Earth, features Rufus Wainwright's opera Hadrian and William Kentridge's The Great Yes, The Great No. Spoleto is an annual summer music and opera festival, founded by Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti. Previous articles.
festivaldispoleto.com
West Cork Chamber Music Festival
Friday 27 June until Sunday 6 July 2025
Bantry, West Cork, Ireland
The thirtieth West Cork Chamber Music Festival will open with a first performance of a new work by local composer Sam Perkin, played by the Ukrainian-French Tchalik Quartet. The festival takes place in stunning locations on the south west coast of Ireland, and there's also a Literary Festival, which begins a few days after the chamber music festival finishes. Previous articles.
westcorkmusic.ie
Aix-en-Provence Festival
Online publicity for the 2025
Aix-en-Provence Festival
Friday 4 July until Monday 21 July 2025
Aix-en-Provence, France
The introductory text for this year's Aix-en-Provence Festival states: 'The metamorphosis of Calisto, the reincarnation of Buddha, the transformation of Louise, the protean Don Giovanni ... The 2025 edition of the Aix-en-Provence Festival is resolutely placed under the sign of the ineluctable mutability of all things and the perpetual reinvention of oneself. "There is nothing stable in the universe; everything passes, all forms are made only to come and go", Ovid advances in his Metamorphoses, depicting through Cavalli's La Calisto a fascinating continuum between nature, men and gods.' Previous coverage.
festival-aix.com
Festival Napa Valley 2025
Festival Napa Valley 2025 - online publicity
Saturday 5 July until Sunday 20 July 2025
Napa Valley,California, USA
This festival takes place in California's wine growing countryside. Music events are paired with food, wine and hospitality. Read further details in our December 2024 feature.
festivalnapavalley.org
Verbier Festival
Wednesday 16 July until Sunday 3 August 2025
Verbier, Switzerland
The Swiss Alps-based Verbier Festival takes place in a mountain resort. In addition to its series of concerts, the festival also runs an academy and a series of masterclasses to nurture young musicians. The thirty-second edition of this festival includes over seventy-five concerts and a hundred masterclasses.
verbierfestival.com
Salzburg Summer Festival
Friday 18 July until Sunday 31 August 2025
Salzburg, Austria
To include music by Mozart, Salvatore Sciarrino, Shostakovich and of course Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Jedermann. Previous coverage.
salzburgerfestspiele.at
BBC Proms
Friday 18 July until Saturday 13 September 2025
London, UK
Henry Wood's festival based around the Royal Albert Hall in London, at which cheap standing-only tickets are available. A wide variety of music is on offer through much of the summer. Previous coverage.
bbc.co.uk/proms
Berkshire High Peaks Festival
Wednesday 23 July until Sunday 3 August 2025
Great Barrington, Massachusetts, USA
This summer festival has many events open to the public. It is based around a group of international students who study, receive coaching, perform and discuss music.
cewm.org/high-peaks-festival
Three Choirs Festival - Hereford 2025
Saturday 26 July until Saturday 2 August 2025
Hereford, UK
The world's longest-standing classical music festival generally has a focus on choral music. Includes performances of This Worlde's Joie by William Mathias, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's oratorio The Atonement, Hymnus Paradisi by Herbert Howells, Mendelssohn's Elijah and Handel's Alexander's Feast. Previous coverage.
3choirs.org
Edinburgh International Festival
Friday 1 until Sunday 24 August 2025
Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Nicola Benedetti, artistic director of the Edinburgh Festival, says: 'Our 2025 Edinburgh International Festival invites you to explore The Truth We Seek — a journey into the elusive nature of truth, in our personal and public lives'. Highlights include John Tavener's eight-hour choral work The Veil of the Temple and Puccini's Suor Angelica with Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra. Also of interest, in the Edinburgh Fringe, could be Sylvia Milo's play The Other Mozart, which tells the story of Mozart's sister Nannerl, who was also a prodigious composer.
eif.co.uk
Presteigne Festival
Thursday 21 until Monday 25 August 2025
Presteigne (and the local area), Powys, Wales, UK
A five day festival, based in the Welsh border marches, with a focus on chamber music, but also featuring its own orchestra, first performances of new works, films, talks and a 'bat walk'. Previous coverage.
presteignefestival.com
Kosmos Tirana Music Festival
Monday 20 October until Sunday 26 October 2025?
Tirana and other cities in Albania
Information about this year's festival hadn't yet been published when this page was produced. The festival's website at kosmosmusicfestival.com appears not to have been updated since 2023 but you may be able to pick up more information by searching for the festival's name.
Posted 5 June 2025 by Keith Bramich
