For over thirty years, the Verbier Festival has embodied the excellence of classical music. Today, we are delighted to introduce the Verbier Festival Collection, an ambitious heritage project that extends our artistic mission beyond the summer season, in collaboration with the EPFL (École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne).
A pioneer since 1994, the Verbier Festival was the first festival in the world to record all of its concerts. This exceptional collection — comprising 3,000 hours of audio archives, over 1,000 hours of video recordings, 12,000 historic photographs, an extensive documentary archives and a collection of annotated scores – now constitutes a unique resource for research, innovation and cultural transmission.
The Verbier Festival Collection pursues several goals: to ensure the lasting preservation of this heritage, to make it accessible to all, and to celebrate our shared history through immersive digital experiences, notably via our new department, the Verbier Festival Studio.
Thanks to the invaluable support of partners such as Memoriav, the State Archives of Valais, and the Médiathèque Valais, as well as the commitment of a team of passionate volunteers, we have launched a vast initiative of digitization, cataloguing, and preservation. Under the expert guidance of EPFL’s Cultural Heritage and Innovation Center (CHC), the Collection is being treated with the highest standards to ensure its long-term conservation.
Starting from the 2025 edition, we will be thrilled to inaugurate a new space, the “Juke Box,” where the public will be able to rediscover the festival’s greatest moments free of charge, before concerts and during intermissions.
To ensure the sustainability of this project beyond 2025 and to further enrich the cultural experience we wish to share, several key stages must still be completed: the creation of a comprehensive database, the processing and safeguarding of our audio and video archives, and the development of immersive installations that will bring these treasures to life in innovative and accessible formats. In addition, we are proud to announce the acquisition of Christian Lutz’s photographic archives, moving testimonies of the festival’s early days.
Your loyalty and generosity have always been at the heart of our achievements. Today, more than ever, we need your support to bring this ambitious heritage project to life.
Together, let’s preserve the soul of the Verbier Festival and keep its story alive for today and tomorrow’s music lovers.
Together, let’s keep the memory of the Verbier Festival alive.
A huge thank you to our volunteers involved all-year round
Yann Margot, Guido Fregonara, Chantal Renevey-Fry, David Lyons, Monique Duplan, Anand Singh, Luz Amalia Fregonara.