The Festival Academy Budapest enjoys a serendipitous acronym (FAB). It’s an accurate description of this 10-day event that celebrates classical, world and folk music in some of the Hungarian capital’s most impressive venues.
The annual festival is a vibrant summer event that combines concerts, masterclasses, performances and discussions. In 2025 it will celebrate its 10th anniversary, hosting a full programme of events in Budapest between 18 and 28 July.
As the Festival Academy Budapest 2025 prepares to welcome artists and students from around the world, we explore why it’s so unique and what audiences can expect this year.
Festival Academy Budapest: where established meets new
Ten years ago festival founders, husband and wife team Katalin Kokas and Barnabás Kelemen, launched what they call now, ‘a truly living musical workshop’. The festival welcomes both new and established talent, providing fertile ground for learning, collaboration and experimentation.
Kokas and Kelemen are both award-winning violinists and professors at Graz University and the Liszt Academy of Music respectively. The Festival Academy Budapest is another successful string to their bow. It has taken its place on the world stage of events attracting a stellar line-up of artists over the past 10 years, including violinists Vilde Frang, Joshua Bell, Gidon Kremer and Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and cellist Nicolas Altstaedt.
During the 10 days of the festival, world-class musicians partner in unique collaborations, while promising students are given the opportunity to play alongside established artists who come to share their expertise and knowledge in workshops and masterclasses.
The driving spirit of the Festival is to offer an open space for musicians to learn, share and create. Audiences can enjoy a rich programme of music, taking place at the magnificent Art Nouveau Liszt Academy, as well as some of Budapest's more unique venues, including synagogues, thermal baths and historic libraries.
Since 2017, the Festival has also hosted the Ilona Fehér International Violin Competition for young violinists under the age of 22. The voting panel includes renowned soloist and conductor, Shlomo Mintz. The competition also features the winners of the Hubay International Violin competition – the gateway to Ilona Fehér, which takes place in October.
FAB: an anniversary year
For its 10th anniversary, the Festival Academy Budapest will be handing the baton to the young musicians who, says Katalin Kokas and Barnabás Kelemen, will be, ‘the defining soloists of the world’s top concert halls by 2035’.
At the 2025 opening concert, the Concerto Budapest Orchestra will perform under the baton of András Keller while the FAB UP orchestra of emerging artists will perform Vivaldi’s D major Violin Concerto RV208.
Throughout the festival, more than 100 promising young musicians from 35 countries will enjoy individual, chamber and opera masterclasses from a long list of renowned artists, teaching the future stars of music across classical, world and gypsy music.
‘One of Sergei Nakariakov’s prominent students will perform alongside one of Gábor Boldoczki’s prominent students,’ say Kokas and Kelemen of this year’s learning programme. ‘Bridge-building between generations is characteristic of the festival,’ they continue. ‘György Kurtág will hold masterclasses on Bartók’s First String Quartet for the Kelemen Quartet and we are also looking forward to Maxim Vengerov’s masterclass this year.’
Let’s take a look at five of the notable names who will be at this special 10-year anniversary Festival...
Artists under the spotlight
Maxim Vengerov
This Russian born violinist is a Grammy award-winning soloist who is much loved for his interpretation of Romantic and 20th-century composers. Vengerov is a professor at the Royal Academy of Music, an ambassador for the UNICEF Goodwill programme and an advocate for music education.
György Kurtág
An honorary guest at this year’s festival, György Kurtág is a highly revered avant-garde composer, born in Romania in 1926. He was mentored by György Ligeti, who became a lifelong friend. He’s received many awards during his long career, including Hungary’s highest cultural honour the Kossuth Prize.
Sergei Nakariakov
A virtuoso on trumpet and flugelhorn, Nakariakov brings unrivalled energy and soulful phrasing to the trumpet, rewriting expectations of it as a soloist instrument. He performs regularly with the London Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony and NHK Symphony.
Andreas Ottensamer
At 36, this Austrian clarinettist has already had an impressive career. He held the position of principal clarinet of the Berlin Philharmonic aged 22 before stepping down earlier this year. He has released several solo albums, such as Portraits and Blue Hour, which saw notable collaborations with artists including pianist Yuja Wang.
Thomas Dunford
A celebrated lutenist and chamber musician who has helped bring the instrument into the limelight with his contemporary approach and charisma. A graduate of the Conservatoire de Paris, his first solo album Lachrimae won the 2013 Prix Caecilia and prompted BBC Music Magazine to call him ‘the Eric Clapton of the lute’.
Discover more about the Festival Academy Budapest here.