Best classical music festivals in the Middle East, South Africa, Japan and Taiwan
Best classical music festivals in United Arab Emirates
Abu Dhabi Festival
United Arab Emirates
Year-long
Abu Dhabi is a festival that likes to spread its wings – and with a year-round programme, soars as it shares François Giraud’s staging of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman at New York’s Metropolitan Opera and flies Naseer Shannon’s Arabic Music Days over to Berlin.
Back home, tenor Juan Diego Flórez, the Middle Eastern premiere of Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion and cellist Jian Wang have lit the fuse that ignites December’s appearance by Jordi Savall and Hespèrion XXI and La Capella Reial de Catalunya.
Best classical music festivals in Israel
Jerusalem Lyric Opera Festival
Jerusalem, Israel
8-25 July
Heralded by an International Opera Competition at the beginning of July, Jerusalem’s annual celebration of the musical stage is bookended by two works: Handel’s 1735 hit Alcina and Bizet’s Carmen (a femme fatale also homaged with an evening including Ravel and Falla). Recitals reference the Rachmaninov anniversary and, in billets-doux by Monteverdi and Handel, the art of the love letter. Plus, an evening of bel canto experiences a Spanish swerve.
Tel Aviv Summer Opera Festival
Tel Aviv, Israel
10-29 July
Summer’s go-to for young singers wanting to hone their operatic craft, the festival mixes coaching and masterclasses with fully-staged opera, a music-theatre concert and a gala finale of arias and ensembles.
For 2023 the operas under consideration include Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Handel’s Giulio Cesare, Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha and Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
Best classical music festivals in Japan
Suntory Hall Chamber Music Garden
Suntory Hall, Tokyo
3-18 June
Herbert von Karajan called Tokyo’s Suntory Hall a ‘jewel box of sound’, and for over two decades the shining gem in the crown of the venue’s intimate Blue Rose auditorium has been a chamber music festival that, by tradition, now wraps itself around a complete cycle of the Beethoven string quartets – shouldering the set for 2023 is the Elias Quartet. Meanwhile, a seven-year project devoted to the piano trio showcases Beethoven, Debussy and Rachmaninov courtesy of the Aoi Trio; and Brahms is fêted twice-over.
Best classical music festivals in Taiwan
Weiwuying International Music Festival
National Kaohsiung Centre for the Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
14-23 April
With its opera house, concert hall, playhouse and recital hall, the breath-taking Centre for the Arts is the largest performance space under one roof in the world. An ambitious festival was surely inevitable.
Composer Unsuk Chin is the artistic director, and this second edition revels in bold statements. It opens with a bang as David Robertson conducts John Adams’s Doctor Atomic Symphony; plus, pianist Francesco Piemontesi unites Schubert and Debussy, and Ligeti's centenary gets a look-in too.
Taipei Music Academy and Festival
Taipei, Taiwan
29 July – 13 August
With so many distinguished American musicians on its faculty, when Covid threatened to cancel the 2021 festival the solution was a no-brainer – it simply relocated to San Francisco.
Back in Taiwan, last year Kent Nagano took charge of the concluding orchestral tour that crowned a chamberfest and the All-Star Concert in the National Concert Hall. Leonard Slatkin takes over the baton this year for a programme of Rossini, Hindemith and Sibelius.
Best classical music festivals in South Africa
Stellenbosch Chamber Music Festival
Stellenbosch, South Africa
30 June – 9 July
Building on the success of last year’s resumption of activities, Stellenbosch is back and raring to go. 2022 was spearheaded by a faculty of some 32 international artists who mentored, gave masterclasses and performed alongside over 200 participants. Making his festival debut this year is conductor Julien Benichou, who joins returnees including violinist Daniel Rowland and percussionist Jauvon Gilliam.
Best classical music festivals in South Korea
Music in PyeongChang
Gangwon, South Korea
26 July – 5 August
It’s all change at Music in PyeongChang as cellist Sung-Won Yang takes over as artistic director in time for the 20th anniversary edition of a programme bringing solo recitals, masterclasses, orchestral music and song to Gangwon Province. He follows in the footsteps of violinist Kyung-Wha Chung. Check the website for up-to-date information.
Top image credit: Getty Images