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FESTIVAL |
COUNTRY |
YEAR OF FOUNDATION |
DURATION (DAYS) |
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Ilumina Festival
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Brazil |
2015 |
10 days |
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Internationaal Kamermuziek Festival Utrecht |
The Netherlands |
2003 |
4 days (27-30 December) |
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Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus |
Austria |
1981 |
10 days |
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Nørre Vosborg Kammermusikfestival |
Denmark |
2003 |
4 days |
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Strijkkwartet Biënnale Amsterdam |
The Netherlands |
2018 |
Every 2 years 8 days |
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West Cork Chamber Music Festival |
Ireland |
1996 |
10 days |
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Trame Sonore Festival
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Italy |
2013 |
5 days |
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FESTIVAL |
AVERAGE NUMBER OF EVENTS |
AVERAGE NUMBER OF ARTISTS |
AVERAGE TOTAL AUDIENCE SIZE |
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Ilumina Festival
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10, including 3 large new productions with stage design and movement. |
40 (young artists+ world renowned soloists) |
c. 10.000 |
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Internationaal Kamermuziek Festival Utrecht |
More than 50 concerts |
75–100 musicians per edition |
In 2025, the festival attracted over 11,000 visitors |
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Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus |
27-32 concerts |
30-100 musicians |
c. 6500 |
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Nørre Vosborg Kammermusikfestival |
c. 11 events / year
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c. 12-14 musicians per year (9 of them are members of EMV)
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in 2025 c. 500 sold tickets |
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Strijkkwartet Biënnale Amsterdam |
In 2026 > 60 events |
In 2026 featuring over 40 quartets and more than 150 musicians |
welcomed approximately 15,000 visitors from all over the world |
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West Cork Chamber Music Festival |
100 |
75 |
2.500 people / 7.400 tickets (excluding non-ticketed free events).
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Trame Sonore Festival
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c. 150 short concerts |
c. 300 musicians |
c. 50.000 people |
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FESTIVAL |
WHAT IS THE FESTIVAL’S DISTINCTIVE CHARACTER? |
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Ilumina Festival
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Ilumina exists to shine light on on new ideas, social consciousness, and the power of art to make life better for people, most especially young South American talents who deserve the opportunity to shine. The festival unites leading international artists with a group of 30 brilliant young string players each year, starting with social immersion on a sustainable coffee farm, where artists live, eat, and make new work together with deep discussions about the role of the artist in society and concerts for agricultural laborers and ends with a weekend of large concerts at São Paulo’s most important concert hall. All concerts are free to the public and the Ilumina audience is strikingly diverse, young, and largely from the urban and rural periphery. Artists are encouraged to think beyond norms, express their individuality and most importantly explore new possibilities that emerge from the freshness of social exchange. |
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Internationaal Kamermuziek Festival Utrecht |
The Festival is founded by violinist Janine Jansen, who is originally from Utrecht, and who is still closely involved as artistic director and as a performing artist. Every year the Festival takes place during the festive holiday season. It combines artistic excellence with openness, innovation and human connection through chamber music. The Festival brings together world-class musicians and exceptional young talents, including Young Artist in Residence Nikola Meeuwsen, in an intimate city-wide setting. Rooted in Utrecht with over 25 venues throughout the city, the Festival is internationally orientated and creates meaningful musical experiences for diverse audiences while investing in the next generation of artists and visitors.
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Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus |
The concerts take place in an atmospheric historical setting (Lockenhaus Castle and church St. Nikolaus and at the Synagogue Köszeg). The festival is characterized by its absolute spontaneity, intimacy, and intense performances, moving away from conventional, pre-arranged programs: musicians rehearse on-site and decide day by day what to play, fostering an environment of complete expressive and exploratory freedom. |
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Nørre Vosborg Kammermusikfestival |
This Festival is an “ensemble-owned” Festival - which means that the 9 members of Ensemble MidtVest are the core musicians throughout the Festival which also shapes its identity. The ensemble was founded in the fall of 2002 so the Festival has been the “finale” of every season the ensemble has played in its history. We invite one major soloist or chamber group as our guests every year, and we also invite further local professional musicians and/or young professionals as talents for further concerts. The Festival, therefore, doesn’t have its own identity, but is intertwined with the identity of Ensemble MidtVest. Audience-research shows that our core audience identifies the Festival with the ensemble, and comes to the concerts due to their loyalty to and interest in Ensemble MidtVest.
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Strijkkwartet Biënnale Amsterdam |
The Festival is known for combining artistic excellence with innovation, experimentation and accessibility. Alongside internationally acclaimed quartets, the Festival presents emerging ensembles, educational projects and cross-disciplinary collaborations. The string quartet is approached as a living and evolving art form that connects tradition with new music, other art forms and contemporary social themes, while creating space for encounter, reflection and new audiences.
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West Cork Chamber Music Festival |
The Festival is about top quality art coming to a beautiful and remote corner of Ireland. Bantry is on the Atlantic coast with beautiful views, and the main venue is Bantry House, and 18th Century manor, which creates a perfect atmosphere for chamber music. |
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Trame Sonore Festival
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The signature feature is the dialogue between music, art, and Renaissance architecture. The Festival deconstructs the traditional concert format, bringing chamber music back to its original, ideal settings. The brief, non-stop concerts run continuously from morning until late at night across Mantua's historic halls, squares, and churches (such as Palazzo Ducale and Palazzo Te), creating an intimate listening environment and complete immersion in beauty. |
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FESTIVAL |
WHO IS THE ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND HOW DOES HE SHAPES THE PROGRAMME? |
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Ilumina Festival
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Founded and directed by American violist Jennifer Stumm, the festival program breaks down genre boundaries, creating emotional narratives by weaving classical works from 4 centuries with Brazilian popular music and multidisciplinary performances. Ilumina’s style is visually striking, incorporating lighting design, thematic elements, and movement. Young artists perform as equal members of the festival community, and learn by doing. |
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Internationaal Kamermuziek Festival Utrecht |
The programming team consists of Janine Jansen, Carine Hartman and Cécile Gouder de Beauregard. The artistic vision centers on presenting chamber music at the highest level while broadening the genre through interdisciplinary programming, cultural exchange and contemporary composition. Through a balanced combination of diverse program strands with each their own character, artistic profile and audience the Festival connects artistic quality with accessibility, participation and social engagement in the historical city of Utrecht. |
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Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus |
Founded by violinist Gidon Kremer, the festival has been under the leadership of cellist Nicolas Altstaedt since 2012. Its programming highlights intellectual improvisation, with artistic spontaneity and unconventional choices, champions undiscovered artists, and pairs contemporary music performances with classical repertoire. |
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Nørre Vosborg Kammermusikfestival |
The ensemble director, Klara Bernat, is responsible both for the artistic and the administrative leadership of the ensemble’s whole season and therefore also of the Festival. That said, she works closely with 3-4 musicians (they are chosen by their peers once a year but can stay on for many years) with whom she forms a “repertoire committee” and they decide on all the programs together. Contrary to the season, which always works around a theme, and is very deeply committed to local outreach work, among others, with schools, hospitals, nursing homes, local community houses and community-clubs, churches, as well as talent-development (both for young instrumentalists, and singers, and in other art-forms, most recently with fine-art students); as well as working with mindfulness and meditation; the Festival is more focused on classical chamber music concerts, and a combination of music and fine dining, with a stated goal to attract tourists to the area - as well as local audiences who are interested in classical chamber concerts. With that in mind, we are shaping the repertoire in collaboration with the invited soloist, to make sure that we play the most beautiful chamber music pieces, both well-known pieces and “hidden gems” - often by composers from underrepresented groups. On the other hand, we also have morning-yoga with live music, as the Festival is connected to a hotel and restaurant. |
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Strijkkwartet Biënnale Amsterdam |
The Festival was founded by artistic director Yasmin Hilberdink-Göker, whose programming combines iconic repertoire with adventurous new work, international discoveries and innovative concert formats, always with a strong focus on artistic depth and audience connection. |
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West Cork Chamber Music Festival |
Francis Humphrys, he is the founder of the Festival and remains Artistic Director and CEO. He likes a good balance of the staples of the chamber music – Haydn and Beethoven quartets – with a keen interest in new compositions, and regularly commissions new works. The string quartet is the cornerstone of the Festival, with at least four quartets coming every year. Francis Humphrys enjoys programming work that audience won’t find easily in other places, and enjoys collaborating with musicians to produce interesting programmes. |
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Trame Sonore Festival
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The program aims to achieve a profound cultural syncretism. Alongside masterpieces from the classical chamber repertoire, founder/artistic director Carlo Fabiano weaves thematic journeys tied to current events and public engagement—such as editions centered on our connection with Nature or sustainability. The artist lineup pairs world-renowned classical stars with up-and-coming talents, fostering informal opportunities for connection and artistic exchange. |
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FESTIVAL |
WHO SUPPORTS THE FESTIVAL? APPROXIMATE RATIO OF PUBLIC FUNDING, PRIVATE SPONSORSHIP AND TICKETING |
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Ilumina Festival
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Funded by 50% corporate sponsorship through the Brazilian federal incentive laws and 50% philanthropic foundations and private sponsors, all of the Ilumina Festival’s events are free. It relies on the corporate social responsibility of a network of partners and individuals to sponsor scholarships for the participating young musicians. |
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Internationaal Kamermuziek Festival Utrecht |
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Kammermusikfest Lockenhaus |
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Nørre Vosborg Kammermusikfestival |
Please note that it is the Ensemble MidtVest that receives a yearly public funding for all activities we do in the whole year (including the above mentioned outreach work), which covers all our ensemble members’ salaries (both musicians and administration) as well as our rent for our offices, office supplies and so on. If we would not do all the above-mentioned activities during the season, we would not have received this amount of public funding.
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Strijkkwartet Biënnale Amsterdam |
The Festival’s funding structure combines public and private support:
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West Cork Chamber Music Festival |
Fundraising
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Trame Sonore Festival
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Public Funding: Backed by local and national institutions (including the Municipality of Mantua, the Ministry of Culture, the Chamber of Commerce, the Lombardy Region), the Festival is recognized as a vital driver for cultural tourism and the preservation of UNESCO world heritage. Private Funding: Comprising partnerships with regional banking foundations (Fondazione Cariplo, Fondazione della Comunità Mantovana, BAM e Fondazione Monte di Lombardia) and corporate sponsors (Marcegaglia, Truzzi, Levoni T.consulT, Rampi, NaturaSì, Euroconsulting), the festival also benefits from active community and individual engagement through the Art Bonus tax incentive, enabling patrons and music lovers to make direct, tax-deductible donations toward production costs.
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