In the early 1990s a friend and I braved one of the worst storms I have driven through, in my leaky drop-head, to hear Richter in a half-empty grand hall in Harrogate. We came from Edinburgh. Were we tourists? I pass over in tactful silence the train trip I had made shortly before, to Glasgow, to hear Bob Dylan.

Oddly, this memory came to mind as I assembled information for the traditional annual round-up of festivals of interest to pianophiles, since there are fissures in the world of tourism that may or may not spoil the geography in years to come. In an article in The New York Times in April this year, Lisa Abend warned that on 15 June , ‘activist groups across southern Europe are planning to stage protests against tourism, escalating the level launched last year. Although the precise form of those demonstrations has not been decided, it’s a pretty safe bet that water guns will be involved [and] marches, picketing at airports, obstructing tourists’ entry to historic sites and blockading tour buses.’ The groups came from over a dozen cities, many of whom are curbing new hotel construction and banning Airbnb in the immediate future. Not that hapless European tourists have not been harrassed on trips to the United States, the same paper having reported a month before of a couple of Germans detained and deported despite their visas.

Not that Americans need to travel to Europe for their piano fare. To take a few examples we have what are legendary names such as Newport (4-22 July) and Marlboro (19 July–17 August), as well as the International Keyboard Institute and Festival in New York City (7-12 July), the Colorado Music Festival (3 July–3 August) as well as the splendidly named ‘Bravo! Vail’, also in Colorado (19-31 July), and the majestic Tippet Rise in Montana (15 August–14 September). Not to overlook Canada, where the Honens Festival and Competition shines brightly (16-24 October). Picking out some names: Alessio Bax and Lucille Chung, Wynona Wang, Inon Barnatan at Newport; Jonathan Biss, Zoltán Fejérvári, Mitsuko Uchida, Dénes Várjon at Marlboro; Julian Pflugmann (all three Brahms Sonatas), Pablo Rossi, Llewellyn Sánchez-Werner, Massililiano Ferrati in New York; Hélène Grimaud and Yeol Eum Son at Colorado; Yefim Bronfman, Ying Li, Yulianna Avdeeva, Yekwon Sunwoo, Anne-Marie McDermott at Vail; Anna Geniushene and Lukas Geniušas, Stephen Hough, Clayton Stephenson at Tippet Rise.

If you think my political preamble somewhat askew, seek out Jonathan Biss’s powerfully gentle article – once again, in The New York Times – comparing interpretation of the American Constitution with a Mozart Piano Concerto. newportclassical.org; marlboromusic.org; ikif.org; coloradomusicfestival.org; bravovail.org; honens.com/2025-competition

So, anecdotal evidence only, but a tourist-guide friend in Scotland reports an unprecedented number of cancellations this year by US visitors, as the market softens in response to the falls on Wall Street and in the value of the dollar. Whether such vectors come to have an impact on classical music festivals remains to be seen. Nor do I have to hand the data as to how such festivals – and there is an astonishing number – depend on far-traipsing visitors, other than recalling that in the old days three-quarters of Edinburgh Festival tickets were sold to people from Scotland, if not indeed from Edinburgh. This of course gave them the right to the perennial complaint of falling standards. Clearly, some classical festivals are their own main attraction: think of Verbier, La Roque, Bayreuth, and so on. But others offer something of a cherry on the cake of one’s travels, as if to happen upon Trifanov playing Ginastera while you are hill-walking in the Alps (22 July, Gstaad), or Benjamin Grosvenor’s Schumann Fantasie as you potter about in Chipping Camden, is a gift of the gods. campdenmayfestivals.co.uk/music/benjamin-grosvenor

Other festivals have a zing in their history: take Lucerne, which has three festivals, though without deities such as Toscanini or Furtwängler these days. The ‘Piano Fest’ is the playground of Igor Levit (29 May–1 June) whose deity is quaintly mentioned in the notes: ‘Not even the Lucerne Festival Orchestra can decline an invitation from Igor Levit.’ Gosh. Later, under the theme ‘Open End’, the Summer Festival (12 August–14 September) will bring a top line-up over nearly five weeks, including Barenboim, Lang Lang, Argerich, Schiff, Levit and Vsevolod Zavidov, taking in a celebration of the 100th birthday of its founder, Pierre Boulez. Appropriately then the ‘Forward Festival’ (21-23 November) is devoted to contemporary repertoire. lucernefestival.ch/en

Before we wade further, we should mention festivals that really are devoted to the piano, most notably the sprawling agenda at La Roque d’Anthéron (think Aix-en-Provence) and the intimate concentration at Lagrasse (think Carcassonne), at opposite corners of the sweltering southern reaches of France. The ‘En Blanc Et Noir’ festival at Lagrasse, in less than a full week between 4 and 9 July, sparkles with young talent and attracts a loyal audience that attends most recitals, in the town’s ancient market hall, thanks greatly to an entertainingly unusual and varied repertoire. La Roque, with its main venue a large stage nestled in plane trees and often with a chorus of crickets, nurtures new names as well as the biggest, from 19 July to 17 August. Big names include El Bacha, Kim, Luisada, Grosvenor, Kadouch, Volodos, Lim, Lugansky and so on, with an interesting evening in which pupil and master play consecutively, Zavidov and Goerner. Note that the Geister Duo play all of Schubert’s four-hand music in three recitals. Lodged in typique Clochemerle-like French townships, both events have efficient and charming buffets serving local fare (wine) and a charming sense of fellowship in the audience. enblancetnoir.com; festival-piano.com

For that country feel you might also seek out the ‘intimate and bucolic’ festival founded by Simone Tavoni in Hoyos, Spain, midway between Madrid and Porto (12-16 August). Tavoni was a star of the Robert Turnbull festival in Lagrasse and has modelled this event on it, the recitals free and open-air, the local ambiance festive. This year features young soloists from conservatories or academies in London, Madrid and Budapest. paisajespianofestival.com/english

Mentioning repertoire invites one to check out the week-long Husum Festival, a port by the North Sea, north of Hamburg, in Schleswig-Holstein. (16-23 August) If even the name makes you imagine a quaint Schloss and township of steep curly roofing and burly citizenship, well, spot-on. And the quaintness is matched in the programme, specifically devoted to rarities. This 39th year sees a focus on Ronald Stevenson, with a recital and exhibition, and unknown works by Ukrainian composers such as Bortkiewicz, Revutsky and Lyatoshinsky among other discoveries. Daniel Grimwood will play Carnaval – the one by Widor – and Chiyan Wong the Goldbergs – the arrangement by Busoni. Dotted about the nine recitals you will spot major pieces by Cyril Scott, Stenhammar, Reubke, Chaminade and many others too tricky to spell. There is something of the sea air about it all, altogether bracing. piano-festival-husum.com

For inland sea air you must turn to the prolific, oceanic programme of ‘Piano du Lac’, the crazy floating-piano extravaganza that criss-crosses France all summer. There are four different turns this year, requiring an interactive map taking in Brittany, the French Alps and a sweep across the south from the Med to the Atlantic. IP visited their workshop in September 2021 and the level of surreality has not let up – pianos in trees, on barges, suspended from cranes and adapted into massage seats. The musicianship is serious but the fun makes for a great family day, an ideal excuse for a picnic. pianodulac.eu

Just as happily nestled in nature but with no instruments floating on lakes or in trees, there is of course the annual grandeur of events at Verbier (16 July–3 August) and Gstaad (18 July–6 September). Verbier’s master and pupil moment has Minsoo Sohn playing the final three Beethoven sonatas, followed by Yunchan Lim’s Goldbergs (22 July); the festival opens with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet’s complete Ravel in two recitals on one day (17 July) and the programme is as ever filled with the big names alongside alumni of the festival’s energetic nurturing of the new generation. verbierfestival.com

A quick dash north, 30 miles as the helicopter flies, lies Yehudi Menuhin’s brainchild, the Gstaad Festival and Academy. Here Lim and Sohn give a big two-piano programme on 29 July, with Caplet’s arrangement of Debussy’s La mer, the Rachmanninov’s Symphonic Dances and a suite from Der Rosenkavalier. The theme has been announced as ‘Change: Humility, Transformation, Migration’, which allows programmes all sorts of excuses for unexpected zig-zagging, and sub-titles such as ‘Inner Ear, Inner Emigration’ or ‘Conflict and Triumph’. Among others to appear are Ólafsson, Schiff, Khatia Buniatishvili and Trifonov, alongside alumni and newcomers. gstaadmenuhinfestival.ch/en

If you want an arresting title, though, the inaugural PianoRevenge Festival takes the prize. For three days in the heart of Paris, from 19 to 21 June, PianoRevenge brings a host of new names from Australia, America and Europe to the charming Théâtre de l’Îsle Saint-Louis in which, with only 80 seats, the term intimate is stretched to its limit. The theatre has a programme of recitals of its own and is worth discovering as a rewarding and tiny nest of delight far from the maddening crowd. pianorevenge.art; theatre-ilesaintlouis.com

Another newcomer, just west of Paris, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, is ‘Les Étoiles du Classique’, marking its fourth outing from 22 to 30 June. Under the auspices of Martha Argerich and Jean-Jacques Kantorow among others, and with a stated aim of encouraging young performers out into the tough world of A Career, what the French alarmingly call ‘insertion professionnelle’, the festival includes a rare performance of Poulenc’s Piano Concerto (with Nefeli Mousoura) on the 22 June, while the piano evening takes place on 27 June, with Yves Henry, Aimi Kobayashi and Dmitry Masleev. lesetoilesduclassique.fr

Without wishing to drift into the jungle of competitions, it is worth noting the three events that make up the Vienna Piano Summer Festival, if only because it is after all … in Vienna! It all happens between 7 and 19 July and if you want cream on your coffee, take a look. en.viennapiano.at/summerfestival

A similar event over the same dates happens in Valencia, itself a partial anagram of Vienna but with a rather different diet. The piano programme of the Valencia International Performing Arts Festival brings teachers from Yale, Boston, Vienna, Taiwan, China and Spain, an excuse to visit this great city if one were needed. Also of note is the Besançon Festival, a town associated for ever with Dinu Lipatti’s last recital, from 12 to 27 September; it too is oriented round a competition and announces the programme on 12 June. Later in the year, in October, there is a similar competition festival in Wales.

And there are others, galore. If you are indeed a competition watcher, the Alich-Argerich Foundation site gives a good guide to more than you imagined exist over the next couple of years. vipafestival.org/piano;festival-besancon.com/en/78th-edition;pianofestival.co.uk; alink-argerich.cld.bz

But, for those of us in the UK, let’s look nearer home. The picture is good: we have the big events and the niche. Traditionally the big event is the Edinburgh International Festival (1-24 August), which has always maintained the tradition of being the first great festival, as if Salzburg or Bayreuth had slipped off the map. Its piano fare that we old hands recall has also slipped off the map somewhat, but at least this year’s programme – heralded quaintly as ‘The Truth We Seek’ – we have a real oddity, Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy in duet and two-piano arrangements of Bach chorales by Busoni and Kurtág, and Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen, alongside Bruce Liu in Ravel’s G major Concerto, Piotr Anderszewski and Ryan Wang. A song recital by mezzo soprano Emily D’Angelo and pianist Sophia Muñoz is also noteworthy, for pieces by Bartók, Kodály, Korngold and Mahlers Gustav and Alma. Also, pianist Hanni Liang, inspired by Debussy’s Rêverie, offers ‘a unique concert experience where your dreams shape the performance, […] an immersive experience that invites you to actively participate in the creative process’. Stay awake!

Nor should we overlook the Fringe, even if finding classical music, let alone piano, requires detective work. The following performers deserve a mention as signal amid the noise: Alasdair Cameron, Andrii Kymach (baritone) and Jâms Coleman, Anne-Isabel Meyer (cello) and Julian Jacobson, Ailsa Aitkenhead, Cirque du Piano, Mianoora Kosonen (playing Sibelius, Madetoja and Palmgren), Caroline Salmon (soprano) and Anne Evans, Charles Whitehead, pianist-storyteller Matthew Shiel, Wolfgang David and David Gompper … eif.co.uk/classical-music; edfringe.com

Relative newcomer in the niche category is the New Ross Piano Festival in Ireland, celebrating its 20th anniversary (24-28 September). Its Artistic Director, Irish pianist Finghin Collins, has already tempted Paul Lewis and Steven Osborne to cross the narrow sea, and this year offers homey introductions to recent competition winners such as Magdalene Ho (Clara Haskil Competition, 2023) and Shunta Morimoto (Hastings International, 2022) as well as a barn-storming final concert with the Liszt Sonata and Dvorˇák’s Second Piano Quintet, which somehow I seldom see listed. New Ross is just inland from Wexford. newrosspianofestival.com

King’s Lynn, equally charming as anywhere needing a passport, and upgraded in 1537 from being Bishop’s Lynn, hosts a welter of events ranging from zitar to yoga (13-26 July). On the piano front – Freddy Kempf is a vice-president – the young Ukrainian Illia Ovcharenko appears with Beethoven’s Les Adieux and Liszt’s B minor Sonata, as does Classic FM’s 2025 Rising Star Kasparas Mikužis, with Kempf himself giving a thoughtful programme of Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin and Shostakovich. kingslynnfestival.org.uk

Talking of kings, the tenth London Piano Festival carries the thematic subtitle ‘Maturity and Youth’, which kinda covers it all (9‑12 October) It is based at Kings Place and has a fine pedigree of soloists including Stephen Hough, Ingrid Fliter and a big, generous two-piano evening including James Kreiling and Janneke Brits playing Stravinsky’s Firebird. londonpianofestival.com

Lancaster has its own kingly heritage and hosts a lively festival of piano and chamber music (18-28 July. Here the motto is ‘Educate – Inspire – Unite’ and it appropriately draws performers and students from all across the planet. The educational element is at the heart of the event’s vitality: most concerts have a pre-concert lecture, for a start. The artists-in-residence are Alexander Kobrin and Wael Farouk. Not all the programmes are detailed yet, but I do note that on 20 July all three Brahms Piano Quartets are on offer, a rare treat. www.lancasterpianofest.com

From 26 July to 3 August there is the Oxford Piano Festival, particularly rich in master classes – by Kathryn Stott, Stephens Hough and Kovacevic, Rustem Hayroudinoff and others. Recitals include Andrey Gugnin, Lugansky, Hough, Ólafsson and more. This being Oxford, the website does not ask you to click to ‘find out more’, but to ‘learn more’; nice touch. This is a real-deal event. oxfordpianofestival.com

Stephen Hough turns up again, earlier, at a 20th anniversary of the Budleigh Festival (27 June–5 July). His programme on 1 July gives us Schumann’s Carnaval alongside the Waldstein, with pieces by Schubert and Stockhausen. Other pianists include William Bracken, as well as Márton Mikulík and Benjámin Forgó playing Mahler’s First Symphony. If our editor will indulge me, I have to signal a performance of Schubert’s String Quintet redone gypsy-style for clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, santouri, cello/baryton and accordion, in a homage to the folksy atmosphere of Schubert and Brahms’s local pub, the Red Hedgehog. This I have to hear. There’s more to life than the piano. Perhaps. Perhaps not. budleighmusicfestival.co.uk 

This feature originally appeared in the SUMMER 2025 issue of International Piano – Subscribe Today