Music Star violinist Daniel Hope becomes new director of the Menuhin Festival
The busy star violinist Daniel Hope is to become the new Artistic Director of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival. He succeeds long-time director Christoph Müller, who will step down after the 2025 edition.
24.06.2024, 18:19
SDA
Hope is no stranger to Switzerland. He has been Music Director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra since 2016. He recorded the music for the film "Zwingli" with this orchestra. He has performed regularly at the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad since 1992. His mother Eleonore Hope was secretary to festival founder Yehudi Menuhin in London and then directed the festival from 1998 to 2002.
Now his son Daniel will take over from November 1, 2025. The 50-year-old violinist, who has performed internationally as a soloist for 35 years, has many other responsibilities. He leads the New Century Chamber Orchestra in San Francisco, is Artistic Director at the Frauenkirche in Dresden and presides over the Beethoven-Haus in Bonn.
Since 2004, Hope has also conceived and directed festivals and concert series with a broad musical and thematic range. He is committed to contemporary music and the music of the 20th century; his discography includes concert recordings of works by Alban Berg, Benjamin Britten and Dimitri Shostakovich.
Commitment with a political touch
With his commitment to music written in the Theresienstadt concentration camp, for example, Hope's work always has a political flavor. He is also the author or co-author of four books and has made a name for himself as a columnist for the magazines "Cicero" and "Crescendo".
The festival confirmed to the Keystone-SDA news agency in a press release that Hope is now to succeed Christoph Müller as artistic director of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy. The festival did not actually want to announce the appointment until a media event on Tuesday. However, various media already reported on it on Monday.
Müller has headed the festival for more than twenty years, during which time he has built up the Academy, for example. This year's edition, Müller's penultimate, will take place from July 12 to August 31.
