Festival Academy Budapest 2025: ten years of classical excellence

Festival Academy Budapest (FAB) was founded ten years ago by violinist couple Katalin Kokas and Barnabás Kelemen, who have created an internationally renowned series of events in the Hungarian capital—a festival and masterclasses—a true living music workshop that attracts artists, audiences, and students from 35 countries for 10 days each year.

Within the framework of FAB, the world’s most significant classical music stars come to Budapest, performing in unique and one-of-a-kind formations, while also dedicating their time to masterclasses, sharing their expertise with participating students.

The exceptional professional quality of FAB is recognised internationally, placing it among the world’s most prestigious musical events, such as those in Lucerne, Verbier, and Salzburg.

Festival Academy Budapest has redefined the concept of a summer festival, opening its doors spatially, temporally, and genre-wise. Participants can immerse themselves from morning till night in high-level chamber music and orchestral performances. Concerts extend beyond concert halls, filling the city’s most exciting spaces, and the programme includes not only classical music but also authentic Hungarian and regional folk music and vibrant Gypsy music.

It’s no wonder that world-renowned artists return here time and again at the invitation of Barnabás Kelemen and Katalin Kokas. This festival has been cited by both Vilde Frang and Joshua Bell as one of their favourites. FAB Summerfest is a true inspiration for both the audience and the artists who shape the festival’s face.

’Over the past ten years, Festival Academy Budapest has achieved much and continues to expand. We have established three festivals—besides FAB Summerfest, we now also welcome audiences in our Winterfest and Springfest—and every summer, 100–120 young musicians from 35 countries come to us for individual masterclasses, complemented by the complex, multi-stage system of competitions at the central Summerfest.

’We could look back on this anniversary, but we focus on the future. If the audience listens to this year’s summer concerts of Festival Academy Budapest, it will be like looking into the future through a telescope! Not only will they hear the world’s leading soloist stars of today on stage, but also those who will be the star soloists in the world’s leading concert halls in 2035! Therefore this year we conclude: We’ve presented the world, we present the future,’ says Katalin Kokas and Barnabás Kelemen.

X. Summerfest follows traditions laid by violin giants from past years’ programmes such as Joshua Bell, Gidon Kremer, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Boris Brovtsyn, Alina Ibragimova, Shlomo Mintz, Clara Jumi Kang, violists including Lars Anders Tomter, Jing Yang, Yuri Zhislin, James Boyd, Razvan Popovici, Maxim Rysanov, cellists such as Nicolas Altstaedt, Boris Andrianov, Andreas Brantelid, Enrico Bronzi, Jonathan Cohen, Narek Hakhazaryan, Franz Helmerson, to name a few, alongside the founders, Katalin Kokas and Barnabás Kelemen, and Hungarian excellences like László Fenyő, Dóra Kokas, András Keller, and Gábor Boldoczki.

In 2025 Summerfest the honorary guests are Maxim Vengerov and György Kurtág. In the festival’s Grand Finale Weekend, Vengerov will perform the Mendelssohn Octet with Festival Academy Budapest colleagues on 26 July, followed by the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto on 27 July. Vengerov will give four masterclasses for selected students, while Kurtág will give six hours of masterclasses in two sessions to the Kelemen Quartet on Bartók String Quartet no.1 - both open to the public for free.

At the 2025 opening concert, Concerto Budapest orchestra will perform under the baton of András Keller, and we will also get to know the ’FAB UP’ orchestra of emerging artists in Vivaldi’s D-major Violin Concerto. Iconic works will also be performed by world-renowned artists, such as Dohnányi’s Violin Concerto by Boris Brovtsyn and Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations by László Fenyő.

To mark the 50th anniversary of Dmitri Shostakovich’s death, FAB is preparing an entire day dedicated to his legacy. Throughout the day, three major concerts will take place, featuring some of his most significant chamber works and his Concerto for Piano and Trumpet, performed by Sergei Nakariakov.

In remembrance of the victims of the Holocaust, X. Summerfest is organising a full-day programme featuring several world premieres. The festival’s founders have invited young Hungarian composers to write new works in tribute to the Holocaust’s victims. The programme will also include a staged reading of Nobel Prize-winning author Imre Kertész’s Kaddish, enriched with poignant musical interludes.

During Schubertiada Day, the audience will hear emblematic works by Franz Schubert, including a special arrangement of the F minor Fantasy, written at the request of Maxim Rysanov. Naturally, the beloved ’Trout’ Quintet will also be part of the programme.

FAB Summerfest offers children’s performances every year. This year, young audiences will be introduced to Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, while in a special performance of Hansel and Gretel, young singers will take the stage under the baton of Andreas Ottensamer, accompanied by the narration of one of Hungary’s greatest actresses, Piroska Molnár.

Founding Artistic Directors:

· Katalin Kokas – Liszt Ferenc Prize-winning violinist, Artist of Merit, Associate Professor at the Liszt Academy of Music

· Barnabás Kelemen – Kossuth and Liszt Ferenc Prize-winning violinist, Professor at the University of Graz, Visiting Professor at the University of Florence

Find out more here: https://fesztivalakademia.hu/en/