Since its creation in 1950, the Menton Music Festival has established itself as a major event on the French musical calendar.
A relevant and eclectic program, with world-renowned musicians, has allowed the Menton Festival to remain true to the spirit instilled by its founder, Andrรฉ Bรถrรถcz.
The Parvis of the Saint-Michel Archange Basilica is one of those sublime and magical places open to the horizon and the sea. It is in this magnificent baroque setting that the first notes of the festival will rise, with the kick-off given on August 1st and continuing until August 16th.
Jean Marie Tomasi, Director of the Menton Music Festival:
“Designing the program for the Menton Festival is not, a priori, a very complicated undertaking. You just have to follow the path laid by its founder over 60 years ago while respecting a few principles that have made its reputation in France and abroad:
Serve the great repertoire with the greatest performers and the best orchestras.
Encourage intergenerational encounters. It is indeed from this confrontation that the event, which nourishes the spectators, is born.
Offer a platform to the young generation full of great talents who are not programmed because they are unknown and remain unknown because they cannot play.
Satisfy the curiosity of an increasingly eager audience for new experiences by approaching a repertoire too often neglected.
Finally, ensure that Menton residents, whether native or adopted, embrace their Festival and feel the same form of attachment to this venerable sexagenarian as to this place in the shadow of the Campanin that has hosted it for more than six decades.
Would it be enough to apply “these few recipes” to guarantee a good Festival?
Too easy. In ten years, everything has changed: a new audience has emerged, larger, more demanding, and constantly engaged throughout the year by very high-quality musical events.
To interest them and retain their loyalty, you must capture and hold their attention throughout the event and, especially in the troubled period we are going through, make each concert a moment of relaxation and peace.
In a word, rely on this “alchemy” that transforms a slice of life into a moment of pure happiness and a succession of concerts into a Festival.
That’s what we have attempted to do for this 62nd edition of the Menton Festival that we present to you today.”