Daniel Hope will take over as the newly elected Artistic Director of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy on 1 November 2025. He succeeds Christoph Müller, who will be leaving Gstaad at the end of the festival in 2025 after 24 successful years.

The Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy writes in a recent press release that the Menuhin legacy is now in new hands. Daniel Hope has been appointed the new artistic director. He succeeded Christoph Müller, who will leave the festival at the end of 2025 after almost 25 years (see earlier interview with Christoph Müller). The 50-year-old Hope is one of the world's most sought-after violinists and musical personalities, with an international career spanning 35 years.

From autumn 2025, Daniel Hope will become the new Artistic Director - and he is extremely pleased with the news that he has been offered "this great opportunity to shape the future together with the Gstaad team", according to the press release. "The Gstaad Menuhin Festival was the starting point of my relationship with music: it was here that I had my first ever encounter with classical music as a small child. It was also where I was allowed to turn the pages for the festival artists from the age of eleven. When I finally made my official debut at the festival in August 1992, Yehudi Menuhin himself was sitting in the audience. To summarise, Gstaad is so much a part of my musical genetics that it doesn't matter where I am in the world. Music and the Bernese Oberland - this is the perfect symbiosis for me," says Hope.

Chairman of the Board of Directors and Artistic Director are happy.
Daniel Hope - Music Director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra since 2016 - has also spent a good portion of his time since 2004 focussing on the direction and conception of festivals and concert series, including at the Savannah Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Philharmonie Essen. He is currently Artistic Director of the Frauenkirche Dresden and President of the Beethovenhaus in Bonn.

Following a multi-stage and extensive selection process, the exceptional artist Daniel Hope, a long-time connoisseur of Gstaad and former protégé of Yehudi Menuhin, was unanimously elected as the new Artistic Director by the Board of Directors of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy AG on the recommendation of the appointment committee, according to the press release.

From left: Christoph Müller, Daniel Hope, Aldo Kropf, | Copyright Sebastian Devenish Foto

Aldo Kropf, Chairman of the Board of Directors and the Appointments Committee, is pleased: "I am delighted that we have been able to appoint Daniel Hope as Christoph Müller's successor. He brings a global network and the necessary experience for this demanding role, which will be a great asset to the festival and the Gstaad Saanenland region. His close connection to the festival founder Yehudi Menuhin, our festival, and Saanenland will also be extremely valuable to us."

Christoph Müller, who will remain Artistic Director until the end of 2025, is also optimistic about the choice. He is quoted in the press release as saying that Daniel Hope is "a passionate and successful musician and music mediator" who will further develop the broad-based programme and diversity of the current festival in his visionary concert formats and reach new audiences thanks to "his many exciting and sometimes interdisciplinary ideas". "He is in every respect an ideal solution to lead this festival, which means a lot to me and to which I owe a great deal, into its eighth decade. I am delighted to be able to place the responsibility for artistic operations in his hands," said Müller.

Daniel Hope will begin his directorship in 2026 as part of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, the 70th edition of the festival named after its founder, Yehudi Menuhin. He moved from Berlin to Switzerland in June 2024. Daniel Hope is married and has two children.

Based on AvS | JOP