Bratislava Music Festival

The Bratislava Music Festival, the most important international music festival in Slovakia focusing on classical music, belongs to special cultural and social event whose significance outreaches not only the boundaries of Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic, but also the whole country. 

The main organiser of the festival is the Slovak Philharmonic, the biggest professional musical institution in Slovakia which guarantees the highest professionally qualified background. The festival is held annually at the turn of September and October with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic.

The Slovak Philharmonic is the residence orchestra of the festival, performing in three concerts. This year the opening concert will be dedicated to the works marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, including the world premiere of the festival-commissioned work oVErture (Victory in Europe Day) composed by the Slovak composer Peter Breiner and Leonard Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2 The Age of Anxiety. The closing concert of the festival will present the monumental work of the Bratislava-born composer Franz Schmidt The Book with Seven Seals under the baton of Daniel Raiskin.

The Bratislava Music Festival also offers a presentation of prominent foreign orchestras. In 2025 the festival welcomes the London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Antonio Pappano and Seong-Jin Cho, Vienna Philharmonic with Tugan Sokhiev, Orchestre National de France with Cristian Măcelaru and Rudolf Buchbinder, The Constellation Choir & Orchestra with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra Hamburg with Juraj Valčuha and Augustin Hadelich, as well as one other German orchestra – WDR Funkhausorchester Cologne. Among the regular guests are the Czech orchestras; this year it will be the PKF – Prague Philharmonia and FOK Prague Symphony Orchestra with Tomáš Netopil. The concert of the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine will be conducted by Oksana Lyniv.

As a matter of course the Bratislava Music Festival will also feature excellent Slovak artists and Slovak music, including the world-premiered works.

We cordially invite you to the Bratislava Music Festival!