UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra

One orchestra – many cultures
The UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra (UBS VFO) is composed of more than 100 musicians aged 17 to 29 years from all over the world. The orchestra gave its debut at the opening concert of the Verbier Festival in 2000 under the baton of its Conductor Laureate James Levine, Music Director of both New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

The UBS VFO is the Orchestra in Residence at the annual Verbier Festival in Switzerland. Since its creation in 2000, the orchestra has given over 600 young musicians from more than 50 different countries an opportunity to work with – and learn from – some of the world’s most acclaimed conductors, including Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit, Valery Gergiev, Neeme Järvi, James Levine, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Yuri Temirkanov and Michael Tilson Thomas, as well as many of today's leading soloists.

On its annual international tours, the UBS VFO has performed in the finest concert halls of major cities in Europe (Paris, Rome, Madrid, Vienna, Zurich), in North and South America (Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, São Paulo), in Asia (Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo) and in Australia (Melbourne, Sydney). In 2008, the orchestra will take outstanding music to Berlin, Lucerne, Madrid and Milan.

UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra

The UBS Verbier Festival Orchestra is widely considered to be one of the world's leading training orchestras. The invaluable orchestral training received at Verbier and the experience of working with great conductors and soloists have helped launch the professional careers of many former orchestra members. Orchestra alumni have joined leading orchestras around the world including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Russian National Orchestra, Tonhalle Orchestra (Zurich) and the Vienna Philharmonic. The UBS VFO audition process has attracted more applicants each year. Nearly 1000 applications were received for 53 vacancies in the orchestra for the 2008 season.

After 9 years of intense collaboration with the Verbier Festival Orchestra, it is now time for UBS to move in a different direction. UBS is committed to supporting young talent development and education in the field of classical music through the support of a new project to be revealed next summer.