Here is our pick of the best classical music festivals taking place across the Middle East, China, Japan and Taiwan during 2024. Don't forget to also check out our useful guides to the UK's best classical music festivals, best festivals in Europe 2024, and also to the best classical festivals in Canada and the USA this year.
Best 2024 classical music festivals in the Middle East
Abu Dhabi Festival
United Arab Emirates, year-long
abudhabifestival.ae
Not for Abu Dhabi the defining constrictions of time and place. It’s a festival with year-round global aspirations that, two decades since its foundation, boasts a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in Paris and, in December, new music inspired by the paintings of Bob Peak at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. Co-produced recordings by tenor Juan Diego Flórez and violinist Yamen Saadi add a legacy to an anniversary edition that ends with the China National Symphony Orchestra.
- Which is the best Mahler symphony?
- Walt Disney Concert Hall: a modern marvel of music and architecture
Jerusalem Lyric Opera Festival
Jerusalem, Israel, 22-25 July
lyric-opera.org
Handel seems to be having something of a moment in Jerusalem’s annual celebration of the operatic arts. Alcina wove her enchanted spell last year, and 2024’s tercentenary anniversary of the premiere of Giulio Cesare in Egitto does not go unnoticed. Indeed, Egypt also provides the backdrop to the festival’s finale: Verdi’s colourful fantasy Aida. In the Museum of Italian Jewish Art, the Fauré centenary is remembered in poetry and song.
Best 2024 classical music festivals in Taiwan
Weiwuying International Music Festival
National Kaohsiung Centre for the Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, until 21 April
npac-weiwuying.org
As she ponders the third instalment of Taiwan’s flagship festival, composer-artistic director Unsuk Chin is in upbeat mood. With the capacious facilities of the world’s largest multi-space arts centre at her command, music ranging from Eötvös and Berlioz to Janáček and Unsuk Chin herself is corralled into artfully themed programmes. Showcasing the Weiwuying Contemporary Music Ensemble, ‘Street Theatre and Hot Dances’ proposes a heady mash-up of Kurtág, Bolcom and Ligeti, among others.
Taipei Music Academy and Festival
Taipei, Taiwan, 28 July-11 August
taipeimaf.com
With an advisory committee including pianist Emanuel Ax, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and conductor Kent Nagano, Taipei’s mission to explain, instruct and inspire boasts blue-chip backers. A chamber music first week turns orchestral in the second, culminating in a three-concert tour of Brahms, Elgar and Dvořák conducted by Leonard Slatkin.
- Best of Brahms: top ten works by the late Romantic master
- What is the best recording of Elgar's Cello Concerto?
- Dvořák: five essential works
Best 2024 classical music festivals in China
Beijing International Music Festival and Academy
Beijing, China, 11-21 August
bimfa.org
Bringing together professional and student musicians from around the globe, China’s only summer-school-cum-festival contemplates its 20th anniversary edition. Coaching and masterclasses rub shoulders with competitions, public performance and a festival concert series by guest artists as well as faculty members. With downtime excursions to the Great Wall, the Forbidden City and Summer Palace, there’s a feast for the eyes and the ears.
Best 2024 classical music festivals in Japan
Suntory Hall Chamber Music Garden
Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan, 1-16 June
suntory.com/culture-sports/suntoryhall/
Tokyo’s venerable Suntory Hall has been welcoming audiences for nearly 40 years, and each June hosts Japan’s premiere chamber music festival – named after the garden that adorns the building’s roof. As ever, Beethoven is writ large. There’s a complete string quartet cycle from the Verus String Quartet, all five cello sonatas and another instalment in the Aoi Trio’s seven-year voyage through the piano trios. Visiting performers include the Jerusalem Quartet and the Austrian mezzo-soprano Michaela Selinger – who squares up to Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire.
- Best of Beethoven: top 20 works by the revolutionary Romantic
- Top ten Beethoven places to visit
- Beethoven symphonies: a brief guide to 'the Nine'
Pacific Music Festival
Sapporo, Japan, 10-30 July
pmf.or.jp/en/
Founded by Leonard Bernstein, PMF doesn’t do things by halves. The teaching faculty unites players from the philharmonics of Vienna and Berlin, while conductors Manfred Honeck and Elias Grandy follow in the footsteps of Bernard Haitink and Riccardo Muti, among others. Bernstein’s scintillating Candide Overture raises the curtain, and the Bernstein Memorial Concert features a Lennie favourite: Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.
- Memories of Leonard Bernstein: a showman and musical visionary with a car number plate you couldn't miss
- Best of Bernstein: five essential works
Seiji Ozawa Matsumoto Festival
Matsumoto, Japan, 9 August-4 September
ozawa-festival.com
There will be mixed emotions in Matsumoto this year. The resident Saito Kinen Orchestra celebrates its 40th birthday. Yet at the same time a sense of loss is inescapable – the festival’s founder Seiji Ozawa died in February, and his guiding spirit will be missed.
Shouldering the conducting are Andris Nelsons and Nodoka Okisawa (only recently appointed principal guest conductor by Ozawa). The latter undertakes the opening concerts coupling Mendelssohn and Richard Strauss. She also masterminds the opera choice: Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi. Nelsons, meanwhile, delivers a complete Brahms symphony cycle – key works in the orchestra’s early history.
Top image credit: Getty Images