Welcome to the Astona Summer Music Academy for highly-gifted, young string players and pianists!
11 to 24 July 2021 - ASTONA ONLINE 2021
We are happy to announce that Astona online 2021 is almost fully booked. We can still accept 3 more pianists. The application deadline has been extended.
Astona is a two-week international Summer Music Academy, accompanying many students on their path to a musical career and providing them 14 days with a free and protected space in which to work and grow and enjoy.
In 2021 we are going online! We aim to provide our students with an ONLINE experience as close as possible to the opportunities and fun of the Astona we have known for 34 years!
Acceptance and participation in ASTONA ONLINE 2021 automatically guarantees acceptance at Astona 2022.
Founder (1988) and director:
Nancy Chumachenco
Click here for all information
Course fee
CHF 250
The student pays CHF 250 for the two weeks. The vast difference between this and the true cost of the course (CHF 1'200) is made possible by generous contributions from sponsors. We want to give this advantage directly to our students at Astona ONLINE 2021. There are, however, no further scholarships in 2021.
Application fee
CHF 50
Applicants who were accepted to Astona 2020 (which unfortunately had to be cancelled due to Covid) do NOT have to pay the application fee in 2021.
Final closing date for application
May 1, 2021
Please use the
application form on this website.
Astona - a video portrait (2019)
12 minutes
I took up the cello because I heard another boy playing it and fell in love with the sound. My teacher was Nancy
Chumachenco. She expected a lot right from day one, and if you were a talented student she would go full steam ahead, not for just 30 or 60 minutes a week but a whole lot more. There was chamber
music, too, and every year she would organise a summer school with students from other countries. Meeting kids from places like South Africa, Finland and the US as a twelve-year-old was so
exciting, and it gave us a network of friends and colleagues to draw on as we got older. Not many people are lucky enough to be guided by someone like Nancy Chumachenco from the first
time they pick up their instrument.
The Strad, 2/2020
Christian Poltéra, born 1977, Astona participant 1988 - 1993. Renowned international Cello soloist and chamber music player, Professor at Lucerne University.
At the age of 15 to 17, I had the good fortune to attend Astona International. I can attest to the fact that these years were the most formative in my musical education.
Philippe Jordan, born 1974,
Astona participant 1990 - 1992,
Musica Director: Paris Opéra
Principal Conductor: Vienna Symphony Orchestra
Astona International on the Swiss National News, July 21, 2018
I'd heard only positive things about Astona before I came and now that I’ve been there myself, I can with 100% certainty say that they’re true. I’ve learnt a lot, some of the things that I expected to learn and some skills that I did not realise I would. Astona is certainly an experience that I’ll never forget. I greatly appreciate all your hard work and that of your fellow teachers. Thank you for an amazing opportunity!
Student from Norway, 16, Participant 2019
„After the intermission, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's octet for strings, followed by frenetic, well-deserved applaus and standing ovations. Seldom does one encounter so much energy and enthusiasm as was audible and evident in all aspects of Astona."
Zuger Zeitung 2019