The 35th Astona Summer Music Academy came to a successful close with the gala concert on 5th August. The 32 young talents from 16 countries thrilled the audience with their commitment and dazzling performances. The audience celebrated them with standing ovations.
Read the reviews (translations with deepl)
Astona is a two-week international Summer Music Academy, accompanying many students on their path to a musical career and providing them 15 days with a free and protected space in which to work and grow and enjoy.
Founder (1988) and director:
Nancy Chumachenco
Students and applicants:
click the next pages for all information
Final closing date for application:
expired (March 15, 2023
In collaboration with
The International Menuhin Competition
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 Chumacenco 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,
Music Director of the Wiener Staatsoper
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