Festival d'Art Sacré de la Cathédrale de Sion - 20e édition

November 30, 2025 to January 4, 2026 | Sion Cathedral

Over the past two decades, the Festival d'Art Sacré de la Cathédrale de Sion has established itself as a key event on the Valais cultural scene, combining artistic excellence and spiritual depth in a unique heritage setting. To mark this anniversary, the 2025-2026 edition offers a program of exceptional quality, combining early music, prestigious choirs of international renown and promising young talent.

A baroque rediscovery for women

The festival opens on Sunday November 30 at 5pm with an event concert featuring the Ensemble Vocal de la Maîtrise and the Ensemble Barberine, bringing together connoisseurs of late Renaissance and early Baroque music. They will introduce audiences to the dazzling works of Chiara Margarita Cozzolani, an unjustly overlooked 17th-century composer who developed a rich polyphony at a time when the Counter-Reformation was seeking greater sobriety. In the form of a vespers service, this opening concert brings together some of the Milanese composer's works, published in Venice in 1650 and composed in the context of the Benedictine abbey of Santa Radegonda in Milan.

From shadow to light

On Sunday December 7 at 5pm, Sion's Chœur Novantiqua will offer a refined a cappella program structured in three spiritual movements. The first part plunges into the darkest, most tormented expression of the late Renaissance with five motets by Carlo Gesualdo. The second part leaps into the Romantic era with four motets by Anton Bruckner, whose sober, Cecilian writing transcends the preceding suffering. Finally, the third part bursts into joy with Francis Poulenc's Quatre Motets pour le temps de Noël, modern illustrations of the light of Christmas. So that the audience can fully savor the richness of these works, this concert will be preceded at 4pm by a lecture by Marie Favre, musicologist and doctor of musicology.

Youth in the spotlight

Faithful to its mission of transmission, the festival honors young talent on Sunday December 21 at 5 p.m. with a concert featuring the Maîtris School of Music.