Goldmund Festival Kloster Irsee

Young Chamber Music Festival in the Allgäu

The Goldmund Festival was launched in 2025 as a new platform for chamber music in Southern Germany. The initiators are the four musicians of the Goldmund Quartet: Florian Schötz and Pinchas Adt (violin), Christoph Vandory (viola), and Raphael Paratore (cello). The venue is the impressive Kloster Irsee, a former Benedictine monastery on the edge of the Allgäu region – today the Swabian Conference and Education Centre of the district of Swabia.

Format: A Packed Weekend

Unlike the large summer academies, the Goldmund Festival focuses on a single, very densely programmed weekend. Over three days, an opening concert, a matinee, a themed concert, a 'Late Night Folk Songs' soirée, a Stradivarius presentation series, and a finale with songs and string quartet are offered – complemented by monastery tours and an exhibition of historical instruments from Tarisio Fine Instruments.

Program Profile and Guests

Artistic direction: the Goldmund Quartet itself, playing on instruments from the collection of Florian Leonhard / Tarisio (Stradivarius and contemporaries). Invited guests include tenor Julian Prégardien, pianist Anna Gebhardt, and guitarist Carlotta Dalia. The program is supplemented by its own children's and outreach format: on May 16, 2026, there will be a children's concert in Memmingen, hosted by Julian Janssen ('Checker Julian' from KiKA).

Kloster Irsee – The Venue

Kloster Irsee is located between Kaufbeuren and Memmingen in the Ostallgäu region. The baroque monastery complex – library, festival hall, former monastery church – offers acoustically and atmospherically exceptional concert halls. Travel by shuttle from Kaufbeuren train station can be booked through the festival office; overnight stays are possible directly at the monastery or in the surrounding towns.

District of Swabia as Patron

The festival is supported by the district of Swabia, underscoring the district's commitment to promoting classical music and education in Swabia. In spring 2026, the district of Swabia confirmed the continuation of the festival and set the last weekend of June 2026 as the date.