August 9-15, 2025
ASIAGOFESTIVAL 2025
The 59th edition of the festival conceived by Fiorella Benetti Brazzale will be held Aug. 9-15, featuring international caliber artists, including clarinetist Andreas Ottensamer, and world premieres.
“Fiorella Benetti Brazzale, my grandmother, was a great inspiration in my education, not only musically. When I was seven years old I started studying the cello, an instrument that I continue to play today, and for about 10 years I have had the honor of directing, from an organizational point of view, the festival founded by her: Asiagofestival. Although I unfortunately did not get to meet her in person, she passed on to my father, first, and to me, through him, a love of music and the beauty of art as a living, breathing, everyday experience. And this is precisely the heart of the festival, where the greatest contemporary musical expressions meet the best tradition, reinterpreting it in an unceasing dialogue. A vision that also profoundly reflects the DNA of our family and the Brazzale company: interpreting the times we live in without limits or boundaries, with the creation of new supply chains and products evolving from tradition.” says Alberto Brazzale, organizing director of Asiagofestival and eighth generation of the family that leads Brazzale spa, introducing the 2025 edition of the traditional musical event.
La 59th edition of the Asiagofestival, Aug. 9-15, 2025, will offer a week of great music in the heart of the Asiago Plateau, featuring artists of international caliber, world premieres and programs ranging from chamber music to organ repertoire, from cinema to contemporary music.
Under the artistic direction of Jose Gallardo and Hyun-Jung Berger and the organizational direction of Alberto Brazzale, Fiorella Benetti Brazzale’s grandson, Asiagofestival 2025 will be a celebration of great Czech and Central European chamber music with the Bennewitz Quartet, the wonderful sounds of Andreas Ottensamer ‘s clarinet and Cellopassionato cellos, contemporary music with a special tribute to guest composer Mikel Urquiza, and organ music with the final concert given by Swedish organist Fredrik Albertsson.
The guest composer for the 2025 edition will be Mikel Urquiza, winner of the “Ernst Von Siemens” prize, often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of contemporary music,” in 2022. One of the highlights of the entire festival will be precisely the premiere of his composition dedicated to the city of Asiago, commissioned by Asiagofestival, which will be performed on August 14. In the past, such musical personalities as Sofia Gubaidulina (who sadly passed away in March 2025), Fabio Vacchi, Thierry Escaich, Franghiz Ali-Zadeh and many others have been guest composers of Asiagofestival.
The opening notes of the 59th edition of Asiagofestival, on August 9, will be in the sign of great Bohemian chamber music with the Bennewitz Quartet, one of the most appreciated chamber ensembles in the Czech Republic. The Festival will close on August 15 with the traditional organ concert for the Assumption in the majestic acoustics of the Cathedral, a testament to the origins of this event, which was born precisely as a festival of organ and sacred music thanks to the will of its founder: Fiorella Benetti Brazzale. The organist Fredrik Albertsson, for the first time in Asiago, will offer a program that weaves together masters of the Baroque (especially Bach and Buxtehude) and Nordic Romanticism.
Meanwhile, thoughts are already turning to next year as well because 2026 will mark the milestone of the 60th edition. “My personal dream is for the festival to continue seamlessly into the future. Exactly as I see every day in my work as an entrepreneur in the dairy industry, the wealth of knowledge and experience that settles over the years is invaluable and serves as an indispensable basis for even the boldest innovations. This must hold true in industry and commerce as well as in art. Art, in fact, must be alive, vibrant and living, and to do this we must be constantly open to challenge, rethink and innovate.” , comments Alberto Brazzale. “For the 60th edition in 2026, we are studying ways to bring musical theater to Asiago, that is, that artistic representation that blends music, choreography, script and set design, always with the aim of enhancing the immense heritage of traditions, places and people that have populated and that populate the Plateau. A clear artistic direction, finally, is to cooperate as much as possible with the visual arts and in particular painting, as was done with the repeated collaborations with “Excellent Painters – Brazzale,” exhibitions organized at Museo le Carceri. We would like the festival to be more and more a 360-degree experience of artistic beauty.”
Asiagofestival 2025, organized by the Friends of Music of Asiago “Fiorella Benetti Brazzale,” is realized with the contribution of the Parish of St. Matthew, the Municipality of Asiago and with the support of Brazzale. Thanks to the support of sponsors, all concerts are free admission (subject to availability).