Introduction

The Settimane Musicali al Teatro Olimpico began in 1992 with the aim of bringing great classical music to one of the most evocative sites in the world, the Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza.

The theater, designed by Andrea Palladio in 1580, has miraculously remained intact to this day and is considered, almost five hundred years later, the oldest covered theater in the world. Together with the villas and palaces designed by Palladio, it is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Festival takes place between mid-May and mid-June, one of the few periods of the year when the theater is used for performances.

The artistic director from its foundation until 2018 has been Giovanni Battista Rigon, Italian conductor and pianist. Over the years, the Festival's program has been enriched with opera, symphonic and chamber concerts, and musicological conferences. Rigon has made it a prestigious Festival, the only one to bring opera to the Teatro Olimpico since 2004. This achievement earned the Festival the Abbiati Prize from Italian critics, the highest national award for opera music.The Festival has also been a member of the EFA, European Festival Association, alongside extraordinary events such as the BBC Proms, Lucerne Festival, Berliner Festspiele, Zurcher Festspiele, Prague Spring Festival and - in Italy - ROF in Pesaro, Ravenna Festival, Merano and Stresa Festival, MiTo Settembre Musica.

Since the 2019 season, Sonig Tchakerian has been the artistic director of the Festival. Sonig, an Italian violinist of Armenian origin, has been awarded international prizes at the Paganini in Genoa, the ARD in Munich, and the Gui in Florence, and teaches violin at the Advanced Courses of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
From the very beginning, the Settimane Musicali has been characterized by chamber music concerts with soloists. Famous instrumentalists have formed trios, quartets, and quintets exclusively for this occasion, resulting in exceptional musical moments with the most extraordinary Italian musicians, together with international stars such as Martha Argerich, Raina Kabaivanska, Alicia De Larrocha, Shlomo Mintz, Steven Isserlis, and Frank Peter Zimmermann.

Concerts are often recorded and broadcast by RAI Radio Tre.

Sonig's program for 2019, In Cammino (On the Way), continues the ‘journey’ that began in 1992.

The chamber music concerts take us from Venice to Buenos Aires, from Ararat to Paris, from Vinci to the world... on a journey among peoples, cultures, and feelings that tell our story through the centuries, with an intimacy that only great music can reveal.

As is tradition, the chamber music concerts are accompanied by other important initiatives aimed primarily at young talents: the Progetto Giovani, three events in the Odeo of the Teatro Olimpico, with the winners of the Venice Prize, the Brunelli Prize, and the scholarship at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; Mu.Vi, now in its fourth edition, traditionally opens the Festival In Cammino among the palaces of Vicenza's historic center, with extraordinary musicians of all ages, because music is truly for everyone.

Also, eagerly awaited are the pre-concert conversations with distinguished musicologists in a pleasant dialogue with the audience: for a more informed and exciting listening experience of the programs on offer.