12th Mizmorim Chamber Music Festival, Basel 21st – 25th January 2026 "Jerusalem"

Presented by the historian Erik Petry, the podcast series immerses listeners in a thoughtful and multi-perspectival exploration of this year’s festival theme, “Jerusalem”.

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Presse | Mizmorim Kammermusik Festival

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Every January, Basel becomes the stage for the Mizmorim Chamber Music Festival, where artists from all over the world come together. The festival takes its name from the biblical Psalms — Mizmorim in Hebrew. Founded in 2015 by Michal Lewkowicz, the festival presents a newly curated thematic programme each year. As always, a wide variety of musical cultures — Jewish and Western, modern and classical, written and improvised, art and folk music — come together across all boundaries.

Mizmorim is more than just a music festival; it is an attempt to build bridges between different religions and traditions through music.

12th Mizmorim Chamber Music Festival, Basel “Jerusalem“

Shalom! This Hebrew greeting is embedded in the name of the city at the heart of the 12th Mizmorim Chamber Music Festival: Jerusalem. Sharing the same linguistic root is another word – this time Arabic: Salam. Like Shalom, it means peace, health, or can simply be a greeting.

Throughout 16 events, the Mizmorim Festival explores the cultural development and perception of Jerusalem. In addition to concerts, the programme includes guided tours, lectures, and talks. But above all, the focus is on the music: The festival features works by Syrian clarinetist and composer Kinan Azmeh, music by Morton Feldman, Samir Odeh-Tamimi, Renaissance motets by Palestrina and Monteverdi, and Klezmer. The lineup also includes 2 world and 18 Swiss premieres, alongside jazz, folk, and much more.

As always at Mizmorim, diverse musical traditions come together – Jewish, Western, and Arab, contemporary and classical, written and improvised, art and folk music – transcending boundaries of genre and culture.

Equally exciting is the lineup of musicians and ensembles: the Gringolts Quartet, Reto Bieri, Christian Dierstein, Voces Suaves, Taiseer Elias on the oud, the Mizmorim Festival Ensemble, New York-based clarinetist David Krakauer, and many more.