The Besançon International Music Festival () is one of the oldest festivals of

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

that takes place in the city of

Besançon Besançon (, ; , ; archaic ; ) is the capital of the Departments of France, department of Doubs in the region of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté. The city is located in Eastern France, close to the Jura Mountains and the border with Switzerland. Capi ...

, northeastern France, over two weeks from around the middle of September. It was created in 1948. It is particularly known for its International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors (''Concours international de jeunes chefs d'orchestre'') created in 1951, which is organized every two years and rewarded famous conductors such as

Seiji Ozawa was a Japanese conductor known internationally for his work as music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, and especially the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), where he served from 1973 for 29 years. After cond ...

(1959),

Michel Plasson Michel Plasson (born 2 October 1933, Paris, France) is a French conductor. Plasson was a student of Lazare Lévy at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1962, he was a prize-winner at the International Besançon Competition for Young Conductors. ...

(1962), Zdeněk Mácal (1965), Jesús López-Cobos (1968), Sylvain Cambreling (1974) or Yutaka Sado (1989), who began their international careers with its first prize. The Besançon festival is held in French.

External links

''Festival de Besançon'' official website
Music festivals established in 1948 Tourist attractions in Besançon Classical music festivals in France Tourist attractions in Doubs {{music-festival-stub