WENDEPUNKTE
INFLECTION POINTS

FINNIS

Mozart

WESTHOFF

schoenberg

scelsi

ligeti

wolfe

reich

sciarrino

leclair

bach

mendelssohn

ravel

López Pradas

RAMEAU

19-22 November, 2025

voltahalle basel

FINNIS

Mozart

WESTHOFF

schoenberg

scelsi

ligeti

wolfe

reich

sciarrino

leclair

bach

mendelssohn

ravel

López Pradas

RAMEAU

Welcome to our
2025 Festival

This year’s motto, Wendepunkte (inflection points), grows directly from the meaning of volta: a turn, a moment of transformation.
We see turning points everywhere, be it in life, in music or in history. They can be on a small level - almost every musical phrase containing its own point of change - and on a macro level.

In the 2025 VOLTA Kammermusikfest, we want to shine a light on these moments, and celebrate the never ending changes that make music and life interesting.

Programme 2025

LICHTBLICK AUS WIEN

Renowned pianist Claudio Martínez-Mehner leads Mozart’s playful A-major concerto in an intimate quintet arrangement in a concert combining music from Vienna and Paris. Claudio is joined by pianist, Jansen Ryser, to perform an arrangement of Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye for four hands. Korngold’s Piano Quintet concludes the evening, this rarely performed work full of virtuosity and passion.

NACHTWACHE

Following the light and joy of the opening night, ‘Nachtwache’ delves into darker colours and sonorities. Westhoff’s sonata in D minor opens the evening, followed by music by composers Scelsi and Finnis who challenge the norms of tonality and pitch. At the centre of the concert is Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, telling the story of two lovers on a moonlit walk. The sextet pushes late-Romanticism to the extreme, Schoenberg on the brink of a new era of musical history.

PULSE AND MOTION

Voltahalle will be filled with unusual sounds: hear a forest of ticking metronomes in Ligeti’s Poéme Symphonique, bird-song from Sciarrino and the reverberations of Steve Reich’s ‘Different Trains’. Wolfe’s Retrieve continues the element of repetition in a stronger and industrial way, perfectly fitting the space. Virtuoso Dmitry Smirnov will lead Leclair’s A-minor Violin Concerto.

KEBYART

Kebyart is one of the most exciting ensembles on the music scene. In this programme they reimagine four centuries of music: Bach’s Sonatina, Mendelssohn’s string quartet Op.13 No.2, Rameau’s Suite in E minor and Ravel’s ‘Pavane’ are all personal arrangements, bringing this music into a fresh light. The ensemble will perform the Swiss premiere of Dani López Pradas’s ‘Echoing Rhapsodies’, a homage to George Gershwin. Kebyart’s performances are full of innovation and colour, join them to celebrate the end of Volta Kammermusikfest 2025!

Artists

2025

About us

Origin

Home

Audience

Community

Vision

Our Story

Origin

The word volta carries different layers of meaning. 

In music, it signals a turn, a return. In poetry, it marks a rhetorical shift and the transformation of a thought or feeling. Volta evokes a sense of renewal and change, a shift in the way we listen and see.

Home

The Voltahalle also embodies this concept. Once a coal storage centre, it has transformed into a striking and unusual space that invites creativity and culture. What better place to discover music anew?

Audience

What unites us at VOLTA Kammermusikfest is a passion for chamber music and the importance of meaningful connections, both between musicians and with our audiences.

Community

We bring together a community of world-class artists, full of friendship and history, all with strong ties to Basel and its cultural life. The depth of these relationships can be felt in the music-making.

Vision

A central part of our mission is to keep classical music alive and relevant for younger generations while warmly welcoming audiences of every age. Our programmes celebrate the great masterpieces of the chamber music tradition and place them alongside works by today’s composers, presenting the repertoire in a way that feels fresh, innovative, and connected to our time.

Our Story

VOLTA Kammermusikfest was founded in 2024 by violinist Ayla Sahin and violist Alinka Rowe, whose musical partnership began when they first played chamber music together at the age of twelve. What started as a childhood collaboration has grown into a lifelong artistic dialogue and a shared love for chamber music, which is the heartbeat of this festival. In 2025, they are joined by double bassist Hans Greve, whose experience as a concert curator with organisations such as Heidelberger Frühling and Arte Frizzante enriches and broadens the vision that drives VOLTA.

More than a festival, VOLTA is a meeting place and a space where chamber music can be experienced in its most intimate, inspiring, and transformative form.

Sponsors & Partners

We are deeply grateful to the generous supporters who make VOLTA Kammermusikfest possible.

Their commitment to culture and the arts allows us to present world-class chamber music, support our musicians fairly, and share inspiring programmes with a wide and diverse audience.

Our heartfelt thanks go to: