BISQC 2025 Tickets & Packages

Campus Legend: PDC = Professional Development Centre; JBT = Jenny Belzberg Theatre; KCCI = Kinnear Centre for Creativity and Innovation

Sunday, August 24

3:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. | PDC (Lobby) | BISQC package pick-ups for full week guests (on-site and passport)
4:00 p.m. | PDC (Front Desk) | Check-in begins for on-site audience
7:30 p.m. | KCCI (Cenovus Great Hall) | BISQC Package Audience Welcome Event: Includes a short performance by Youth Chamber Music Program participants, greetings from Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity President & CEO Chris Lorway and BISQC Director Barry Shiffman, and short discussion between cellist, educator, and Montréal Chamber Music Festival Director Denis Brott and Barry Shiffman on what the jury are listening for and how audience can evaluate performances for their own listening experience. 
 

Monday, August 25

Competition Round 1: 21^st Century Haydn 

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | KCCI (Cenovus Great Hall) | BISQC Package Audience Event: Training Young Quartets – a conversation with BISQC Director Barry, Mentor-in-Residence Mark Steinberg, and jury member Eckart Runge.
2:00  p.m. | JBT | Concert 1
7:30 p.m. | JBT | Concert 2
 

Tuesday, August 26

Competition Round 1: 21^st Century Haydn (cont'd)

9:00 – 10:00 a.m. | KCCI, Cenovus Great Hall | BISQC Package Audience Event: Inclusivity Practices - violinist, educator, and advocate Adrian Anantawan shares lessons learned of how to create inclusivity at the intersection of music performance, education, and disability.
10:30 a.m. | JBT | Concert 3
2:00 p.m. | JBT | Concert 4
3:00 – 4:30 p.m. | KCCI, Cenovus Great Hall | Music Critics Association of North America (MCANA) Panel - Chamber music opportunities explode: the extraordinary growth in string quartets with BISQC Director Barry Shiffman and Montréal Chamber Music Festival Director Denis Brott.
7:30 p.m. | JBT | Concert 5
 

Wednesday, August 27

Competition Round 2: Romantic

Free morning to explore (Learn more about pre-booked excursions and self-guided adventures)
2:00 p.m. | JBT | Concert 6
4:30 p.m. | JBT | BISQC Package Audience Event: Youth Chamber Music Program open masterclass with cellist and juror Eckart Runge. 
7:30 p.m. | JBT | Concert 7
 

Thursday, August 28

Competition Round 2: Romantic (cont'd)

10:00 a.m. | JBT | Concert 8
Free afternoon to explore (Learn more about pre-booked excursions and self-guided adventures)
4:00 – 5:30 p.m. | KCCI, Cenovus Great Hall | BISQC Package Audience Event: Music Critics Association of North American (MCANA) – Managing expectations: Dealing with pressures and opportunities with a fast-tracked career launch with Mentor-in-Residence Mark Steinberg (Brentano Quartet) and BISQC Juror Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt (Dover Quartet).
8:00 p.m. | JBT | Alumni Concert featuring previous BISQC winner the Isidore String Quartet, and friends.
 

Friday, August 29

Competition Round 3: Kati Agócs World Premiere

9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. | JBT | Director Barry Shiffman in discussion with composer Kati Agócs on her new work Rapprochement (all concert ticket holders welcome)
10:00 a.m. | JBT | Concert 9: All competitors perform Rapprochement
New for 2025: Optional add-on event | Viennese Waltz Night with dancing, desserts, and wine for ticketed guests. Includes afternoon dance lesson. ($189 CAD, limited ticket availability; book through the BISQC office)
Free afternoon and evening for guests not attending the Viennese Waltz Night (Learn more about pre-booked excursions and self-guided adventures)
 

Saturday, August 30

Competition Round 4: Beethoven/Schubert + 20^th Century 

10:00 a.m. | JBT | Concert 10
2:00 p.m. | JBT | Concert 11
7:30 p.m. | JBT | Concert 12

Press release late evening announcing the three finalist quartets.   
 

Sunday, August 31

Competition Round 5: Finals

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. | KCCI, Cenovus Great Hall | BISQC Package Audience Event: Lecture with Denis Brott on Gregor Piatigorsky
2:00 p.m. | JBT | FINALS: The three finalist quartets present programming of their choice
7:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. | JBT | Awards Ceremony

With various package options and seat tiers to choose from, you can find your musical bliss at the 15^th BISQC. 

On-Site Packages

Stay on-site in the comfort of Banff Centre’s hotels with full amenities, meals in our award-winning Vistas Dining Room, reserved seating to concerts, and built-in savings over individual item pricing. Hotels are centrally located on campus, surrounded by forest and mountain views making for a relaxing and rejuvenating stay as well as easy access between venues. 
 

Full Week Packages

(Sunday, August 24 – Monday, September 1, 2025)

Full week packages include:

• Accommodation in one of Banff Centre’s hotels for the full week (8 nights)
• Meals in Vistas Dining Room, including arrival day dinner and departure day breakfast*
• Same reserved seat for all concerts throughout your package stay
• Access to all lectures and youth quartets masterclass
• Welcome reception
• Commemorative competition program booklet  
• Use of on-site extensive fitness, aquatic, and recreation facilities

Tier A Seating:
Solo       $4,338.39
Duo       $6,390.92

Tier B Seating:
Solo       $4,043.16
Duo       $5,800.47

Weekend Packages

(Thursday, August 28 – Monday, September 1, 2025)

Weekend packages include:

• Accommodation in one of Banff Centre’s hotels for the weekend (4 nights)
• Meals in Vistas Dining Room, including arrival day dinner and departure day breakfast*
• Same reserved seat for all concerts throughout your package stay
• Access to all lectures
• Commemorative competition program booklet  
• Use of on-site extensive fitness, aquatic, and recreation facilities

Tier A Seating:
Solo       $2,554.85
Duo       $3,966.76

Tier B Seating:
Solo       $2,367.11
Duo       $3,591.28

Passport Packages

Tailored to our audiences who do not require accommodation or meals but still want to experience it all, a passport package includes reserved seating to all concerts and access to lectures with built-in savings over individual ticket pricing. 

Passport packages include:

• Same reserved seat for all concerts throughout the event from Monday, August 25 to Sunday, August 31, 2025
• Access to all lectures and youth quartets masterclass
• Welcome reception
• Commemorative competition program booklet
   

Tier A Seating:
$951.55

Tier B Seating:
$659.48

PLEASE NOTE: All package prices are in Canadian Dollars and inclusive of all taxes and fees. Extras such as Viennese Waltz Night or merchandise are not included in packages but will be available as optional add-on purchases during the on-line booking process. Duo package prices are for shared accommodation, plus the meals and tickets for two. Refund of 75% prior to July 1, and 50% prior to August 1. 

* Full-week packages do not include lunch on Wednesday, August 27 so you can enjoy time exploring the area 

The splendor of Austria is coming to BISQC with a special evening of dancing, live music, desserts, and wine from the region on Friday, August 29.

Viennese Waltz Night starts with an afternoon group dance lesson so you can brush up on your steps before the gala. Change into your festive dress and enter our Austrian Palace later that evening for an enchanting experience complete with live music, dancing, regional wine and desserts.  

Tickets: $189 CAD. Limited ticket availability. Contact the BISQC office to book. 

We are thrilled to share that Adi Braun will be joining us as host for Viennese Waltz Night. 

Adi Braun has a long list of cabaret, concert and theatre successes to her credit. She has performed in every major jazz and concert venue in Toronto, has toured Canada, the United States, and Europe. In 2023 Adi released her sixth CD recording “Night and Day - The Cole Porter Songbook” – which follows her previously celebrated recordings “Moderne Frau – Modern Woman” (2017), a tribute to the music of Weimar Cabaret, “Canadian Scenes I” (2010), Live at the Metropolitan Room (2007), The Rules of the Game (2006), and Delishious (2003). 

Born in Toronto, Adi Braun grew up in Europe surrounded by music and musicians. Her parents were opera singers. Her father, Victor Braun, was one of Canada’s leading baritones. Her first instrument was piano, which she began studying at the age of six. With no formal voice lessons, she made her first pop/jazz recording at age 19. 

Following family tradition, Adi trained classically at the Royal Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music. She began her singing career as a classical recitalist, a soloist with orchestra, and on-stage in operas and operettas alongside her brother, baritone Russell Braun. 

Adi started “singing sideways” in the late ‘90's and returned to the music she loved, which she calls “cabarazz”, drawing on aspects from both cabaret and jazz. After winning a local competition in 2001, she was catapulted to centre-stage as one of Canada’s leading jazz vocalists. In 2007, Adi was nominated as “Best Major Jazz Vocalist of the Year” by the Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs (MAC). 

Her sophisticated style and subtle delivery evokes such vocal greats as Sarah Vaughan, Lotte Lenya, Judy Garland and Rosemary Clooney. Elizabeth Ahlfors of New York’s Cabaret Scenes describes Adi as "A tad Dinah Washington, a hint of Lena Horne, the enveloping warmth of Doris Day, all gift-wrapped up in a unique sound that is singular Adi Braun!" Adi’s repertoire ranges from the Great American songbook, to European cabaret, to contemporary songs by Canada legend’s Shirley Eikhard and Gordon Lightfoot as well as her own originals. Whether she is singing in English, French, Spanish or German, Adi Braun is “a power-frau who gives jazz standards a unique touch, telling stories that are miniature life moments” (Rheinische Post, Düsseldorf, Germany). 

In addition to her performing, Adi has been a sought-after German Diction coach for the Canadian Opera Company and the Glenn Gould School at Royal Conservatory of Music. She has also co-hosted “Classical Mornings” on the New Classical FM, and frequently speaks on topics related to Weimar Cabaret.

All concerts will be held in the Jenny Belzberg Theatre. 

Nestled in Canada’s first national park in the heart of the spectacular Rocky Mountains, Banff attracts some four-million visitors a year. With towering peaks and clear alpine lakes and streams, breath-taking scenery awaits at every turn. Be inspired and rejuvenated in this UNESCO World Heritage site, without missing any of the music. 

You can join us for pre-planned excursions (such as a bus tour to the Bankhead and Cave & Basin historic sites, or a chairlift ride to take in the panoramic views of Banff from Mount Norquay) or embark on your own adventures. Either way, we hope you take advantage of easy access to endless outdoor activities in Banff National Park. 

View 2025 Audience Excursions.