Dear former participants and the Faculty of the Saarburg Festival,
Dear all those who were interested, but did not make it to be part of our program,
It is with very heavy heart that I am writing this farewell note to all of you.
Saarburg International Music Festival and School was incipated in 2010 with the unparalleled enthusiasm and whole-hearted support of Saarburg Mayor, Jurgen Dixius.
Mayor Dixius remained our guardian-angel through 2025, when he decided to leave this important and extremely challenging leadership position.
Over 14 full seasons (we were forced to cancel the event for two summers due to Covid) we were able to offer a truly unique and enriching experience to many hundreds of young musicians and an outstanding faculty from many corners of the world. The range of the enrichment is extremely broad both, musically/culturally as well as personal/human.
The selected list of testimonials posted on Festival’s website provide just a glimpse into nature and level of impact participation in our program had upon our participants.
Sadly and very unfortunately, the newly elected city leadership (Mayor and his council), has decided to discontinue any support for this truly invaluable event for the city’s and region’s music lovers, as well as for innumerable potential young aspiring musicians and international faculty.
Being eternally and profoundly grateful to the Mayor Dixius and our many partners, supporters and loyal and appreciative music lovers in Saarburg, Kell am See and Orscholz, I am filled with enormous sense of fulfillment of the mission I envisioned for our program and was able to achieve with genuine trust and support of all of you.
My sincerest thanks go to hundreds of our remarkable faculty, who have chosen Saarburg for themselves and their students to be part of our musical family and shared abundantly their talent, time, experience and love with the students, helping them to unfold in turn their individual talent, as well as to my assistants, who helped me to shape and implement the program every summer.
The list would not be complete without a very special THANK YOU to Mayor Dixius and two remarkable persons who played the crucial role and dedicated countless hours, days, weeks and months by sharing and helping me to realize and implement my vision over many years of selfless, competent and hard work along my side. Their contribution towards Festival’s success can be hardly overstated.
It is Dr. Andrew Campbell, Professor from the Arizona State University, who has been my right hand in all musical/artistic aspects and an absolute wizard in managing incredibly complex and multiple daily tasks.
And our long standing Operation manager, Sarah Wolter, a young, multilingual, highly intelligent and fearless lady, who was courageous enough to take up this very challenging job at a very young age and with no previous experience and mastering admirably myriads of small but very important task with ease.
At this point I prefer to bid Farewell rather than saying Goodbye to all of you.
Whatever the future may hold for each one of us, I hope Saarburg will remain in our minds and hearts as something incredibly special, rewarding and memorable.
With Warm regards and gratitude,
Semyon Rozin August 17, 2026
Artistic Director
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Selective list of Former distinguished faculty:
Eleonore Schoenfeld (violin), Zvi Zeitlin (violin), James Buswell (violin), Thomas Christian (violin), Zakhar Bron (violin), John Perry (piano), Gabriel Chodos (piano), Boaz Sharon (piano), Bradley Garner (flute), Humbert Lucarelli (oboe), Caroline Hartig (clarinet), Guy Yehuda (clarinet), David Jolley (horn)
