Robert Ward Director
Concerto*Fest*Austria ©2012
All rights reserved
Concerto*Fest*Austria welcomes pianists, string and wind soloists, and singers of all ages to Austria for a very special experience that you will never forget! Each of you will have the opportunity, unique among Europe's summer music festivals, to study and perform concerto masterpieces of the Classical period with a professional Viennese orchestra in historic settings much as the composers themselves experienced.
Austria! Vienna! Salzburg! These names are synonymous with classical music and conjure up images unlike anywhere else in the world. Not surprisingly, musical study in this environment, steeped in the tradition and culture of the great masters, brings a level of inspiration and insight unequaled. In fact, we've frequently heard the phrase"life-altering experience" as our participants depart.
The setting is incomparable. Amid high ridges crested by ruins of medieval castles in Austria's Waldviertel, the 12th-century abbey Stift Altenburg, renowned for one of the most beautiful baroque libraries in all Europe, will host our festival. Picture yourself engaged in sparkling interplay with an orchestra. Your dream can be reality.
No doubt you have already experienced that, at most of the competitions and festivals, only the winner gets to play with orchestra, often after only a couple of brief rehearsals. Concerto*Fest*Austria has designed a program to fill that unfortunate gap in a young artist's training. Through a series of rehearsals with a Vienna International Orchestra, all our concerto soloists will learn how to perform with orchestra and through this process develop an authentic interpretation which brings out the character of these extraordinary works.
Stift Altenburg