Contributors 2021

Hans Köhl

Hans Kohl has been responsible for Salzburg Advent Singing since the turn of the millennium. He is also the Managing Director and Chairman of Salzburger Heimatwerk eG, the event organiser, and brings together all the threads of this successful cultural event.

Every year, he creates new scenic-musical works, writes the books, takes care of the folk music component and, in close cooperation with the respective composers, develops new complete shows. The driving forces behind his successful work are tireless efforts for new ways of thinking and creative implementations while incorporating valuable traditions.

Aware of his responsibility to the traditional heritage, this Salzburg resident, who hails from the Enns Valley in Styria, sets the greatest possible artistic standards for himself and for all contributors. Under his leadership, the Salzburg Advent Singing surprises with ever new experiences around Advent and on the birth of Christ.

Herbert Böck

Herbert Böck’s first musical training was as a Viennese singer boy, a soprano soloist. He then studied at the Vienna University of Music in conducting, oboe, tone set and music education. Between 1985-1989 he was a solo oboist at the RSO Vienna. From 1989 to 1998, he was Artistic director of the Vienna Sing Academy and conductor at the Vienna Concert Hall.

He is principal conductor of the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra, artistic director of the Concentus Vocalis, and since 1995 professor of choir and ensemble and conductor at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. In 2007, he was a founder of the Chamber Choir of the Mozarteum University.

He has also cooperated with, among others, the Vienna Philharmonic Wind Ensemble, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Lower Austrian Tonkünstler Orchestra, Orchestra Santa Cecilia die Roma, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Slovenian Philharmonic Ljubljana, Budapest Radio Orchestra, Latvian Symphony Orchestra, RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin, Berlin Radio Choir, MDR Choir Leipzig, and WDR Choir Cologne. He has also performed numerous concert tours throughout Europe, Russia, Israel and the USA.

Since 2001, Herbert Böck has been a congenial conductor for the Salzburg Advent Singing, who values and respects folk music as a basis, and for whom working with choirs is a much-loved task.

Daniela Meschtscherjakov

Daniela Meschtscherjakov grew up in Frankfurt, graduated from high school there and came to Salzburg in 2000 to complete her acting training at the Schauspielhaus Salzburg. From 2000 to 2008, she worked as an actress at the Schauspielhaus Salzburg and since the beginning of 2009 she has been working as a freelance actress and director in the Salzburg area. She does theatre education for the Schauspielhaus Salzburg and is also the director of the local youth club.

Her acting roles include “Tonight Lola Blau” by Georg Kreisler and “Moonlight Tariff” by Ildiko von Khürthy, as well as Beatrice in “Much Ado About Nothing” by William Shakespeare. Her directing works include “Das Hausgeisterhaus” by Peter Blaikner and “Krabat” by Otfried Preussler at the Schauspielhaus Salzburg, as well as “Everyman” by Hugo von Hofmannsthal at the Hohensalzburg Fortress.

In 2019, she made a very successful debut as an acting director in the Large Festspielhaus at the Salzburg Advent Singing.

www.daniela-meschtscherjakov.at

Hellmut Hölzl

With his costumes, Hellmut Hölzl has given the Salzburg Advent Festival its unmistakable “corporate design” for many years. The former long-term director of the men’s tailoring workshop at the Salzburg Festival is a master of perfection. Each production requires new costumes, conforming to the current staging concept and, most importantly, emphasising the personality of the actor or actress in question.

The costumes are tailored to the characters of the actors, shepherds’ children and singers, and produced by hand. “This task at the Salzburg Advent Festival is particularly intense, but also interesting, and a great challenge for a classical costume designer,” says Hellmut Hölzl.

Dietmar Solt

Stage design projections
Born in Salzburg, he studied stage and costume design with Heinz Bruno Gallee at the Mozarteum University. He has been both an assistant and thereafter an independent stage and costume designer at the opera houses in New York, San Francisco, London, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Berlin and others, regionally at the Donau Festival, Art Concerts, Wagner Festivals Wels, Opera Festival Jennersdorf and more.

Since 2001, he has been developing the stages for the Salzburg Advent Singing in the Large Festspielhaus. In doing so, he incorporates his international experience into the implementation of the new requirements. Fascinating spaces and venues are thereby created with the help of his highly motivated team. Here, it is important to match the immensely wide but not very deep space in front of the “Iron Curtain” of the Festspielhaus to the scenes and to accompany them in a supportive and seemingly imperceptible way. Due to the annual staging of the Salzburg Advent Singing, a new stage interpretation is always in demand.

https://www.facebook.com/dietmar.solt

Stefan Sperr

Stefan Sperr is the often in the background figure who delivers important strategic and financial considerations for the Salzburg Advent Singing. As Deputy Chairman and board member of the Salzburger Heimatwerk, Stefan Sperr is also responsible for accounting and controlling. And only a solid economic base enables the artistic success of the Salzburg Advent Singing.

So far, a tight financial approach has always succeeded in finding a way without public subsidies. However, this feat is only possible due to the multiple idealised commitments of the participants and the large number of visitors to this traditional event. A recent study by the Salzburg Chamber of Commerce shows that the Salzburg economy generates an additional gross national product of more than 10 million Euros thanks to the Salzburg Advent Singing.

Simone Vierlinger (Sopran) 

Simone Vierlinger studied at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg and completed her master’s degree in 2015 with a unanimous distinction. She is a soloist of the Cathedral Music and Collegiate Music of St. Peter in Salzburg. Concert tours took her to Belgium, Italy, Slovenia, France and Germany with various ensembles and programs. Her opera debut was in 2012 at the summer festival “Teatro Barocco”.
She also gained further stage experience during regular performances at the Large Festspielhaus in Salzburg, where she has been on stage since 2008, first as an angel and subsequently since 2009 and again this year as “Maria” in the Salzburg Advent Singing.

www.simonevierlinger.com

www.facebook.com/aedonia

Bernhard Teufl

Bernhard Teufl had lessons in clarinet and singing at the Musikum Salzburg for many years and completed both subjects with distinction. He studied genetics and theology at the University of Salzburg as well as studying singing at the Mozarteum University, was a member of the Salzburg Bach Choir and participated in opera performances and concerts of the Salzburg Festival, Mozart Week and the Easter Festival, and is currently also a soloist at Classic Art Vienna. He is active in folk music with his dance music group “Bleamibrocker”.
Since 2007, he has been impressively singing and playing the role of “Josef” in the Salzburg Advent Singing and was rewarded with thunderous applause in 2019 on his 200th anniversary solo performance at the Large Festspielhaus in Salzburg.

www.facebook.com/bernhard.teufl.79

Elisabeth Eder

Elisabeth Eder, singer and harpist, was born in Salzburg and comes from the musical family Eder-Hutter from the Grossarl Valley. She enjoyed her artistic, pedagogical and music physiological studies at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (all seven degrees with distinction).

Elisabeth proves her versatility with various orchestras, in the Salzburg Bach Choir, with chamber music and as a soloist on a national and international level. Highlights of her artistic career are 1st prizes at international and national competitions on the harp, concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle, scholarships and awards at the respective universities and numerous concert tours to the major concert and opera houses in Europe and towards the end of the year to China. Since 2018, she has had the role of the angel as a solo soprano at the Salzburg Advent Singing at the Large Festspielhaus.

www.elisabeth-eder.at

Martina Gmeinder

The mezzo-soprano Martina Gmeinder touches people deeply with her warm, sonorous, balanced timbre. She is convinced that even a few tones can make the world a little brighter. Her interpretations are characterised by great musicality and charisma, and the audience is always inspired by her.
Martina Gmeinder has a wide repertoire in the oratorical field. Her passion is piano songs of the 19th to 21st century, including world premieres. Her artistic career has taken her from Europe to Japan. Since 2018, Martina Gmeinder has been performing as a soloist in the role of Elisabeth in the Salzburg Advent Singing.

http://martinagmeinder.at/

Monika Lugner

Edwin Hochmuth

Growing up in the Ziller Valley in Tyrol, he graduated from the Sachers Acting School in Innsbruck in 2006. Afterwards, he had numerous engagements in Tyrol, South Tyrol and Switzerland. Important stations were the Kellertheater Innsbruck, the Tiroler Volksschauspiele in Telfs, the Tiroler State Theatre and the Theatre in the Effingerstraße in Bern. Edwin has also been in front of the camera several times, including on K2 der Schicksalsberg, The Program, Rise up and Dance as well as Zersplitterte Nacht.

Edwin Hochmuth is also a qualified social worker. His passion, however, is clearly in the theatre and on the stage. In the summer of 2019, he trod the boards of the Telfser Folk Plays, which means the world to him. He has been at the Salzburg Advent Singing with some breaks since 2012 and has become the darling of the shepherd's children in recent years, which is why he is again in close correlation with the children as Rabbi Jakob this year. Edwin describes himself as an all-rounder and is a likeable team player.

http://www.edwin-hochmuth.at/

Carolin Altenberger (harmonica)
Julia Burkali (violin)
Leonard Burkali (bassoon)
Johannes Doppler (trombone, dulcimer)
Philip Eder (trombone)
Vinzent Fernsebner (double bass)
Anna Lechner (flute)
Niklas Mischkulnig (violin)
Felix Neureiter (clarinet)
Magdalena Neureiter (flute)
Elisa Oberkofler (harp)
Sarah Oberkofler (horn)
Magdalena Öschlberger (flute)
Johanna Renzl (violin)
Lorena Resch (alto saxophone)
Sebastian Scheibner (flugelhorn)
Rebekka Singer (clarinet)
Fabian Stockinger (guitar)
Marie Juliane Stöger (clarinet)

left to right
Gudrun Köhl-Korbuly
Simon Haitzmann
Edwin Hochmuth (Rabbi Jakob)
Markus Helminger

from left to right:
Lisa Maria Stadler (mezzo-soprano)
Lead g: Johanna Dumfart (sopran; Arrangements)
Jana Oberndorfer (Alt)
Ulrich Witkowski (Tenor)
Josef Söllinger (Bass)
Reinhard Gusenbauer (Bariton)

http://johanna-dumfart.at/muehlviertlerdreier

80 singers

Lead
Burgi Vötterl

Chairwoman
Berta Wagner

www.salzburgervolksliedchor.at

left to right
Reinhold Schmid (guitar, arrangements)
Emma Weixelbraun (harp), pictured Heidi Grundner
Kerstin Schmid-Pleschonig (dulcimer)
Konstantin Schrempf (organ)
Johannes Rohrer (zither)
Franz Obermair (double bass)

left to right:
Lead: Maria Dengg (Violin)
Andrea Brucker (Viola)
Timea Laczkò-Tòth (Cello)
Burgi Vötterl (Violin)
Franz Obermair (double bass)
Not pictured: Gundl Aggermann (flute)

left to right:
Thomas Höger (Trombone)
Christian Sperl (Horn)
Lead: Horst Hofer (Trumpet, Flugelhor)
Zoran Curovic (Trumpet, Flugelhorn)
Hans Gerl (Horn)
Erwin Wendl (Trombone)

left to right:
Anton Gmachl (clarinet)
Gerti Hollweger (Bassoon)
Lead: Gottfried Linsinger (Oboe, English horn)
Gundl Aggermann (flute)