Salzburg Advent Singing 2022
SNOW IN BETHLEHEM
Brilliant success gives energy boost for next year!
With an occupancy rate of over 96%, meaning that all performances were practically sold out, the Salzburg Advent Singing in the Grosses Festspielhaus was able to continue its unique success story before Corona this year with “Schnee in Bethlehem!”. “With 35,000 visitors from 21 European countries, mainly from German-speaking countries, and 17 performances in a row, our Salzburg Advent Singing is the largest cultural event in the Grosses Festspielhaus every year and certainly the most important and sought-after event of this genre in the entire German-speaking world,” says Hans Köhl, General Director.
Playlist
Review in pictures
That was the Salzburg Advent Singing 2022!
“It was simply
heart-warming and a
feast for the ears✨now it can be
Christmas.”
Christine Huber, visitor 2022
“Uns hat die Aufführung auch sehr beeindruckt und es war wieder einmal eine wunderschöne Einstimmung auf Weihnachten. Vielen Dank!”
Ingrid Göldner, Besucherin 2022
Advent in picture & sound
DVD “Schnee in Bethlehem”
The complete recording of this fabulously beautiful Salzburg Advent Singing also documents the 1000th performance in the 75-year history of this unique traditional event.
Thoughts on the Salzburg Advent Singing 2024
This “Salzburg Advent Singing” will remind us of blissful childhood evenings with a fairytale story. After the musical prologue, it begins with “Once upon a time…” and is an ancient Advent story passed down orally from generation to generation, which the narrator takes us into in memory of her grandmother. She has heard this story countless times at bedtime. Each time it sounded a little different and was enriched with new, imaginative details from Grandma’s mind. One of the highlights was always that on Christmas Eve, in addition to the miracle of the birth in Bethlehem, snow fell from the sky once again after a long, long time. Everything froze in the freezing cold. Only a radiant white snow rose heralded new hope, new life. Since those days, it has also been known as the Christmas rose.
This is just a very small insight into a newly structured, eventful Advent story that has once again become a harmonious whole with lots of music and singing. I can already say this much: with all our great singers, musicians, performers and shepherd children, it will once again be a heart-warming Advent song that, if we allow it, will touch our innermost being with the power of silence and the mystery of divine love.
Work 2022
Contributor
Leading Team
Hans Köhl
has been the main director of the Salzburg Advent Festival since the turn of the millennium. He, who is also managing director of the event organizer “Kulturwerk Salzburg”, is where all the threads of this successful cultural event come together.
Every year, he conceives new scenic-musical complete works, writes the books, takes care of the folk music components and develops new complete works in close cooperation with the respective composer. Tireless striving for new approaches and creative implementations incorporating valuable traditions are the driving forces behind his successful work.
Aware of his responsible, traditional heritage, the Salzburg native from the Styrian Enns Valley sets the highest possible artistic standards for himself and all those involved. Under his leadership, the Salzburg Advent Singing always surprises with new experiences of the Advent event surrounding the birth of Christ.
Shane Woodborne
Studied cello and piano in Cape Town, South Africa and at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. During his studies, he increasingly devoted himself to composition. He was commissioned to write works for the Beethoven-Gesellschaft Bremen, the Zeitfluss-Festival Salzburg, Jeunesse and the Lindesnes Chamber Music Festival Norway, among others. These include works for choir and orchestra as well as song cycles, solo works and chamber music. The musician and composer has been a member of the Camerata Salzburg since 1992.
Shane Woodborne has composed numerous musical works for the Salzburg Advent Singing „Da hat vor dem Stall der Äpfibam bliaht“ (1999 und 2007), „Siehe ich bin des Herren Magd“ (2002), „Maria“ (2009), „Sehnsucht“ (2013), „Schnee in Bethlehem!“ (2015), „Der blinde Hirte“ (2017), „Fürchte dich nicht!“ (2020/2021) und die Neufassung von „Schnee in Bethlehem!“ (2022)
Herbert Böck
First musical training as a Viennese choirboy – soprano soloist. Studied conducting, oboe, composition and music education at the Vienna University of Music. 1985-1989 solo oboist with the Vienna RSO. 1989-1998 artistic director of the Vienna Singakademie with conducting duties at the Vienna Konzerthaus.
Chief conductor of the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra, artistic director of the Concentus Vocalis, since 1995 professor of choral and ensemble conducting at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. Founded the Mozarteum University Chamber Choir in 2007.
Collaborations with 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 Orchestra Ljubljana, Radio Orchestra Budapest, Symphony Orchestra Latvia, RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin, Berlin Radio Choir, MDR Choir Leipzig, WDR Choir Cologne, among others. Numerous concert tours throughout Europe, to Russia, Israel and the USA.
Herbert Böck has been a congenial conductor for the Salzburg Advent Singing since 2001, who appreciates and respects folk music as a basis and for whom working with choirs is a much-loved task.
Gerda Gratzer
Gerda Gratzer is celebrating her debut as an actor-director at the Salzburg Advent Festival this year. The sensitive artist grew up in Carinthia and studied musicology, ethnology, cultural management and acting in Graz and Salzburg.
She directed the International Music Weeks in Millstatt and was managing director of the Prima la Musica youth music competition in Salzburg. Finally, she devoted herself entirely to the theater and founded the Theater Panoptikum and the Theater der Freien Elemente, has appeared in 30 productions as an actress and has directed 25 plays to date.
Recently, the play developments “Geht’s noch?” and “Komm, süßer Erfolg!” as well as the productions “Drei Mal Leben” by Yasmina Reza, “Der thermale Widerstand” by Ferdinand Schmalz and “Glück” by Kateřina Černá were staged at ARGEkultur Salzburg. This year, she directed the crime comedy “Acht Frauen” at the Lungauer Theater Mokrit, which was a resounding success. Gerda Gratzer is also a systemic therapist with her own practice.
Hellmut Hölzl
has been giving the Salzburg Advent Festival an unmistakable corporate design with his costume designs for many years. As the former head of the men’s tailoring department at the Salzburg Festival for many years, he is a master of perfection. Each production requires new costumes that correspond to the current directorial concept and, above all, support the personality of the performers.
The costumes are precisely tailored to the characters of the respective actors, shepherd children and singers and are handmade. “This task at the Salzburg Advent Singing is particularly intensive but also interesting and a great challenge for a classical costume designer,” says Hellmut Hölzl.
Dietmar Solt
Born in Salzburg, he studied stage and costume design at the Mozarteum University under Heinz Bruno Gallee. Assistant and subsequently independent stage and costume designer at the opera houses of New York, San Francisco; London, Buenos Aires, Cape Town, Berlin and others, regionally at the Danube Festival, Art Concerts, Wagner Festivals Wels, Opera Festival Jennersdorf and others.
Since 2001, he has been developing the stage sets for the Salzburg Advent Festival in the Great Festival Hall. He incorporates his international experience into the realization of the new requirements. With the help of his highly motivated team, fascinating spaces and venues are created. The immensely wide but not very deep space in front of the “Iron Curtain” of the Festspielhaus has to be adapted to the scenes and accompanied in a supportive and seemingly imperceptible way. Due to the new productions of the Salzburg Advent Singing every year, a new stage interpretation is always required.
Roles and their actors
Eva Maria Schinwald
celebrated her stage debut in 2013 with the leading role in the contemporary opera “Die Kavalleristin” by Adriaan de Wit. In 2014, she was engaged for the first time in the Salzburg Advent Singing “Der Sterngucker” at the Great Festival Hall/Salzburg as “Maria”. In 2017, she thrilled audiences in the work “The Blind Shepherd” as a soprano in the role of the angel. In 2021, Eva Maria Schinwald enchanted audiences as an actress and soloist in the role of “Maria” in the anniversary Advent Singing (without an audience due to coronavirus) and will be back as “Maria” in the work “Schnee in Bethlehem” in 2022. Concert tours have taken the lyric soprano to Germany, the Hugo Wolf Festival in Slovenia and London, where she sang J.S. Bach’s St. John Passion with the Salzburg Bach Society and the Baroque Orchestra of the Royal School of Music. She has also appeared in numerous staged productions at the Salzburg State Theater and the Salzburg Festival.
Eva Schinwald completed her master’s degree in singing at the Mozarteum Salzburg with distinction. She completed international masterclasses with Horiana Branisteanu, Edda Moser, Helena Lazarska, Margreet Honig, Gerhard Kahry and Wolfgang Holzmair.
Bernhard Teufl (Tenor)
received lessons in clarinet and singing at the Musikum Salzburg for many years and graduated with honors in both subjects. He studied genetics and theology at the University of Salzburg and singing at the Mozarteum University, was a member of the Salzburg Bach Choir and has already taken part in many opera performances and concerts at the Salzburg Festival, the Mozart Week and the Easter Festival. He has also been a regular soloist at concerts and masses in many churches in Salzburg and beyond.
Since 2007, Bernhard Teufl has sung and performed the impressive role of “Josef” at the Salzburg Advent Singing Festival and was rewarded with thunderous applause at his 200th solo performance in the Great Festival Hall in Salzburg in 2019.
www.facebook.com/bernhard.teufl.79
Elisabeth Eder (Sopran)
Elisabeth Eder, soprano and harpist from Salzburg, has embodied the role of the angel as a soprano soloist since 2018. She enjoyed her artistic, pedagogical, scientific and musicophysiological training (concert subject, IGP studies, teaching degree, music physiology, university didactics, PhD studies) at the Mozarteum University Salzburg, the Paris Lodron University Salzburg, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (all eight degrees or academic degrees with distinction as well as two university courses). She completed her vocal studies with Norbert Prasser and John Thomasson.
She demonstrates her versatility as a soloist, chamber musician and with various orchestras and choirs at national and international level. Highlights of her artistic career include 1st prizes at international and national competitions on the harp, concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle, an invitation to Edinburgh in 2020 to represent Austria as a singer at the Young Professionals’ Program as part of the Eurovox Congress, scholarships and awards at the respective universities, the upcoming doctorate Sub Auspiciis as well as the presentation of the Award of Excellence in December 2022 for the best dissertations in Austria and numerous concert tours to major concert halls in Europe (including the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Barbican Hall London, Verona Opera, Milan, etc.). Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Barbican Hall London, Verona Opera and Milan, St. Petersburg State Academic Capella and many more).
Elisabeth Eder teaches singing and pedagogical-scientific courses at the Mozarteum University Salzburg.
Website: www.elisabeth-eder.at
Martina Gmeinder (Mezzosopran)
Die Mezzo-soprano Martina Gmeinder touches people deeply with her warm, sonorous timbre, which is balanced in all registers. She is convinced that just a few notes can make the world a little brighter. Her interpretations are characterized by great musicality and charisma; the audience always has an inspiring effect on her.
Martina Gmeinder has a broad oratorio repertoire. Her passion is the piano song of the 19th to 21st centuries. This also includes first and world premieres.
Her artistic career has taken her from Europe to Japan. Martina Gmeinder has been a soloist in the role of Elisabeth at the Salzburg Advent Singing since 2018.
Edwin Hochmuth
He grew up in the Zillertal in Tyrol and graduated from the Sachers drama school in Innsbruck in 2006. He then had numerous engagements in Tyrol, South Tyrol and Switzerland. Important engagements include the Kellertheater Innsbruck, the Tiroler Volksschauspiele in Telfs, the Tiroler Landestheater and the Theater in der Effingerstraße in Bern. Edwin has also appeared in front of the camera several times, including in K2 der Schicksalsberg – Das Programm – Rise up and Dance and Zersplitterte Nacht.
Edwin Hochmuth is also a qualified social care worker. However, his passion clearly lies in theater and on stage. In the summer of 2019, he took to the stage at the Telfser Volksschauspielen. He has been part of the Salzburg Advent Singing since 2012, with interruptions, and has become a favorite of the shepherd children in recent years, which is why he is once again in close contact with the children this year as a shepherd hunter. Edwin describes himself as an all-rounder and is a likeable team player.
Julia Leckner (Erzählerin)
In Bad Tölz geboren
, grew up in Grafenau and graduated from high school in Passau, Julia Leckner (married Hertle) then moved to Salzburg to study music and dance studies and singing at the Mozarteum (she graduated with distinction in the latter). During her studies, she worked as an assistant at Prima la Musica, as a choir member of the Salzburg Bach Choir and was one of the founding members of the INFLUX – Dance, Theater and Performance association. She is also a member of various theater groups, including Theater der Freien Elemente and achetypen RIF. In addition, she has gained experience as an assistant director and choreographer as well as a workshop leader and has performed with accomplished artists and musicians as a singer, actress and narrator in Germany, Austria and Italy. She has been working as a personal assistant for a few years, has also completed her life and social counseling training and has been working as a ROTE NASEN Clowndoctor since 2022.
www.julia-leckner.at
Lena Bernhofer (flute), Lieserl
Julia Burkali (violin, oboe)
Leonard Burkali (bassoon)
Vinzent Fernsebner (contrabass)
Marlene Fuchsberger (dulcimer)
Luisa Adelina Kober (violin)
Anna Lechner (flute)
Mischkulnig Niklas (violin)
Magdalena Neureiter (violin)
Elisa Oberkofler (harp)
Paul Pühringer (klarinet)
Johanna Renzl (violin)
Sebastian Scheibner (trumbone), Peterl
Rebekka Singer (klarinet)
Philipp Stadler (harmonica)
Fabian Stockinger (guitar), David
Marie Juliane Stöger (klarinet)
v.l.n.r.: Markus Helminger, Gudrun Köhl-Korbuly, Hildegard Stofferin, Gerda Gratzer, Hans Köhl
Vocal ensembles
Der Salzburger Volksliedchor
has been an important pillar of the Salzburg Advent Singing since 1950. Generations of excellent singers have borne and continue to bear witness to the high vocal quality of this traditional ensemble.
The Dengg family is now the third generation of the Dengg family to lead the choir. Sepp Dengg since 1950, Harald Dengg since 1972 and his daughter Burgi Vötterl since 2001. The organizational leadership has been in the proven hands of Berta Wagner since 2007.
Under the Advent Singing direction of Herbert Böck (since 2001), this choir community of around 80 participants blossoms into a very special top form every year in the Great Festival Hall.
VOKALENSEMBLE HIGH C (Quartett)
For the first time this year, the High C vocal ensemble will be taking part in the Salzburg Advent Singing with a changing quartet line-up. The singers impress with their special sound spectrum ranging from cultivated Renaissance works to folk music and “crispy” pop arrangements.
Concert tours have taken the ensemble to South Africa, Germany, Italy, Finland, Croatia and Canada in recent years. At the largest choir competition in the world, the World Choir Games in Riga, the ensemble was able to impress in the Male Vocal Ensemble category and was named “WORLD CHOIR CHAMPION”. The ensemble was also awarded a gold medal (Musica Sacra acapella) and a silver medal (Folklore).
f.l.t.r.
Tobias Kremshuber (baritone)
Johannes Schmidhuber (tenor)
Valentin Stemeseder (baritone)
Bernhard Ainz (bariton)
Benedikt Gurtner (tenor)
Florian Schneider (bass)
Tobias Widhalm (bass)
www.facebook.com/hohes-C-Vokalensemble
We are delighted to be able to present the vocal ensemble CMM with Christina Standl (soprano), Maria Brunauer (alto) and Marlene Schuen (mezzo-soprano) for the first time at this year’s Salzburg Advent Singing.
Christina Standl, soprano
Christina Standl comes from Nußdorf am Haunsberg and is musically active mainly with her sisters, the “3mäderlhausgsang”. Apart from singing, she plays the flute in the traditional music band and the dulcimer and guitar in the family ensemble.
Marlene Schuen, mezzosoprano
Singer, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and producer. Born in the middle of the Ladin Dolomites, she went to Innsbruck and Munich to study and now lives in Munich again after a stay in Berlin. After international concert tours with various artists, including Hubert von Goisern, she founded her own band “Ganes”.
Maria Brunauer, alto
Having grown up with traditional Austrian folk music, the mezzo-soprano studied concert singing and vocal pedagogy at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich. Since graduating, she has worked as a freelance opera singer, teaches singing at the University of Augsburg and is a member of the Bavarian Radio Concert Choir.
Orchestra
v.l.n.r.
Johannes Rohrer (zither),
Kerstin Schmid-Pleschonig (dulcimer),
Magdalena Kufer (contrabass),
Christian Gelfert (orgelportativ),
Reinhold Schmid (guitat, arrangements)
Ingeborg Weber (harp)
f.l.t.r.:
Gundl Aggermann (flute),
Andrea Brucker (viola),
Timea Laczkò-Tòth (cello),
Lg: Maria Dengg (violin),
Burgi Vötterl (violin),
Magdalena Kufer (contrabass)
f.l. Hans Gerl, Christian Sperl, Thömas Höger, Erwin Wendl, Lg. Horst Hofer, Raphael Pouget
f.l.t.r.:
Lg: Gottfried Linsinger (oboe, cor anglais),
Gerti Hollweger (bassoon),
Anton Gmachl (klarinet)
Technology & equipment
Lg: Hubert Schwaiger;
Wolfgang Brunauer
Hans Köhl, Hubert Schwaiger, Gerda Gratzer
Lg: Edwin Pfanzagl-Cardone
Werner Heidrich
Lg: Helmut Schauer
Joinery Alfred Laserer, Gosau
Ticketservice & Administration
Das Ticketservice-Team
under the management of Gertraud Ainz does a great job every year. Always polite and courteous, they make every effort to fulfill the wishes of the 36,000 or so visitors to the Advent Festival each year. A recent visitor survey attests to the ticket service team’s very high satisfaction ratings!
f.l.t.r.: Elisavet Anagnostou, Regina Strübler, Gertraud Ainz
Stefan Sperr
is responsible for accounting, controlling and IT matters. His decades of experience as head of this important administrative area and his financial expertise are of particular value to the Salzburg Advent Festival.
Hans Köhl
has been the main director of the Salzburg Advent Festival since the turn of the millennium. He, who is also Managing Director of the organizer “Kulturwerk Salzburg”, is responsible for all aspects of this successful cultural event.
Residenzplatz 9
A – 5010 Salzburg
