Salzburg Festival Children's Choir
With the founding of its own Children’s Chorus during the 2008 season, the Salzburg Festival once again emphasized its goal of supporting the music education of children and teenagers. At the end of January and early in March of 2008, auditions were held in Salzburg in order to inaugurate the Salzburg Festival Children’s Chorus. Interested children between the ages of 8 and 14 were invited to audition.
Beginning in March of 2008, fifty boys and girls (selected from 200 applicants) from Salzburg and its surroundings began their intensive rehearsals on a number of works. Aside from the weekly chorus rehearsal, there were also Saturday rehearsals which gave the chorus members a glimpse of the work behind the Festival’s scenes. The first performance by the Children’s Chorus took place at the Festival’s Opening Party on July 26, 2008 at the Haus für Mozart, when it participated in Hindemith’s Wir bauen eine Stadt. Subsequently, the Chorus performed as part of Verdi’s Otello and in two concerts (in Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Camerata Salzburg, conducted by Marc Minkowski, and in Mahler’s Third Symphony, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Esa-Pekka Salonen).
Even if singing is the most simple, direct and intense form of making music, the children’s vocal training presented a great challenge. However, the great success the Chorus and its director Wolfgang Götz enjoyed proved its initiators right – and documented the deep bond between Salzburg’s population and the Festival once again.
The Salzburg Festival’s Directorate thanks all those responsible for the Chorus and its success, but especially the young choristers: for their extraordinary enthusiasm and the great interest they brought to the project.
Contact
kinderchor@salzburgfestival.at
Phone: +43-662-8045-490
Fax: +43-662-8045-236