LSM Newswire

Friday, January 1, 2010

Franz Welser-Mst will conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra New Years Concert 2011

CLEVELAND, January 1, 2010 - The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra announced today that Cleveland Orchestra Music Director Franz Welser-Mst will conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra New Years concert on January 1, 2011. Through international broadcast, the concert is the largest world-wide event in classical music reaching over a billion people annually through radio and television in 72 countries. The concert is broadcast on PBSs Great Performances in the United States.

The Vienna Philharmonics tradition of the New Years program began in 1939 to showcase Viennese musical culture at the highest level, and also to send the world a New Year's greeting in the spirit of hope, friendship and peace. The concerts take place in the Musikverein in Vienna.

Chairman of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra Clemens Hellsberg stated, With the invitation to Franz Welser-Mst to conduct our New Years Concert in 2011, the Vienna Philharmonic appreciates their common artistic work in both opera and concert, which has continuously grown in musical understanding and is mutually fulfilling. Franz Welser-Mst added, It is truly a special pleasure and honor to be invited by the Vienna Philharmonic to conduct in 2011.

Franz Welser-Mst is in his eighth year as Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra. His long-term commitment extends to the Orchestras centennial in 2018. Concurrently with his post in Cleveland, Mr. Welser-Mst will become General Music Director of the Vienna State Opera in the fall of 2010. The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra recruits its musicians from the Vienna State Opera Orchestra.

Franz Welser-Mst first collaborated with Vienna State Opera in 1987. His debut was in Rossinis The Italian Girl in Algiers. In September 2003, he substituted last minute and without any rehearsal, in a performance of Wagners Tristan and Isolde. In the summer of 2009, Franz Welser-Mst conducted concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival, the BBC Proms and the Lucerne Festival. At the Vienna State Opera, he has recently conducted new productions of Richard Strausss Arabella and Wagners Ring Cycle.

Labels: