The choir NEUE WIENER STIMMEN (New Viennese Voices) conducted by Christoph Wigelbeyer and Jürgen Partaj rehearses weekly in order to perfect a diverse musical program. Every singer enjoys vocal training on a regular basis. The singers ranging from the age of 16 to 30 come from all over Austria, as well as from other countries. What connects them is their shared passion and enthusiams for music and singing. This comes across in the quality of their performances and the joy exhibited on stage, which the audiences know and love.
The choir was founded in 2010 in cooperation with Jeunesse Austria, the largest nationwide concert organizer in Austria. Concert venues in and outside of Vienna include among others the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Wiener Musikverein, the MuTh and the Semper Depot. The choir has performed at several events like the opening ceremonies of the Life Ball, TEDxVienna, and the Summa Cum Laude International Youth Music Festival. Further highlights of the past few years include theatre performances at the Theater an der Wien and the Schauspielhaus Wien.
Since the choir cooperates with organisations such as Caritas Austria, the singers have met refugees as well as pensioners, with whom they sang and played music. In addition, meeting choirs from all over the world has made an impact on the cosmopolitan diversity of NEUE WIENER STIMMEN.
In 2013, the choir’s first CD was released by Jeunesse Records. It presents a live recorded version of the Misa Criolla, composed by Ariel Ramírez, as well as international Christmas songs.
The choir NEUE WIENER STIMMEN was also able to present their musical abilities and the stirring atmosphere they create abroad. A tour with the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra led them through Switzerland, Slovakia and Austria. This project also included another CD recording. As part of Austria’s cultural contribution to the EXPO 2015 in Milan, NEUE WIENER STIMMEN performed in a semi-staged production of the operetta “Die Fledermaus” (“The Bat”) by Johann Strauß.
In 2016, the NEUE WIENER STIMMEN presented a program named “Österreich: Große Töchter, große Söhne!” (“Austria: Great Daughters, Great Sons!”). The singers themselves offered ideas for the program, helping to broaden the choir’s horizon to songs from all over Austria, and getting to know its traditions, history and future. These achievements earned us the award for “Choir of the Year 2016” by the Chorforum Wien.
The NEUE WIENER STIMMEN have also achieved fame in the genre of film music. They performed together with artists such as Randy Newman, Alexandre Desplat and James Horner in the course of the annual Hollywood in Vienna concerts in 2012 to 2016. They were also part of concerts presenting the music of John Williams, as well as the “Great Sounds of Italian Cinema” concert at the Wiener Konzerthaus. In 2017, the choir was part of Disney’s „Frozen in Concert“ at the Wiener Stadthalle and performed the semi-staged musical in front of thousands of people.
Finally, in the fall of 2017, the choir presented its broad musical horizon, musical precision and enthusiasm for singing at the Liszt Festival Raiding, performing songs by Mendelssohn, Brahms and Liszt, as well as Bobby Hebb, Kirby Shaw, The Beatles and Metallica.
In the season of 2018, the choir will again be part of the children’s opera “Wir befreien Eurydike” at the Theater an der Wien. Thereafter, Disney’s “Frozen in Concert” leads them on a tour through Austria and Switzerland, together with the Max Steiner Orchestra. In April 2018, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony will be performed at the Wiener Musikverein. The semester will finish with the premiere of “Wegweiser” (“Guideposts”), including a tour through Austria.
„Wegweiser“ will again bear the signature of the energetic and enthusiastic yet musically precise NEUE WIENER STIMMEN. They will present musical guideposts, inviting their audiences to discover paths together that can be rewarding as well as misleading, exploring various aspects of our human existence.
The team behind the NEUE WIENER STIMMEN consists of Christoph Wigelbeyer, Jürgen Partaj, Helmut Simmer, Generose Gruber-Sehr, Flora Königsberger and Marie-Antoinette Stabentheiner, as well as the hard work, passion and dedication of every single voice in the choir.
THE NEUE WIENER STIMMEN are supported by the Austrian Bundeskanzleramt (BKA Kunstsektion) and cooperates with the Jeunesse, the Musisches Zentrum Wien, wienXtra, the Viennese Jugendzentrum and Hunger auf Kunst und Kultur.
CONSISTING OF
Every singer is of the age of 16 to 30 years. Apart from experienced young choir singers, new members without any experience in choir singing are welcome to join the choir. NEUE WIENER STIMMEN offers special projects and concerts all over Vienna and Austria as well as flashmobs, which are all represented on Facebook, YouTube and WordPress.