The Austrian Festival Ensemble of Vienna

Vienna, the capital of Austria, is one of the birthplaces of European classical music. Near Vienna is an ancient Roman cultural site with elegant scenery and simple folk customs. It is the hometown of Haydn, the father of world classical music, and the birthplace of the Vienna Festival Orchestra.

Since ancient times, the summer sun has shone freely on this fertile land with shimmering lakes and gentle slopes. The Central European Plain has a warm climate in summer and autumn, with a large temperature difference between day and night. Therefore, this is not only an important wine-producing area in Austria, but also a leisurely lifestyle of drinking and having fun and a century-old folk culture.

 

The predecessor of the Vienna Festival Orchestra was the Orchestra of the Association of Friends of Music in the Ancient City of Carnuntum, which was mainly composed of Haydn's descendants who took root here. Mr. Leo Wittner, a famous clarinetist and former winner of the Golden Clarinet Award of the Austrian Federal Wind Band Union, is the founder of the orchestra and has served as the orchestra's permanent conductor since 2014.

 

For more than 30 years, the orchestra has continued to grow and develop under his leadership, from the initial wind orchestra and chamber orchestra to a symphony orchestra composed of more than 80 musicians who graduated from national music universities and art academies in Austria and EU countries. The repertoire they play ranges from Baroque religious dramas to classical symphonic works; from the unique Alpine wind orchestra combination to European and American romanticism and modern and contemporary music. Of course, there are also those most Austrian traditional and unforgettable operettas, as well as the eternal Viennese waltz from the Strauss family, and the popular polka dances.

 

Over the years, the orchestra has held more than 30 Concerts every year with new year's concerts, opera concerts, easter religious drama concerts, spring salon concerts, midsummer open-air symphony concerts, autumn wind orchestra concerts, Austrian Federal Youth Music Competition award-winning rookie concerts, etc., and has been invited to tour neighboring EU countries, Japan, China and other places many times.

 

After the end of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022, the orchestra completed the replacement of its main members. In 2024, the orchestra reached an agreement with the Cultural Encounters of Austria in Vienna to become the association's exclusive orchestra and officially changed its name to Austrian Festival Ensemble of Vienna with Mr. Leo Wittner as artistic director.