Orchester Wiener Akademie
Since its foundation in 1985 by the distinguished conductor and organist Martin Haselböck, Orchester Wiener Akademie has gained international praise for its unmistakably Austrian musicality, virtuosity, refinement and energy. Orchester Wiener Akademie is the only Austrian orchestra to offer performances of repertoire from the Baroque, Classical, Romantic and early twentieth-century eras on period instruments, as well as performances of contemporary repertoire on modern instruments. It is as renowned for its performances of Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven as it is for its performances of Schumann, Brahms, Liszt and Bruckner.
The orchestra’s annual cycle of concerts in Vienna’s Musikverein has become a popular fixture in the city’s musical calendar, and has featured guest instrumental and vocal soloists such as Daniel Hope, Ronald Brautigam, Isabelle Faust, Thomas Hampson, Anne Schwanewilms, Soile Isokoski, Cecilia Bartoli, Sophie Karthäuser, Dorothee Mields and many others.
In 2014 Orchester Wiener Akademie and Martin Haselböck launched a new Vienna concert cycle, RESOUND, performing the orchestral works of Beethoven in the historic halls of their Vienna premieres and earliest performances. Combined with an ongoing series of acclaimed recordings of the symphonies and other works for the French label Alpha, the RESOUND concerts have been greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm from the Vienna public and press. The series will expand in the coming seasons to explore Beethoven’s piano concertos and the symphonies of Schubert.
Orchester Wiener Akademie tours extensively. In recent seasons the orchestra has performed in more than 20 countries on three continents. They have appeared at international music festivals and concert series such as the Prague Spring Festival, Frankfurter Fest, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and Wiener Festwochen. In spring 2017 the orchestra will present a complete cycle of the Beethoven symphonies in Osaka and Tokyo, Japan.