#salzburgerfestspiele: Martin Polaschek and students in conversation
Federal Minister for Education, Science and Research Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Martin Polaschek was a guest at the Mozarteum University on Tuesday, August 8, 2023 and congratulated students on their various engagements at the Salzburg Festival. In a conversation lasting just under an hour, the students told how their engagements came about and why the Salzburg Festival can be an important stage for the future.
Foto v.l.n.r.: Sophie Thammer, Juliette Larat, Giulia Giammona, Colin Johner, Laura Trilsam, Vizerektorin Anastasia Weinberger, Bildungsminister Martin Polaschek, Rektorin Elisabeth Gutjahr, Matteo Ivan Rašić, Joachim Gottfried Goller
One thing was agreed upon in the exchange with Minister of Education Martin Polaschek: The Salzburg Festival offers plenty of space for young students to gain valuable practical and professional experience, but also to make contacts and build a broad, interdisciplinary network. In the 2023 Festival summer, numerous students and graduates of the Mozarteum University will once again be working on and behind the scenes in various projects and productions. The areas of involvement range from directing and set design to costume and props, as well as being a participant in the Young Singers Project and major stage engagements.
Juliette Larat and Colin Johner, acting students at the Thomas Bernhard Institute, can be seen in Fiesta and Jedermann. "I have been working at the Salzburg Festival every summer since 2019. Ursula Gessat, director of jung&jede*r, finally invited me to audition after she saw me in a production at the Kollegienkirche - and that's how it came about. That was of course very nice to finally be involved artistically," Juliette Larat says. Fiesta, a play for children, is directed by alumnus Joachim Gottfried Goller, who was named "Best* Young Artist to Direct" in a 2022 critics' poll. "This year is the second time I've been at the Salzburg Festival in the Young & Everybody*s section, both times a mobile drama production." The children's opera Das Kind und die Zauberdinge is directed by student director Giulia Giammona.
Alumnus Andrè Schuen can be heard in Le Nozze di Figaro as Conte di Almaviva. Matteo Ivan Rašić, currently in Johannes Stecher's singing class, is one of 14 participants in the Young Singers Project 2023, with which the Salzburg Festival has created a top-class platform for promoting young singers. "As you know, the Young Singers Project is one of the fixed programs where you can get to know many great singers. Accordingly, it has always been interesting for me. Evamaria Wieser finally heard me at an audition and subsequently invited me to audition. It is quite competitive because there are a lot of applicants. So it's a great honor to be there. You work with great coaches, répétiteurs and directors, and you are part of a big production, the Greek Passion at the Felsenreitschule," says Matteo Ivan Rašić.
Also critically acclaimed is Jörn H. Andresen (Univ. Prof. of Choral Conducting), who is responsible for the choral rehearsals of Macbeth and Le Nozze di Figaro. Florian Birsak (Univ.-Prof. for harpsichord & basso continuo) can be experienced on stage with Ligeti at Zeit.
Other contributors to the Department of Scenography:
- Sophie Thammer (Props)
- Laura Trilsam (Props)
- Christina Winkler (assistance)
- Selina Nowak (stage and costume for the youth play "Ping Pong" and "The Child and the Magic Things")
- Ella Hölldampf (stage and costume)
- Yoko Idler (directing and set design experience with director Ulrich Rasche)
