Address: Untere Donaulände 7, 4010 Linz

Designed by Finnish architect Heikki Siren, the Brucknerhaus has been the symbol of Linz since it was opened in 1974 by Herbert von Karajan. The famous concert hall’s Bruckner Festival and “Klassisch Anderen” program delight audiences of all ages with a crosssection of diverse musical styles performed by top artists from around the world. The competition performances of the competing choirs as well as the pedagogical offers take place in the Brucknerhaus.

Text and photo: INTERKULTUR

Address: Stiftstraße 1, 4490 St. Florian

St. Florian, the oldest Monastery of the Augustinian Canons Regular in Austria, is an outstanding Baroque jewel and landmark for the entire Central Upper Austrian Region. The Monastery was constructed over the grave of Christian martyr Saint Florian. The imposant pile of buildings is an outstanding and superb example of baroque architecture. The Augustinian Abbey provided a wealthy and culturally sophisticated milieu for the creation of paintings, compositions, and scientific research. On your way around you can visit the splendid Collegiate Church, the Library, the Marble Salon, the Imperial Apartments, and the Picture Gallery with elaborate works by Albrecht the Library, the Marble Salon, the Imperial Apartments, and the Picture Gallery with elaborate works by Albrecht Altdorfer, a master of the Danube School of Painting. The greatest composer of church music in 19th century Austria, Anton Bruckner became the organist at St. Florian as a young man. You can visit his crypt as well as the room where he lived for about a decade. Both, in the Collegiate Church and in the Marble Salon, international choirs perform in Friendship Concerts.

Text and photo: INTERKULTUR

Marleen De Boo obtained both an MA in Music Pedagogy and in Choral Conducting. She lectures choral conducting at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp and is conductor of the Big Choir at that same institute. At the Podiumacademie Lier she teaches choral conducting in courses for amateurs, but also for semi-professionals and professionals. One of these programs focuses on working with children and youth. 

Marleen is Artistic Director of VZW Waelrantkoren, a non-profit organization with eight choirs, five of them conducted by her. Her conducting practice covers various age groups with a strong emphasis on the pedagogical aspects of choral singing. Her main motivation is to allow amateurs, especially children and young people, to discover the beauty of choral music. She strives for her choirs to be a gentle environment for young people searching for their identity, a place where everyone can show their true self. 

With Waelrant Youth Choir, she participates in international festivals and competitions. This choir currently holds the 13th place in the INTERKULTUR World Ranking.

Born in Eisenstadt in 1958, choirmaster, composer and instrumental teacher, was musically trained in many ways (violin, piano, organ, percussion), explored all possibilities of musical activities - from rock band to string quartet, dance music, jazz formation, brass band and symphony orchestra to solo performances - found his "instrument", the choir, in the early 90s. Since then he has been musically responsible for several choirs, regional choir director of the Chorverband Burgenland and active as a lecturer and director of choir singing weeks and choir director courses. Furthermore, he is a juror at various competitions and since 2017 youth advisor of the Austrian Choir Association. His compositional work is focused on the amateur choir, for which he writes singable new literature both in the area of church music (he was cathedral Kapellmeister in Eisenstadt from 1998 to 2011) and in the secular area.

Conductor, composer and pedagogue, Josep Vila i Casañas was born in Sabadell, Spain, in 1966. His specialism is the a cappella repertoire, as well as choral and orchestral literature down the ages.
He conducts the Lieder Càmera Chamber Choir from Sabadell and collaborates often as guest conductor with the Francesc Valls Chamber Choir, a professional vocal ensemble engaged to the Sagrada Família church and to Barcelona’s Cathedral. He has served as the resident conductor of the Orfeó Català choral society (1998-2016), the Cor de Cambra of the Palau de la Música Catalana (2011-2016), the Radiotelevisión Española Choir (2007- 2010).
He has worked as a guest conductor with choirs and orchestras such as the Spanish National Choir, the Swedish Radio Choir, the World Youth Choir (2010 and 2019), the Turkish State Choir, the Choir of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, the Venezuelan Simón Bolivar National Youth Choir, the Radiotelevisión Española Orchestra, and the Catalan Baroque Orchestra.
As a composer, his main area of interest is music for voice and instruments, and he has written an extensive body of works for children’s and youth choirs, for mixed a cappella choirs and for choir and orchestra.
Since 2005, he has taught choir conducting at the Catalonia Music Highschool.