Eugenia Karni

Active participation: all violinists, (all string players)
Intensity level: 2 (individual lessons)
1st meeting: Saturday, 19 August, 4.00-5.30 pm at Hotel Zauberblick

The workshop is geared mainly to violinists. All sessions will be open for observation by all string players, who may also (if extra capacity is available) present and receive individual coaching on repertoire of their choice. The proposed workshop repertoire includes some of those solo/orchestral excerpts that are most frequently requested at auditions. Participants who are in the process of future audition preparations may also bring their own required repertoire for coaching.
All string players are expected to play orchestral excerpts or/and solo concertos that they are preparing for an actual orchestral audition !

Sample repertoire for principal positions:
R. Strauss: Ein Heldenleben; Le bourgeois gentilhomme, No. 4 : “Entry and Dance of the Tailors”
N. Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade, solo passages
L. van Beethoven: Missa Solemnis, Sanctus
J. S. Bach: St. Matthew Passion, No. 39: “Erbarme dich”
P. I. Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake, Act 2, No. 13: Andante non troppo

Sample repertoire for tutti positions:
L. van Beethoven:
Symphony No. 1, Finale: bars 1–46
Symphony No. 9, 2nd movement, Molto vivace: bars 1–84 & coda, bars 531–550
A. Bruckner: Symphony No. 9
2nd movement: Scherzo (Trio), Schnell (violin 1)
3rd movement: Langsam, feierlich (violin 2)
F. Mendelssohn Bartholdy: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Overture: bars 6–39; Scherzo
W. A. Mozart: Symphony No. 39, 4th movement, Allegro: bars 1–41 (violin 1 or 2)
R. Schumann: Symphony No. 2, 2nd movement, Scherzo: bars 1–48
B. Smetana: The Bartered Bride, Overture (violin 1 or 2)
R. Strauss: Don Juan
G. Verdi: La Forza del Destino: bars 182–263

Workshop video

Thomas Wolf

Active participation: all instrumentalists and composers (limited attendance)
Intensity level: 1 (one-off event)

This workshop is open to all those who are interested in improving their ability to navigate challenging temporal relationships between musical parts. Ensemble music often requires us to go beyond simple synchronization and into more expressive forms of coordination, be it rubato, polytempo, or phasing. In this workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to test an application that guides you through a series of exercises to train some of the required skills. These exercises are based on research in the field of cognitive science, and your feedback will influence this app’s further development.

Saturday, 19 August
Strings: 10.00-11.00 am at Hotel Zauberblick
Winds: 01.30-02.30 pm at Hotel Payerbacherhof

Sunday, 20 August
Chamber Music: 10.00-11.00 am at Flackl
Piano and Composition: 01.30-02.30 pm at Parkhotel Hirschwang

Mark Andre

Active participation: all composers
Intensity level: 2 (individual lessons)
1st meeting: Monday, 21 August, 10.00-11.00 am at Parkhotel Hirschwang

“Mark Andre reaches with such intensity for a stillness that threatens to burst your eardrums.” Berliner Zeitung, 23 Jan. 2018
Mark Andre, born in Paris in 1964, creates musical realms of existential experience characterised by subtle, minutely worked-out processes of transformation. Central to his thinking is the question of disappearance, which shapes his approach to sound, form, and subject.
In a collaborative session and in individual lessons, Mark Andre will provide insight into his compositional worlds and work with students on their current compositions.

Karen Asatrian (piano), Philipp Sageder (voice, electronics, remixing), Horst-Michael Schaffer (winds)

Master rhythmsection of the mdw:
Melinda Franzke (double bass), Wanja Rosenthal (guitar), Stefan Kemminger (drums)

Active participation: all instrumentalists, singers and composers
Intensity level: 2

Learn how to improvise in easy steps and get on stage with a master rhythmsection from the Institute for popular music (iPOP) of the mdw! Play the songs you always loved!
Book your single or group lessions in advance!

Friday 18 August & Saturday 19 August at Schloss Reichenau
10.00-12.00 am: Masterclasses (single or group) with the workshop tutors
3.00-5.00 pm: Bandstand – Afternoon Sessions: Practice with the master rhythmsection
8.00-10.30 pm: Public Jamsession: Jam with the workshop tutors and the master rhythmsection

Composer: Detlev Müller-Siemens
Ensemble Coach: Jean-Bernard Matter
Ensemble Fractales

Active participation: all instrumentalists and composers
Intensity level: 3

Instrumentalists rehearse works freshly composed by the isa composers in preparation for their concert premières!

Gottfried Johannes Pokorny

Active participation: all winds
Intensity level: 2

Chamber music coaching for ensembles and soloists is designed to enhance the shared artistic experience. Preparation for the Viktor Kalabis Award competition.

Ensemble-finding is coordinated by isaStaff and requires your own initiative to find ensemble partners on site.
Sheet-music library on location or prints from the internet.
Possibility to perform in concerts.

Hsin-Huei Huang (Piano), Olivia De Prato (Strings & Chamber music), Felix Renggli (Winds)

Active participation: all instrumentalists
Passive Participation: all composers
Intensity level: 2 (individual lessons)

1st meeting:
Winds: Saturday, 19 August, 05.00-07.00 pm at Hotel Payerbacherhof
Strings: Sunday, 20 August, 10.00-11.30 am at Hotel Zauberblick
Piano and Composers: Tuesday, 22 August, 01.30-03.00 pm at Parkhotel Hirschwang

Participants are welcome to bring their own pieces they would like to work on.

Repertoire suggestions piano

Repertoire suggestions strings (violin solo)

Repertoire suggestions chamber music (string quartet)

Dietmar Flosdorf

Active participation: all instrumentalists and singers
Intensity level: 2

isaCommunity invites the local and regional populace to get acquainted with isa musicians in person by working together with them musically. To this end, specially designed workshop offerings provide opportunities for anyone who is interested – regardless of their age – to become an active part of our collaboration and help shape artistic ideas and music through mutual dialogue.

We also make it a point to involve pre-existing activities and resources of local cultural organisations such as brass bands, dance groups, and music schools as an expression of esteem and possibilities for further development.

For the Masterclass students, isaOutreach embodies an opportunity to expand their practical training by putting their own artistic competencies to work in the context of music appreciation and community music.

More information on the Project 2023

Ulla Pilz

Active Participation: all instrumentalists, singers and composers
Intensity level: 2

Musicians are being asked more and more often to present themselves onstage not only with their instruments but also verbally. This workshop provides support, feedback, tips, and tricks for public speaking in the field of music. That which is learned can be practically applied at the open-stage concerts of the isaFestival.

all except strings and composers: Tuesday, 22 August, 05.30-07.00 pm at Flackl (only for participants in the Open Stage Classics concert on Wednesday, 23 August) and Thursday, 24 August, 01.00-02.30 pm
Composers: Wednesday, 23 August, 10.30-12.00 am at Parkhotel Hirschwang
Strings: Thursday, 24 August, 10.00-11.30 am at Tourismusschulen Semmering

Andrea von der Emde

Active participation: all instrumentalists, singers and composers
Intensity level: 1
1st unit:
Strings: Friday, 18 August, 09.00-09.45 am at Hotel Zauberblick
Voice, Piano, Composition: Saturday, 19 August, 08.30-09.15 am at Parkhotel Hirschwang

Turning our own bodies into resonant objects that intensify the sounds of our voices and instruments requires conscious bodily perception. The Franklin Method trains the interplay of consciousness and the body by way of the imagination in connection with movement, dance, and relaxation. The more nuanced one’s perception of this interplay is, the more nuanced are the ways in which it can be harnessed to support the sound of one’s voice and one’s instrument. “Embodiment of function improves function” is a characteristic statement by Eric Franklin, the creator of this method.

This workshop employs the Franklin Method in a group setting. The group provides a space in which to come together and rediscover the body as a resource in imaginative, dance-like, and playful ways. Each morning, we’ll be starting the day in this spirit with a dance-based body workout.

A Meeting Point of Structural Awareness, Playfulness, and Spontaneity (Or: How to Combine Business with Pleasure)

David Dolan

Active participation:
– Lecture/workshop: all instrumentalists and composers – bring your instruments!
Intensity level: 1 (one-off event)
Monday, 21 August, 02.00-03.30 pm at Schloss Reichenau

– Workshop: selected chamber music ensembles
Intensity level: 3 (several individual lessons)
Tuesday, 22 August & Thursday, 24 August at Flackl

Improvisation was a natural part of Western art music-making until the late 19th century. Audiences back then expected to be surprised during a concert whether they knew the work performed or not (similar to a high-quality jazz performance today). Concert culture regarded the performer as a creator.
Our workshop will open with a very brief overview of the concept of improvisation in Western art music and an exchange of thoughts about reviving this mode of music-making, both in solo and ensemble contexts.
During the workshop, we will combine the employment of specific know-how (structural, stylistic, textural and harmonic awareness – at times not fully conscious) with real-time flow, playfulness, and spontaneity … and search for enjoyment! Active listening, awareness of emotional expression, and focused communication are also on the menu. We will introduce introductory exercises for improvising in classical & baroque stylistic languages as well as in a tonally free manner. We’ll begin with these by playing musical games involving call & response phrases (by two partners and later groups) before adding rhythmic, harmonic, and motivic elements – this, in order to get the creative juices going. We’ll then touch on your chosen repertoire by searching for their harmonic/structural reductions and elaborating those reductions by way of extemporisation towards your intended interpretation of the actual score. This will enhance active listening and musical mind-reading as we get to know the entire score (not our own parts) from the inside of its harmonic rhythm and expressive gestures.

Kirsten Peters

Active participation: all instrumentalists, singers and composers
Intensity level: 1 (one-off event)

Strings: Monday, 21 August, 10.00-12.30 am at Tourismusschulen Semmering
Voice, Piano, Composition: Monday, 21 August, 04.00-06.30 pm at Parkhotel Hirschwang
Winds: Tuesday, 22 August, 10.00-12.30 am at Hotel Payerbacherhof
Chamber Music: Tuesday, 22 August, 02.30-05.00 pm at Flackl-Wirt

Why do you want to become a professional musician? It’s simple, really: because you love music. Then again, lots of people love music and don’t decide to make it their career. If you’re clear in your own mind on exactly (!) why you’re doing what you’re doing, you’ll have an easier time finding answers to lots of important questions that will pop up in your working life. For example: How do I find my way out of a motivational desert? Do I really want this, or am I just pretending that I do? How do I make the right decisions while studying and in launching my career? How do I find my audience? How does my audience find me? And that’s just the beginning. A workshop with short, crisp input and lots of interaction and hands-on tips.

Hannelore Unfried

Active participation: all instrumentalists, singers and composers
Intensity level: 1 (one-off event), no previous experience required!

Sunday, 20 August, 08.00-09.30 pm at Schloss Reichenau

Dancer and musician Hannelore Unfried brings the dance culture of past centuries back into the ballroom and onto the stage, and she conveys her internationally recognized research in courses and publications.
This time, we explore well-known dances in an unknown guise: the cotillon became the most fashionable 19th-century dance form, to be danced to music composed as waltzes, gallops, polkas, mazurkas, etc. “It is peculiarly social, requiring a constant interchange of partners; all must, therefore, be upon terms of familiarity. … Innumerable figures give all the pleasure derivable from movements in concert with others.” (Allan Dodworth: Dancing … New York 1885). This game’s rules are based on intention as much as on chance, with the occasional use of varied, surprising, and humorous props.

Roland Schueler

Active participation: all string players, no registration necessary
Intensity level: 1

18-26 August at Tourismusschulen Semmering

isa’s mobile studio offers the opportunity for isa participants to observe the craftmanship involved in creating a string instrument. Visit the violin maker’s workbench to see how he carves the arched belly of an instrument  from a raw piece of split spruce. Master violin maker Roland Schueler will be happy to answer any questions and looks forward to stimulating discussions.