Wiener Jeunesse Orchester
Austria
In October 2012 the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra (WJO) celebrated its 25th anniversary with a gala concert at Vienna’s Konzerthaus. The ensemble, which unites students of the music universities and conservatories from all the federal Austrian states aged 18 to 26, has long established itself as Austria’s preeminent youth symphony orchestra. The young musicians regularly take part in festivals in Austria and abroad, for example Klangbogen Wien, Wiener Festwochen and the Salzburg Festival. The orchestra’s repertoire focuses mainly on great Austrian symphonic works by Bruckner and Mahler, but also works by Antonin Dvořák, Richard Strauss and Franz Schmidt. Living Austrian composers take an important place in its repertoire as well. Thus, in 2009, when the WJO last appeared at Young Euro Classic, the composition Sing sing sing – A Tribute to Benny Goodman by Herbert Hödl had its world premiere. This year’s festival will see another world premiere of orchestral songs for Baritone and Orchestra by Wolfgang Sauseng. Herbert Böck has been the WJO’s artistic director since 1989.
