Neue Wiener Stimmen
Neue Wiener Stimmen choir
The choir Neue Wiener Stimmen (New Viennese Voices) was founded by choir director Johannes Hiemetsberger, cultural manager Jürgen Partaj and the then General Secretary of Jeunesse Angelika Möser in 2010 as an initiative of Jeunesse, Austria’s largest concert organiser. The intention behind the founding of the choir was to motivate young people from diverse social and geographical backgrounds to sing, to support them in the best possible way and to offer them opportunities to participate in unique projects and professional productions. The further development of each individual voice through regular voice training is supported by a team of vocal coaches. In 2013, Christoph Wigelbeyer took over as musical director of the choir. Since 2021, the choir members themselves have been responsible for all the administration work for the choir.
The choir’s artistic work focuses on extraordinary a cappella projects, which are developed in close collaboration between the musical director and the choir members in keeping with the participatory ethos of the choir and impress their audiences as part of their varied repertoire. Examples include ‘Liebe?!’ (Love?!) (2015), ‘Wegweiser’ (Guideposts) (2018), ‘Alive!’ (2019), ‘Elemente’ (Elements) (2022) and ‘kommen und gehen’ (come and go) (2023). The ensemble was awarded the title of ‘Choir of the Year’ by the Chorforum Wien for their programme of pieces titled ‘Österreich – große Töchter, große Söhne’ (Austria: Great Daughters, Great Sons) (2016). The choir also regularly gives performances of these programmes in the Austrian provinces – usually in partnership with Jeunesse.
The Neue Wiener Stimmen also take part in performances of major choral-orchestral works. They often collaborate with other choirs and orchestras made up of young people. Examples include Karl Jenkins’ ‘The Armed Man – A Mass for Peace’ (2017), Ludwig van Beethoven’s ‘9th Symphony’ (2018) and his ‘Choral Fantasy’ (2019), and Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Mass’ (2018). In 2013, the choir gave performances of Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s ‘Psalm 42’ in several Swiss cities, Vienna and Bratislava together with the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra as part of a tour. In 2017, the choir gave a performance of Antonio Vivaldi’s ‘Gloria in D Major’ at the Octophonia festival in Ottmarsheim in the Alsace region of France.
The choir also gained recognition in the area of film music with performances at ‘Hollywood in Vienna’, ‘Best of John Williams’ and ‘Great Sounds of Italian Cinema’ at the Wiener Konzerthaus, as well as its participation in the ‘Disney in Concert: Frozen’ tour of Austria and Switzerland.
The Neue Wiener Stimmen have showcased their performance skills on multiple occasions through opera productions for children at the Theater an der Wien and performances of ‘Die Fledermaus’ by Johann Strauß at the EXPO 2015 in Milan. Their participation in the opening ceremonies for the ‘Life Ball’ was another such experience.
In 2013, the choir released their a cappella CD ‘I am His Child’. Several of their choral-orchestral performances have also been recorded on CD. In 2022, they released ‘Best of NWS’ – a musical retrospective of the previous 10 years.
On 21 January 2025, they performed the ‘Herzensstücke’ (Favourites) programme at the Wiener Konzerthaus, featuring pieces that are particularly important to the singers of the Neue Wiener Stimmen. In partnership with Jeunesse, the ‘Will have gone’ project will be realised together with Manfred Länger in May 2025, and will then be performed in Vienna and Graz as part of the Voices of Spirit festival.
Composition of the choir
The singers in the Neue Wiener Stimmen choir are all aged between 16 and 30. In addition to singers who have gained a love of choral singing from their schools, the choir uses special projects and specific performance venues across Vienna, as well as flash mobs and activities on online platforms such as Facebook, YouTube etc. to deliberately attract young people for whom joining a choir has not been a possibility or something that they have considered.
Artistic director
Christoph Wigelbeyer
Source: neuewienerstimmen.at