Festival Ensemble of the AACE Vienna

Vienna, the capital of Austria, is one of the birthplaces of classical music in Europe. The ancient Roman cultural site of Carnuntum on the outskirts of Vienna has elegant scenery and simple folk customs. It is not only an important wine-producing area in Austria, but also has a leisurely lifestyle of drinking and having fun and a century-old folk culture. It is also the hometown of Haydn, the father of world classical music, and the origin of the Vienna Festival
Orchestra.

 

The predecessor of the Festival Ensemble of the AACE Vienna was the Orchestra of the Association of Friends of Music in the Ancient City of Carnuntum. Mr. Leo Wittner, a famous clarinet player and
former winner of the Golden Clarinet Award of the Austrian Federal Wind Orchestra Union, is the founder of the orchestra and has served as the permanent conductor of the orchestra since 2014.

 

For more than 30 years, the orchestra has continued to grow and develop under his leadership, from the initial wind orchestra to an organizational structure including chamber orchestras, salon
orchestras, and symphony orchestras, composed of more than 80 musicians from Austria and European and American countries. The repertoires performed range from religious dramas of the Baroque period to classical symphonic works; from the unique Alpine wind orchestra combination to European and American romanticism and modern and contemporary music. Of course, there are also those unforgettable operettas with the most Austrian traditional flavor, as
well as the eternal Viennese waltz from the Strauss family, and the popular polka dance. Over the years, the orchestra has held more than 30 concerts every year, including New Years Concert, Opera Concert, Easter Religious Drama Concert, Spring Salon Concert, Midsummer Open-air Symphony Concert, Autumn Orchestra Concert, and Austrian Federal Youth Music Competition Award-winning Newcomer Concert.

Since 2017, the orchestra has been invited to tour China continuously. Its repertoire arrangement that combines European classical and Austrian folklore and its elegant and calm performance style have been praised and loved by the majority of Chinese audiences.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the orchestra adjusted its life and completed the renewal. In order to move onto a larger international stage, the orchestra reached a cooperation agreement with the Austrian International Cultural and Art Association in 2023 to jointly establish the Vienna Festival Orchestra as the associations exclusive orchestra, with Mr. Leo Wittner as artistic director and Mr. Ronan Nissan as permanent conductor.