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the choral sound of

WOLFGANG ZIEGLER

Wolfgang Ziegler

“Life without music is an error !” (Friedrich Nietzsche)

Born 1949 in the well-known wine village of Gumpoldskirchen (25km south of Vienna) he was involved in music from his early childhood on. His father, Josef Wolfgang Ziegler , a well-known Austrian composer and choral director taught the first musical steps to him. Singing and playing the violin became his passions.

After finishing high school and pedagogical studies he worked as an assistant in music education at the University of Illinois/USA. There he started composing electronic music with Joseph Pinzarrone, Phil Musser and John Cage. He got pretty much involved in the American avant-garde scene at that time. As a professional interlude he joined the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra playing violin on a concert tour through Canada and USA.

Back in Austria he became choral director of the VOX HUMANA CHAMBER CHOIR, which he was conducting till 2019. Lots of special studies followed with Erwin Ortner, Herwig Reiter at the Music University in Vienna and with Eric Ericson.

After he had joined the professional Austrian Radio Choir (ORF-Chor) for some years he focused on conducting and composing choral music. A number of international concert tours to Germany, Italy, Czechia, Slovakia, Belgium, Hungary, Sweden, Israel, Estonia, Malta and Japan completed his musical work.

Wolfgang Ziegler was honored by quite a number of national and international awards. The European Music Festival for the Youth in Belgium appointed him “Ambassador of the Festival”. This was a tribute to his long engagement as a jury member of this festival.

In 2008 he founded CONCENTUS NOVUS, a large non-professional concert choir who had its first successful appearance with Brahms’ German Requiem in Vienna in 2008 and the professional VIENNA SYMPHONIC LIBRARY CHORUS. In 2010 he founded the internationally renown choral competition AVE VERUM in Baden/Austria (aveverum.at) and the first choral festival for singers 50+ FOREVERYOUNG CHORAL FESTIVAL which was launched in Budapest 2022.

Some of Ziegler’s compositions are published by Edition Music Contact in Germany, European Cultural Services, Musikkultur Niederösterreich and WOZIMUSIC. Various pieces have been commissioned by international choirs and festivals.

JOSEF WOLFGANG ZIEGLER (1906 – 2000)

As widely well-known choral educator and composer-as well in Austria as abroad- he was one of the pioneers rebuilding the choral scene of Lower Austria province after World War 2. He founded the basis of today’s non-professional choral singing in this province which got quite an international reputation.
He finished his studies of „composition, music education and organ” at the „Vienna Music Academy“ in 1933. Among his teachers were well-known artists like Franz Schmidt, Josef Lechtaler, Vinzens Goller, Kamillo Horn,e.g.
His choral conducting career started back in 1932 with the “Boys Choir of the Vienna Woods”. After moving to the picturesque vine village of Gumpoldskirchen (20 km south of Vienna)he was “Regens Chori” as well as conducting the local church choir.
After World War 2 he founded his own Children Singing School and the worldwide known children’s choir “Gumpoldskirchner Spatzen”.The foundation of “Vox Humana Chamber Chorus” followed in 1966. Both of his children, Prof. Elisabeth Ziegler and Wolfgang Ziegler accepted his musical inheritance. Elisabeth Ziegler was successfully in charge of the “Children’s Singing School”, “Gumpoldskirchner Spatzen” and the female ensemble “Cantilena”, Wolfgang Ziegler of the “Vox Humana Chamber Chorus”.
Besides his daily job as a music educator he spent most of his energy on composing music. A great number of international prizes show the extraordinary quality of his music. Most of his works are published in Austria, Germany and Japan.