Lilienfeld Summer Academy – Cistercian Abbey as a Center for Music

The opening of the 43rd International Lilienfeld Summer Academy (SAL) is approaching. It begins with a festive opening ceremony on Sunday 30 June (start: 10am) in Lilienfeld Abbey Church. The principal celebrant is the Abbot of Lilienfeld, Pius Maurer.

As part of this papal Mass on the 13th Sunday of the year, the Coronation Mass for soloists, mixed choir and orchestra, KV 317 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, will be performed. The performers are the Lilienfeld Abbey Choir, the Wilhelmsburg Church Choir, and soloists and orchestra from the Summer Academy. Florian Pegrymovski takes over management. Yi Ting Wu Mittermeier plays the organ with works by Anton Bruckner and Franz Schmidt.

“The Babenberg Cantata” will also be performed., It was composed by Karin de Bastille in 1976, based on a text by Abbot Norbert Mosbacher, on the occasion of the exhibition “1000 Years of Babenberg in Austria” and the elevation of the church into a small cathedral.

Then the ceremonial opening ceremony will be held at 11:15 am in the monastery’s basilica. After being welcomed by the President of the Summer Academy, Karin de Bastille, and the Mayor of Lilienfeld, Manuel Eichberger, Hermann Dikovic, President of the Summer Academy, will deliver the ceremonial speech and official opening of the Summer Academy in Lilienfeld. Department of Art and Culture of the Lower Austria State Government Office, on behalf of State Governor Johanna Mikkel-Leitner.

“Between the speeches, choral works by Anton Bruckner will be performed by both choirs on the bicentenary of his birth,” announces Karin de Bastille. There will then be a reception in the corridors of the Bishop's Court (with the generous support of Governor Johanna Mikkel-Leitner). The buffet is prepared by Lilienfelder Stüberl.

The violinists' competition is held as part of the Summer Academy

On the evening of the opening day, the opening ceremony of the Summer Academy will be held at 7:30 pm under the theme “Concert for Peace” with works by Ludwig van Beethoven in the monastery dormitory. De Bastille continues: “The Triumph of Wellington, the Glorious Moment (cantatas for soloists, chorus and orchestra) and the Seventh Symphony will be performed as a repetition of the performance given in 1814 before the Congress of Vienna under the direction of Beethoven.

The performers are four soloists, the Mödlinger Singakademie and an orchestra of artists under the direction of Karin de Bastille.

PREVIEW: On Wednesday, July 3, at 7:30 p.m., Summer Academy teachers will hold a concert in the residence halls. In the first week, the violinists' competition sponsored by Thomastik-Infeld Vienna will be held for the second time on Thursday, July 4. The awards and diplomas will be presented ceremoniously as part of the concert on Saturday 6 July by the Chairman of the Jury and the President of the Summer Academy.