The Vienna Hofburg Orchestra (in German: Wiener Hofburg Orchester) is an Austria

Austria

Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...

n classical orchestra based in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

.

The Orchestra was founded by the conductor Gert Hofbauer

Gert Hofbauer

Gert Hofbauer is an Austrian conductor and trumpeter.Born in Knittelfeld, Hofbauer studied the trumpet in Graz in 1958 and in 1960 at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna in Austria...

 in 1971 and consists of 36 professional musicians from all large orchestral societies of Vienna and international vocal soloists:
Andrea Olah (Soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

), Kayo Takemura (Soprano), Ella Tyran (Mezzosoprano), Elena Suvorova (Mezzosoprano), Oskar Hillebrandt (Baritone

Baritone

Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...

), Georg Lehner (Baritone), Peter Edelmann (Baritone) (Son of the Austrian bass Otto Edelmann

Otto Edelmann

Otto Edelmann was an Austrian bass. He was born in Vienna and studied singing in Vienna with Gunnar Graarud. His debut was at Gera as Figaro in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. He later sang the Vienna State Opera, the Edinburgh Festival and the Metropolitan Opera...

) and Bohan Choe (Tenor

Tenor

The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...

).

The orchestra's defined aim is to "cultivate Viennese waltz

Viennese Waltz

Viennese Waltz is the genre of a ballroom dance. At least three different meanings are recognized. In the historically first sense, the name may refer to several versions of the waltz, including the earliest waltzes done in ballroom dancing, danced to the music of Viennese Waltz.What is now called...

 and operetta

Operetta

Operetta is a genre of light opera, light in terms both of music and subject matter. It is also closely related, in English-language works, to forms of musical theatre.-Origins:...

 music", thus the orchestra's program is composed of waltz and operetta melodies by Johann Strauss

Johann Strauss II

Johann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...

, Franz Léhar

Franz Lehár

Franz Lehár was an Austrian-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow .-Biography:...

 and Emmerich Kalman

Emmerich Kalman

Emmerich Kálmán was a Hungarian-born composer of operettas.- Biography :Kálmán was born Imre Koppstein in Siófok, on the southern shore of Lake Balaton, Hungary in a Jewish family.Kálmán initially intended to become a concert pianist, but because of early-onset arthritis, he focused on composition...

 along with opera aria

Aria

An aria in music was originally any expressive melody, usually, but not always, performed by a singer. The term is now used almost exclusively to describe a self-contained piece for one voice usually with orchestral accompaniment...

s and duets by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...

.

The Vienna Hofburg Orchestra's concert season lasts from May to December. The concerts are performed in the Festival Hall  and the Redoutensäle of Vienna's Hofburg Imperial Palace, further the Wiener Konzerthaus and the Wiener Musikverein.

Each year on the evenings of December 31 and January 1 the Vienna Hofburg Orchestra performs traditional Viennese New Year's Eve and New Year's Concerts

Vienna New Year's Concert

The New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic is a concert of classical music that takes place each year in the morning of January 1 in Vienna, Austria...

in the Hofburg's festival halls.

External links

• Vienna Hofburg Orchestra Website in English