Salute to Vienna is the only North American event of its kind, officially recognized by the City of Vienna as an authentic Viennese New Year's celebration, and is modeled on the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra's Neuhjahrskonzert New Year's Concert), by far the most popular performing arts presentation in the world, broadcast live from Vienna's world-famous Musikverein concert hall every New Year's Day to an estimated 1.3 billion viewers around the globe.
Every Salute to Vienna performance involves a cast of over 75 top musicians, dancers, and singers from Europe and North America, presenting the arias and duets from popular operettas such as Die Fledermaus and The Merry Widow, and dancing exhilarating waltzes and polkas such as the Blue Danube Waltz.
Concerts feature renowned conductors including celebrated Viennese maestros, Gerhard Track, András Deák, and Peter Guth, the world's leading Strauss specialist as well as Johannes Wildner, the highly accomplished Viennese conductor. Also featured are acclaimed opera singers from Vienna and Central Europe. Dancers from established ballet companies including the Vienna City Ballet, the Hungarian National Ballet-Gy?r and Canada's Royal Winnipeg Ballet will be joined this year for the first time by the Vienna Waltz Project, featuring four former lead dancers from the Vienna Opera Ballet. In all, Salute to Vienna features talented musicians and dancers from some of North America's most prestigious arts organizations.
For over 10 years, Salute to Vienna has enchanted capacity audiences in major concert halls including New York's Lincoln Center, Washington's Kennedy Center, The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Chicago's Symphony Center, and Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall. This season, Salute to Vienna will debut in four U.S. cities: Symphony Hall in Boston, MA, The Benedum Center in Pittsburgh, PA, the State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ and the new Renée & Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in the Orange County Performing Arts Centre, Costa Mesa (California).
In 1995, inspired by childhood memories of Vienna's Neujahrskonzert and by the desire to share the tradition with North Americans, founders Attila and Marion Glatz launched Salute to Vienna. With its emphasis on quality and authenticity, the event soon became a runaway success and now delights tens of thousands of people each year in concerts across the continent. For their efforts, Attila and Marion Glatz have recently been officially recognized by the Austrian Government and awarded the prestigious Decoration of Merit in Gold.
Salute to Vienna is the only live performance of its kind outside Austria officially recognized by the Mayor of Vienna as an authentic Viennese New Year's celebration.
By www.statetheatrenj.org
Posted December 23rd, 2006 by ruzik_tuzik
