Music Celebrations International (MCI) would like to invite your choir to perform in the Beethoven 250 Choral Festival in Vienna as part of Beethoven’s 250th Birthday Celebration. The festival will take place June 9 – 13, 2020 under the artistic direction of Marc Foster, Music Department Chair and Director of Choral Activities at High Point University. Select choirs will be featured in performance in Vienna’s historic St. Stephen’s Cathedral. All participating choirs are selected by application process through MCI.
MCI is pleased to announce that a world premiere, a commissioned work by Dan Forrest, will be included in the repertoire of the 2020 Beethoven Choral Festival in Vienna, Austria. Dan Forrest is one of America’s foremost choral composers whose recent works such as Requiem for the Living, Jubilate Deo and Lux: the Dawn from on High have received rave critical reviews and have been performed extensively throughout the world. The commissioned work will use motifs from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony to create a modern “remix” of this monumental piece, and will be performed with orchestra and 300+ voices in St. Stephens Cathedral on June 12, 2020.
Vienna, affectionately known as the “Capital of Classical Music”, holds a special place in the hearts of musicians as it was here where composers like Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, and Beethoven established their musical careers. Beethoven said of this city, “Perhaps heaven will permit me not to have to give up Vienna as my permanent abode.” Countless other composers and musicians have at one point called Vienna home as it has continued to embrace its musical tradition and propel classical music into the present day and future.
Austria is so steeped in music that musicians the world over consider a performance tour here as a musical pilgrimage to the cradle of Western Civilization’s musical heritage. To combine performances in exciting and historical venues with on-the-spot exposure to the music of the Masters is an enriching musical and educational experience.
