No News. The Association Européenne des Conservatoires, Académies de Musique et Musikhochschulen (AEC) is a trans-national organisation with the aim of networking music colleges across Europe and jointly maintaining high international standards of education. Between 5 and 8 November 2025, the AEC will hold a congress at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, which will focus on topics such as leadership, resilience, professional skills and health care within university-level music education. Department of Conducting, Choir Conducting & Wind Orchestra Conducting+43 676 88122 448chenur.nahimi_zahabi@moz.ac.at The exciting programme awaiting the 400 guests includes not only keynotes, lectures and discussions, but also concerts and musical performances. One of these is a performance by the choir ‘Designing Voices’ on 7 November in the Großer Saal of the Mozarteum Foundation. What is unusual about this choir is that it does not actually exist – at least not in the way we are used to with other choirs. Stephan Höllwerth spoke with the ensemble's musical director, Jörn Andresen, to find out more. "Designing Voices" – that's an interesting name for a vocal ensemble. Am I right in thinking that there is more to it than we see on the surface? Could you tell us briefly what the founding idea of the ensemble is? How did it come about and how are the members recruited? The choir's name is based on the theme of this year's EXPO 2025 in Osaka, “Designing Our Future”. The basic idea of sending a choir from European universities there as cultural ambassadors came from Elisabeth Gutjahr, who, in addition to her role as rector of the Mozarteum, is also vice-president of the umbrella organisation of European music academies. The focus of our performance in the Austrian Pavilion in Osaka was on the phenomenon of the “voice” as such: not only the speech sounds or music the human voice is capable of, but the voice as a fundamental means of expression and communication, especially for the younger generation when it comes to the future of our world. The aim was to take one singer from each university to Osaka, rehearse there and give concerts together. Behind this essentially pluralistic idea is the desire to improve communication and understanding between the choir members' countries of origin. This led to singers from most European countries singing together – from Germany, Austria and Switzerland to Italy, France, the UK, Poland, Portugal and Spain. In May, the choir spent two weeks rehearsing and performing in Osaka, in a country that is known for its flourishing choral scene. What impression did your stay there make on you? Where did you perform and how was the reaction of the audience? Did you find opportunities for cultural exchange? The rehearsals took place at Kobe College, which was originally a Catholic girls' college and now offers a wide range of arts and science subjects. We established closer contact with the choral directors working there. Four Japanese students also took part in the Designing Voices performance. I particularly remember the concert in Matsumoto because several local choirs were present and treated us to a musical interlude at the reception afterwards. We received the strongest reactions from the local audience with works by Mozart and Michael Haydn. The Salzburg folk song “I tua was I will” was particularly well received. I believe this reflects what people abroad associate with Austria. So now Designing Voices is performing a programme titled “Echoes from Osaka” as part of the AEC Congress in Salzburg. Apart from the fact that some pieces are being performed here again, how did this programme come about? Does the programme selection represent the spirit of Designing Voices in any way? It took a lot of time, research and detailed work before I was really happy with the programme in its current form. The aim was to showcase choral music from all over Europe. I was lucky enough to be able to draw on a special network, namely the World Youth Choir, with whom I worked in 2024. I am still in close contact with some of the singers and they provided me with valuable inspiration. As a result, the programme in its current form features a wide variety of styles, from baroque to contemporary music, with genres ranging from choral songs to protest songs, literary settings, hymns and prayers, and small choral scenes whose dramatic structure is reminiscent of opera. The composers include such illustrious names as Ravel, Britten, Rautavaara and Whitacre, to name but a few. We only auditioned the singers once the programme had been finalised. Those who will be singing therefore had no direct influence on it, but they did help with the pronunciation of the foreign-language texts during the rehearsal phase. One focus of this year's AEC Congress in Salzburg is the interaction between music and health. In recent years, a lot of research has been conducted on this topic, supported in part by the Mozarteum University, with one aim being to find out how singing affects us mentally, physically and socially. Based on your own experience as a choral conductor and pedagogue, do you see a correlation between singing and health? Does singing make/keep you healthy? Singing - both solo and in a choir - definitely have many positive effects, although I wouldn't go so far as to directly link them to the healing of pathological conditions. Ultimately, what every choral ensemble is about is resonating with other voices, both musically and at a human level. This manifests itself in immediate aspects such as intonation, team spirit and a common goal, but it also extends into the realm of the soul: what choral singers are ultimately seeking is the enormous feeling of happiness that arises when the music “takes off”. This is the reward for what can sometimes be a laborious rehearsal period. A prerequisite for such flow experiences is the intense emotional identification of each individual with the whole. The commitment required is sometimes considerable: I remember that the singers in Japan sang for up to six hours a day, which is a lot even for professionals. On top of that, there were three hours of travel time to and from the venue! Something like that pushes you to your physical and motivational limits, but it also brings you closer together. I am very grateful to have experienced this together with the young people and am particularly looking forward to presenting our “Echo from Osaka” programme to the audience here in Salzburg. Zur Veranstaltung 7.11.2025 08:30 pm Großer Saal Echoes of Osaka Chorkonzert im Rahmen des AEC-Kongresses: 28 Gesangsstudierende europäischer Hochschulen präsentieren A Cappella-Werke von Britten, Haydn, Mozart, Rautavaara, Whitacre, di Bianco u.a. Concert · Tickets (Opens in new tab)
