“She consistently impressed all of us with her decisive temperament, her profound musicality, her intelligence, imagination and curiosity. She knows exactly what she wants and her character brings a most enjoyable atmosphere to her work. Her abilities to lead and inspire a team are exactly what a conductor in the 21st century needs.” (Mark Stringer)
At just 13, Clara Wagsteiner got in touch with Fabio Luisi who gave her the opportunity to conduct the Wiener Symphoniker. After this key experience, she was sure and fully determined about her future as a conductor.
Clara Wagsteiner completed her studies in Orchestral Conducting with Mark Stringer at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in 2020, graduating with honors, being at the same time already a conducting fellow and assistant conductor of the Bergische Symphoniker in Wuppertal, Germany. She was selected for the Karajan Competition of the academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Besides Stringer, her main teachers were Karl Kamper (Choir Conducting, Mozarteum Salzburg), Yuji Yuasa (Orchestral Conducting Technique), Thomas Lang, Ingrun Fussenegger, Johannes Hiemetsberger and Alois Glassner (Choir Conducting, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna), Martin Lichtfuss and Gesine Schröder (Composition and Music Theory), Barbara Moser (Piano), Vladimir Kiradjiev and Konrad Leitner (Opera Conducting). She has benefited from conducting masterclasses with Douglas Bostock, Mark Heron, Clark Rundell, Johannes Schlaefli, Marin Alsop and Barneby Smith.
In 2021, she put a long-held dream into action, founding a virtuoso chamber orchestra, the Alma Mahler Philharmonie, which shares new concert settings and programs with its audience, focusing on music from the 20th and 21st centuries. In 2022, she was selected to take part in the Akademie Musiktheater heute of the Deutsche Bank Stiftung and was granted a “Startstipendium” (scholarship) for Music and Performing Arts by the Austrian Ministry of the Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport for 2022/23.
Clara Wagsteiner is used to conducting a wide repertoire ranging from opera to symphonic music, from the Renaissance to the present day. In addition, she regularly performs with choirs and vocal groups and has a special interest in choir-orchestra-repertoire. Recent highlights include her debut with the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz and the Südwestdeutsches Kammerorchester Pforzheim.
Upcoming projects in 2023/24 include concerts with the Alma Mahler Philharmonie at the Odeon Theatre in Vienna as well as staged productions at the Volkstheater Wien (humanistää) and at the Akademie Musiktheater heute (with the ensemble modern).
Clara Wagsteiner, who is also a composer, is passionate about contemporary pieces and music by composers who are hardly present in music historiography simply because of their gender or religion, thinking of Lili Boulanger, Hugo Kauder and Mélanie Bonis to name but a few of them. There is still so much fantastic music to be discovered!
September 2023
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