Gustav Mahler Academy

The Gustav Mahler Academy was founded in 1999 by Claudio Abbado to create a place where exceptionally talented young musicians from all over the world could be exposed under ideal conditions to musical stimuli that would be decisive for the rest of their musical lives. In close collaboration with outstanding teachers and soloists, they work on their individual playing as well as on their skills as chamber musicians, through which they carry a highly communicative way of playing into the orchestra.

With its master classes, chamber music workshops and orchestral projects, the Gustav Mahler Academy is today a magnet for outstanding young musicians from around the world. The Academy enjoys a close collaboration with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, as well as with conductors such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniel Harding, Lahav Shani, Matthias Pintscher and Pablo Heras-Casado.

With the Mahler Academy Orchestra’s originalklang project, the Academy has made an innovative contribution to the reception of the music of Gustav Mahler. The project, which has been celebrated by audiences and press alike, is a co-production with the Euregio-Kulturzentrum Toblach and is dedicated to the performance of Gustav Mahler’s music on original instruments, as well as to the reconstruction of sounds and playing techniques from the turn of the Viennese fin de siècle.

The Mahler Academy Orchestra’s recording of Gustav Mahler’s Ninth Symphony on period instruments under Philipp von Steinaecker was released by Alpha Classics in 2024. In the same year the Mahler Academy Orchestra went on its first international tour, performing Mahler’s Fifth Symphony on period instruments at the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Kölner Philharmonie and the Philharmonie de Paris.

In the summer of 2025 the Gustav Mahler Academy will for the first time offer a course for young singers. Focus of this project will be the study Mahler songs. The young singers will present their work in the Academy’s chamber music concerts and as soloists with the Mahler Academy Orchestra under Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

The Gustav Mahler Academy is part of the Ferruccio Busoni – Gustav Mahler Foundation.

First honorary President:

Claudio Abbado (1933–2014)

President:

Patrizia Spadafora

Artistic Director:

Peter Paul Kainrath

Curator Gustav Mahler Academy:

Philipp von Steinaecker

Administration and Production:

Alessandra Caramaschi
caramaschi@busoni-mahler.eu

Chiara Narduzzi
narduzzi@busoni-mahler.eu

Design and Digital strategy:

Monika Torresan
torresan@busoni-mahler.eu