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Since 2002, Montblanc has been the project sponsor of the Salzburg Festival and is financing every year the Young Directors Project, a theatre competition for international directors and their ensembles.

In addition to this successful involvement, in cooperation with the Salzburg Festival, the culture brand Montblanc will be launching a new, international opera project: From 2008, the Young Singers Project powered by Montblanc will offer selected young talents the unique opportunity, throughout the entire duration of the Salzburg Festival, to not only train their voice and acting skills, but also to work with big names of the opera world, to take part in rehearsals, rehearse parts and, if required, to even get involved on the opera stage as an understudy.

Lang Lang™ at the Salzburg Festival 2008

On Monday 28th, two of the world's leading pianists joined for a concert: Lang Lang™ and the Argentinean Daniel Barenboim. Both played compositions of Maurice Ravel, Béla Bartók and Franz Liszt.

The concert was followed by a champagne reception given in the honour of the artist and chairman of the Montblanc Cultural Foundation Lang Lang™. Only selected guests were invited to see Lang Lang™ receiving a Montblanc Nightfliht Document Case. Opera singer and initiator of Montblanc's latest cultural project, the Young Singers Project, was given the donation pen "Arturo Toscanini" by Ingrid Roosen-Trinks (Director Montblanc Cultural Foundation).

Young Singers Project
Premiere at the Salzburg Festival 2008

The newly launched Young Singers Project is personally supervised by the two opera stars Michael Schade and Barbara Bonney and actively supported by Theatre Manager Prof. Jürgen Flimm, Festival President Dr. Helga Rabl-Stadler and Head of Artistic Administration Evamaria Wieser.

A total of 11 young and highly talented singers from all over the world will be invited to Salzburg. The candidates were selected on an international level from more than 200 entrants in auditions in New York, London, Toronto and Salzburg.

In addition to the working sessions, there will be six master classes that are open to the public. These will take place between 24.7.2008 and 21.8.2008 in the university hall of the Salzburg Mozarteum and will be held by Christa Ludwig, Barbara Bonney and Michael Schade, Jürgen Flimm, Thomas Quasthoff, Franz Grundheber and Malcolm Martineau. The highlight of the Young Singers Project is the final concert as part of the Montblanc Young Singers Gala, which will be held with the participation of the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg and conducted by Maestro Ivor Bolton on 27 August 2008. In this concert, all 11 “stars of tomorrow” will once again introduce themselves and present their voices.

Young Directors Project
at the Salzburg Festival 2008
Press Conference

“The Young Directors Project makes it possible – independently of the market – to promote artists and companies who would otherwise go unrecognised. They can work freely and independently – without any artistic interference!” says Theatre Director Dr. Thomas Oberender.

The successful theatre project is now in its seventh year and is becoming even more international. As well as a German-language production, there are now for the first time ones from Japan, Norway and the USA in the context of the Young Directors Project.

The whole theatre project will be completely financed by Montblanc, as in every year. In addition to the sponsoring finance, Montblanc donates every year part of the revenue from the sale of the Salzburg Special Edition “Hommage à Max Reinhardt”. This has made it possible to put on more productions in the previous years and also allowed an American, Scandinavian and Asian company to participate for the first time in 2008. Since 2002, the international culture brand Montblanc has supported the Young Directors Project within the context of the Salzburg Festival. Initiated by Prof. Jürgen Flimm, it is an exciting competition for young, international theatre directors and their companies. The aim of the project is to present young artists whose work is considered pioneering for the future of the theatre.

For the first time this year, the four young directors and their companies include theatre groups from the USA,
Norway and Japan. The fourth production is from Germany. All performances are new productions and will be shown
in the original language with English or German super-titles and so appeal to the heterogeneous, international
Festival public.

 

The VIP jury is the same as last year’s: Dr. Helga Rabl-Stadler (President of the Salzburg Festival), actress Sunnyi Melles, Peter Simonischek (Salzburg’s ‘Everyman’), Thaddaeus Ropac (Ropac Gallery) and culture critic Wolfgang Kralicek.

In addition to sponsoring the whole project, Montblanc donates the prize for the best piece of direction. The winner
of the Montblanc Young Directors Award 2008 will receive prize money amounting to €10,000 and the Montblanc
Max Reinhardt fountain-pen, which was specially designed for this project.

Young Directors Project
at the Salzburg Festival 2008
Premiere and reception

On July 31st Montblanc celebrated the premiere of the Young Directors Project 2008 followed by a reception in honour of the artist at gallery Ropac. The actress and Montblanc Brand Ambassador Eva Green was invited to Salzburg and so was Clemens Schick. The German actor and this year's "Death" in Salzburg's "Everyman" met Eva Green at the set of "Casino Royal".

Iris Berben and her partner Heiko Kiesow joined the premiere party as well as Bianca Jagger, Sonja Kirchberger (Montblanc de la Culture Arts Patronages' jury member), Marie Gräfin Waldburg (Bunte), Corinne Flick, Sunnyi Melles (actress and Young Directors Projects' jury member) and Thaddaeus Ropac (Gallery owner and Young Directors Projects' jury member).

Young Singers Project
at the Salzburg Festival 2008
Final concert

On Wednesday, the 27th of August, 2008, at 6:00 p.m. the highlight of the Young Singers Project powered by Montblanc took place in the Mozarteum in Salzburg: at the final concert the 11 talented young singers Ezgi Kutlu (Turkey), Levente Molnár (Hungary), Angela Kerrison (Botswana), Joel Prieto (Spain), Ekaterina Sadovnikova (Russia), Viktor Rud (Ukraine), Lauren Segal (South Africa), Thorsten Büttner (Germany), Aundi Marie Moore (USA), Jekaterina Tretjakova (Lithuania) and Shen Yang (China) presented the results of their work in the masterclasses of the last two months.

With an impressive program from different operas, accompanied by the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg conducted by Ivor Bolton: Don Giovanni, Romeo and Julia and The Magic Flute. 600 guests enjoyed the two-hour concert at the Mozarteum. This program is personally supervised by the two opera stars Michael Schade and Barbara Bonney, who are working closely with Professor Jürgen Flimm, former professor of drama at Hamburg University and Evamaria Wieser, the festival's artistic administrator.

Among the guests were Joan Collins and her husband Percy Gibson, Montblanc Brand Ambassadors Katherine Jenkins and Mojca Erdmann as well as actor Clemens Schick.

Please catch a glimpse of the pictures of this gala concert at the Young Singers Project tab.