Austrian Cultural Forum Presents Mathius Hausmann FROM AUSTRIA WITH LOVE

The Austrian Cultural Forum NYC will Present FROM AUSTRIA WITH LOVE, sung by Mathias Hausmann and accompanied by pianist Crauig Rutenberg tonight at 7:30 PM.  Admission is free but tickets must be reserved by calling 212-319-5300 ext. 222.

FROM AUSTRIA WITH LOVE features songs by Austrian composters who lived in American including Mahler, Korngold, Zeisl, Krenek, Stolz and Kalman.  

BIOGRAPHY of MATHIAS HAUSMANN
Born in Graz, Austria, baritone Mathias Hausmann studied with Karl Ernst Hoffmann as well as with Walter Berry in Vienna, and Ryland Davies at the Royal College of Music. He is especially grateful to Thomas Hampson, from whom he gained many artistic instincts.
Equally at home in opera and song, Hausmann has been heard at festivals such as Salzburg and Edinburgh, the London Handel Festival, the Ravinia Festival in Chicago, and has performed at such venues as the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Théatre des Champs-Elysées; the Hollywood Bowl, the Bunka Kaikan Hall in Tokyo, the Danish Royal Opera House, the Teatro Teresa Care?o in Caracas, the New Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv, the opera houses of Antwerp, Gent, and Berne, London's Wigmore Hall, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Herkulessaal and Prinzregententheater Munich, ass well as the Philharmonies in Luxembourg, Munich, Düsseldorf, Essen and Cologne; and the Vienna Statesoper, Konzerthaus, and Musikverein among many others. Conductors with whom he has worked include Daniel Barenboim, Riccardo Chailly, Karel Mark Chichon, Sir Colin Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, Adam Fischer, Asher Fisch, Ton Koopman, Yannik Nézet-Séguin, Hellmuth Rilling, and Sebastian Weigle. He has become widely recognized for a series of international TV, DVD, and CD productions from the Salzburg Festival, the Teatro alla Scala, and the Mörbisch Festival, and was a member of the Volksoper in Vienna, where, within a very short time, has become the darling of the audiences. He also considers Milan's Teatro alla Scala a second artistic home where he was part of the prestigious opening night with Daniel Barenboim.

Hausmann's most recent and upcoming engagements include his debut this Fall in the leading part of Danilo in a new production of The Merry Widow at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires; return engagements to Japan and the Teatro alla Scala, and performances of Mozart's C-minor Mass with Christopher Hogwood. In the fall of 2012 Mathias Hausman will be singing the part of Malatesta in Donizetti's Don Pasquale at the Cuvillies Theater in Munich in a new production directed by Brigitte Fassbaender. He makes his debut with the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich in February 2012 singing the part of Guglielmo in the production of Cosi fan tutte, which will also go to Hong Kong as a "Gastspiel" of the Staatsoper. His recital program, Songs of War, alongside Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave and pianist Julius Drake, will be presented internationally in 2012.
Mathias Hausmann will be accompanied by Pianist Craig Rutenberg, "whose playing ranged from sterling directness to expansive beauty," (San Francisco Chronicle) has collaborated with many of the world's greatest vocalists and is recognized as one of the most distinguished accompanists on the stage today.

PROGRAM NOTE BY MATHIAS HAUSMANN, JUNE, 2011
As a young Austrian who was born more than 30 years after the horrors of World War II ended, it is almost an obligation to look back closely at this war time. Especially as a musician I can look back through an artist's eye and try to understand the unbelievable suffering of the artists of that time, through their work and their biographies. The two starting points for any new recital program are the music but also the poetry. I mostly look at the text, the poem first and see if I can really connect to it. In the case of the composers that I have selected for this concert there is a third aspect: It is the biography, the life story of mostly Jewish composers that is something I very strongly connect with. One aspect that always interested me very much is the aspect of expulsion. How does someone who already has had a great career like Zemlinsky feel if he suddenly has to flee his country and give up everything that he built up in his lifetime? How does it feel to be forced to leave your home, your city and your country and finding yourself in a strange world you don't know and where nobody knows you. Does one have the strength to start over again? how do you build up a second career? And when will it be possible to come back to your own country? And will you be able to continue your career back home?....A very important connection for me was to meet with relatives of the composers like the Schoenberg family and Barbara Zeisl and also Gladys Krenek and others. These encounters give an even stronger connection through first hand accounts, visiting the homes of the composers or studying their autographs.