Just in: Salzburg has new concerts chief

Message received:

 On 1 May 2025, Axel Hiller will succeed Florian Wiegand as the director of the Concert and Media department.

“It is a great joy for me to join Markus Hinterhäuser in determining the concert programme of the Salzburg Festival. It means a return to Salzburg, an environment I am very familiar with, and joining a strong Festival team. As part of that team, I am looking forward to meeting the challenges of the upcoming rebuilding measures, which will demand a lot of flexibility in our concert planning”, says Axel Hiller, designated director of Concerts and Media at the Salzburg Festival.

The concert office is responsible for planning the concert programme, in exchange and close collaboration with the artistic director of the festival. It also prepares and implements all concert productions of the Salzburg Festival at Whitsun and in the summer and is responsible for the planning and implementation of the biennial Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award (YCA).

As head of the Media department, Axel Hiller will coordinate all recordings and broadcasts of entire works via television and radio with the Festival’s exclusive media partner Unitel.
 
Short Biography:
Holding degrees in business administration, musicology and cultural management, Axel Heller (b. 1989) has been responsible for artistic planning and operations at the Vienna Symphony Orchestra since 2020. He gained previous professional experience working at the Austrian Cultural Forum in Washington D.C., the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, the Grafenegg Festival and as a production manager in the Salzburg Festival’s concert department from 2016 to 2020.