Verdi is the Mozart of Wagner

Born in Vienna, Cornelius Obonya comes from a dynasty of actors: his parents are Elisabeth Orth and Hanns Obonya (died 1978), his maternal grandparents were Paula Wessely and Attila Hörbiger.
At the age of 17, he went to the Max Reinhardt Seminar to study acting, but left after a year to study with the cabaret artist Gerhard Bronner. Bronner was one of the most important encounters in his career, as was Emmy Werner, the former director of the Volkstheater Vienna, and Andrea Breth, with whom he worked for many years at the Schaubühne Berlin and the Burgtheater Vienna. Cornelius Obonya is married to director Carolin Pienkos and father of their son Attila.

For his first role at the Volkstheater, Eugene in Brighton Beach Memoirs by Neil Simon, Cornelius Obonya was awarded the Karl Skraup Prize for young talent in 1989; the following year he received the O.E. Hasse Prize. He already worked with Andrea Breth during his engagement at Berlin's Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz (1992-1999), followed by Edward Bond's The Sea (Hollarcut), Lessing's Emilia Galotti (Pirro), Schiller's Don Carlos (Domingo), Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard (Trofimov), Tennessee Williams' The Cat on the Hot Tin Roof (Gooper) and Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm (Paul Werner) at the Burgtheater from 2000. At the Burgtheater, Cornelius Obonya has also played also under the direction of Peter Zadek, Sven-Eric Bechtolf, Karin Beier, Carolin Pienkos, Anselm Weber, Stefan Bachmann and Falk Richter; he was Caligula in Albert Camus' play of the same name (director: Jan Lauwers), Herr von Rappelkopf in Ferdinand Raimund's Der Alpenkönig und der Menschenfeind (director: Michael Schachermaier) and most recently Caius Martius Coriolanus in Shakespeare's Coriolan (director: Carolin Pienkos).
In 2008/2009 he played and sang in Mel Brook's Broadway musical The Producers at the Ronacher in Vienna and at the Admiralspalast in Berlin. In the 2009/10 season, he made a guest appearance at the Theater in der Josefstadt as the teacher in Jugend ohne Gott by Christopher Hampton based on Ödön von Horváth (director: Torsten Fischer). He celebrated great success in 2010/11 with his solo evening Cordoba - Das Rückspiel by Florian Scheuba and Rubert Hennig at the Rabenhof Theater in Vienna. For this he received the "Salzburger Stier 2010" and a nomination for the "Special Prize of the Nestroy Award 2010". In the same year, he was named "Actor of the Year" by the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (Ö1). In 2012 and 2013, he began his collaboration with the Stadttheater Walfischgasse, where he appeared as Andrew Wyke in Revanche by Anthony Shaffer and as Leroy Brooks in the world premiere of C(r)sah, written by Rupert Henning and also directed by Carolin Pienkos.

Cornelius Obonya made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2002 as Paul Kreindl in Andrea Breth's production of Schnitzler's Das weite Land. In 2012, he was Monsieur Jourdain in the opera Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss/Hugo von Hofmannsthal, based on Molière's Bürger als Edelmann in the adaptation by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. Cornelius Obonya was celebrated as Jedermann in the Salzburg Festival summers from 2013 to 2016.

On the big screen, Obonya has appeared in Spain (directed by Anja Salomonowitz), in Peter Patzak's Kottan ermittelt - rien ne va plus, in Egon Schiele (directed by Dieter Berner) and as Konrad in Die Trapp Familie - ein Leben für die Musik (directed by Ben Verbong). He has also appeared in numerous TV productions, including the crime series Tatort and CopStories, Nachtschicht by Lars Becker and TV films such as Polt and Die Hebamme. Since 2018, he has appeared in the series Meiberger - Im Kopf des Täters and in the Altaussee crime series on ServusTV. He also shot for Costa-Gavras in his film Adults in the Room in 2019.

First principal cellist of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra until 2012 and third-generation member of the orchestra since 1967 (his grandfather was principal clarinettist, his father violinist). He has been a member of the Hofmusikkapelle in Vienna since 1997.
Born in Vienna, he received his first cello lessons at the age of six from Ewald Winkler. He then studied at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna with Richard Krotschak and Emanuel Brabec. Since his early youth, the cellist's musical biography has been characterized by intensive international concert activity as a soloist and chamber musician.

Franz Bartolomey won prizes at the international cello competitions in Budapest (1963), Moscow (1966) and Vienna (1967). He was a founding member of the Küchl Quartet (Musikverein Quartet) from 1975-1989, since when he has been intensively involved in chamber music in various formations. He has created various very successful literary-musical projects with the castle actors Birgit Minichmayr, Florian Teichtmeister, Peter Matic, Michael Heltau, Peter Schimonischek, Cornelius Obonya and Klaus Maria Brandauer.

Solo concerts under Leonard Bernstein, James Levine, Daniel Barenboim, Bernhard Haitink, Sir André Previn, Mariss Jansons, Sir Simon Rattle and Sir Roger Norrington at the subscription concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic, at the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Festival, the "Wien modern" festival, the Carinthian Summer and at international festivals such as the Lucerne Music Festival and the Pacific Festival in Sapporo.

As a chamber music partner he has worked with Sir André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, Oleg Maisenberg, Helmut Deutsch, Ernst Kovacic, Rudolf Buchbinder, Pavel Gililov, Tzimon Barto, Stefan Vladar, Pierre Amoyal, Gil Shaham, Julian Rachlin, Mischa Maisky, Wolfgang Schulz, Sylvia McNair, Barbara Bonney, Kathleen Battle, Jessye Norman and Thomas Hampson, among others.

TV, CD and radio recordings with Franz Bartolomey include solo works and chamber music. The recordings of Richard Strauss' "Don Quixote" with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir André Previn, released by TELARC, and the cello sonatas by Johannes Brahms and Richard Strauss on RCA deserve special mention. A CD with the cello sonatas by Johann Nepomuk Hummel and Fryderyk Chopin was released by NAXOS in February 2005.
From 2004-06 Franz Bartolomey was also first solo cellist of the "Festival Orchestra Lucerne" under Claudio Abbado, as well as in the opera houses of Berlin and Dresden.
Since the fall of 2014, he has also been principal cellist at the Royal Opera House in Copenhagen.

Franz Bartolomey was awarded the Grand Decoration of Honor in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria, the Decoration of Honor in Gold for Services to the Province of Vienna, the Cross of Honor for Science and Art, the Decoration of Honor in Gold of the Province of Salzburg, the Medal of Honor of the City of Vienna and the Mozart Medal of the Mozart Community of Vienna. In June 2012, he was awarded the Ring of Honor of the Vienna State Opera.
His book was published in 2012: Franz Bartolomey, "Was zählt, ist der Augenblick"- Die Bartolomeys 120 Jahre an der Wiener Staatsoper, Amathea Verlag Wien, 2012
He plays a violoncello by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume, Paris around 1860

The Upper Austrian's musical career began at the age of nine and became his vocation in 1990 after studying at the University of Music in Vienna. Jazz and French classical saxophone were the branches that led him to a scholarship abroad to the Berklee School of Music in Boston (USA) for jazz in 1993 and to Paris for classical saxophone in 1998.

Since 2000, he has been a member of Klangforum Wien, one of today's most renowned ensembles for new music. Concert tours have taken him to Italy, Spain, Portugal, France, England, Germany and New York. Guest appearances with orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Rhineland-Palatinate and new music ensembles in the Vienna area (including Die Reihe Wien, Ensemble 21.Jhdt). Performances with jazz ensembles such as the Vienna Art Orchestra, the Upper Austrian Jazzorchestra, the big band Nouvelle Cousine, the Jazzbigband Graz, C. Muthspiel's ensemble Motley Mothertongue, various bands such as Duckbilled Platypus with Martin Siewert, Third Movement with Peter Herbert, BPM with Terry Bozzio, Saxofour with Wolfgang Puschnig, Flip Phillip Dectet, Robert Bachner Bigband, musicians such as Roberto Rodriguez (NYC), Peter Madsen, Elliot Sharp, Wolfgang Muthspiel, George Garzone, Django Bates, Reggie Washington, Rodney Holmes, Will Calhoun, Jamey Haddad, Wayne Horwitz, Don Byron, as well as in the pop field with Maria Bill and Willi Resetarits. Theater music at the Burgtheater, the Theater an der Wien and the Volkstheater round off his improvisational activities as a sideman.

Gerald Preinfalk is mainly active as a composer for his own bands. (Tangogo, Paier/Preinfalk, Giuffre Zone, etc.) In 2001 he was awarded the "Hans Koller Prize" in the category "Newcomer of the Year" for jazz. In 2003 he was commissioned to compose a piece for the final festival "Ringelreigen" of the Tyrolean Festival together with director Werner Heinrichmöller. In 2005, Bernhard Lang composed the 40-minute solo work "DW14" for saxophone, jazz band and orchestra for him and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.
Professor of classical saxophone at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz since 2012.

The Austrian accordionist and composer studied folk music at the Johann Joseph Fux Conservatory in Graz, classical accordion at the University of Music and has already made a name for himself as a jazz musician in Austria.
His musical approaches and experiences are subtly blended in his compositions, combining the complex spontaneity of jazz, the spirited passion of tango nuevo, the disciplined momentum of classical music with the multi-layered traditions of European folk music.
The quintessence of Christian Bakanic's work is constant movement, perpetual exchange and, last but not least, the exciting search for new possibilities. He fuels his creative engine with curiosity and passion, while convincing his listeners with authenticity and virtuosity.

Numerous first prizes at harmonica competitions (Steir. Harmonica competition Grazer Messe, Austrian competitions "Tag der Harmonika",...). First prize winner at the national competition "Prima la Musica" (1997 and 1999) for classical accordion, numerous concerts as a soloist and in ensembles (Folksmilch: www.folksmilch.at, Beefolk: www.beefolk.com, Trio Infernal, Mala Junta, Tanguango, Kahiba, Bordunikum, Scurdia...) in Europe, Japan, Argentina, Hong Kong, Iceland,...
Collaboration with various musicians from different genres such as Wolfgang Muthspiel, Heinrich von Kalnein, Klaus Johns, Miguel Herz- Kestranek, Josef Pichler, Alex Deutsch, Markus Schirmer, Gwylim Simcock, Wolfgang Puschnig, Jon Sass..... In recent years Christian Bakanic has also been active as a composer; composition commission for "Grabenfest der ÖBV 2006", various commissions for theater music (Bully me, Ein Schaf fürs Leben, Mein Hundemund,...), compositions in the fields of jazz, folk and new music.