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LUX AETERNA - Church Concert in Oberaudorf

Conductor: Jennifer Condon
Choir of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl
Orchestra of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl

The Tiroler Festspiele Erl invites you to a free choral concert. On July 18, 2026, the festival will, so to speak, cross the Inn River border and make a guest appearance in Oberaudorf, Bavaria. The Festival Choir will perform 20th-century sacred music as well as a famous work by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at the Parish Church of Our Lady: the Ave Verum Corpus. The Festival Orchestra assists the choir with some pieces. Musical direction is shared by choir director Olga Yanum and Australian conductor Jennifer Condon.

            The busy choir of the Tyrolean Festival Erl performs in operas and concerts at the Festspielhaus and the Passionsspielhaus Erl, particularly often right now in July during the festival’s summer season. The choir used what little time remained to rehearse this concert program. The approximately one-hour musical journey begins with the moving hymn of praise Nunc dimittis by the famous Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. It features sacred choral music from Belarus and Russia, as well as the “eternal light” (Lux Aeterna), which the American composer Morten Johannes Lauridsen set to music, leading up to the finale with Mozart.

Programm:

Arvo Pärt (*1935)
Nunc dimittis

Oleg Khodosko (*1964)
Agnus Dei

Georgi Swiridow (1915–1998)
Molitva (Gebet)
Ljubov svjataja (Heilige Liebe)

Morten Johannes Lauridsen (*1943)
Lux Aeterna

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791)
Ave Verum Corpus D-Dur KV 618

Team

Jennifer Condon Conductor
Choir of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl

Founded in 2007, the Choir of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl focuses on the careful cultivation of individual voices. As part of the festival, the choir develops a wide range of projects, from a cappella programs to concert and opera productions. Since the opening of the Festspielhaus Erl in 2012, another focus has been on bel canto works and Verdi’s operas. Developing a Baroque choral sound in the works of Bach and his contemporaries is also a key focus of the ensemble’s work; since 2009, it has maintained close ties with Capella Minsk. Founded in 1940, this choral ensemble has made it its mission to preserve Belarusian folk music and to premiere works by modern and contemporary composers. After Lyudmila Yefimova had spent many years developing and shaping the choir’s quality, Olga Yanum took over as the ensemble’s director following her death in 2018.

Orchestra of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl

The music springs from the enthusiasm of a motivated and exceptionally well-prepared ensemble that has grown together over the years. The Orchestra of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl was first formed in the summer of 1999—and today, musicians from 20 nations play together. Already in its first year, the ensemble achieved unprecedented success, which would go on to bring international recognition to the the Orchestra of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl. Top young talents, musicians from major international orchestras, chamber music specialists, and lecturers come together annually in summer and winter—and since 2017, also in fall and spring—as part of the Orchestra of the Tiroler Festspiele Erl. Under the direction of festival founder Gustav Kuhn, the orchestra garnered rave reviews from international critics and cemented its reputation as one of the world’s finest Wagner orchestras. With the start of Jonas Kaufmann’s tenure as artistic director in September 2024, Asher Fisch—a conductor in high demand internationally in both opera and concert settings—has taken over the helm of the orchestra.