Festspielhaus St. Pölten
The Festspielhaus St. Pölten () is a Festspielhaus in St. Pölten, the capital of Lower Austria. It is located next to the Landesmuseum (museum of the country of Lower Austria), the Ausstellungshalle (exhibition hall), the Landesbibliothek (public library of the country of Lower Austria), the Landesarchiv (archive of the country of Lower Austria) and the Klangturm in the cultural district of St. Pölten. The Festspielhaus was opened on March 1, 1997. Already one year later the house was regularly used for music theatre and dance. Since September 2009 the German dancer, choreographer and director Joachim Schloemer is the artistic director of Festspielhaus St. Pölten. In September 2013 Brigitte Fürle, former artistic director of the spielzeit’europa, Theatre- and dance season of the Berliner Festspiele, will be his successor. The Festspielhaus is also residency of the Tonkünstlerorchester Niederöstereich, the orchestra of Lower Austria, which presents about 15 concerts, operas – contemporary and classic ones – and other performances in the Festspielhaus each year. Andres Orozco-Estrada is the principal conductor, additionally guest conductors like Julia Jones, Alan Buribayev, Claus Peter Flor, Paul Goodwin, Jun Märkl, Christian Muthspiel, Yutaka Sado or Thomas Zehetmair are leading the orchestra. Following the Venezuelan video game modifier Victor Morales, the Swiss musician Etienne Abelin, the Flemish-Moroccan choreographer and dancer Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Italian guitarist and composer Maurizio Grandinetti, Austrian dancer and choreographer Doris Uhlich and Austrian musician and composer Christian Muthspiel the current artists in residence are Australian dancer and choreographer Grayson Millwood and German frame-drummer and percussionist Murat Coskun. The Festspielhaus St. Pölten presents about 70 productions each season. Over 70,000 guests attend the performances every year. About 4,000 people are owners of season tickets for the Festspielhaus St. Pölten. During the festivals keyboard music, Polifonica, Nox Illuminata and Österreich TANZT artists like Marianne Mendt, Leif Ove Andsnes, Edson Cordeiro, Guy Klucevsek or Otto Lechner will be performing in Festspielhaus. The Festspielhaus aims to offer children and young people experience-orientated access to cultural programmes. It offers workshops, school performances, opera workshops and youth projects. In the past season newly opened performance venues and sites for exchanges between the audience and the artists have become locations for cultural provision in the best sense of the word: Box, Café Publik, Jugendklub/300, Forbidden City, parcours, workshop series, Daily CyberSoaps of CyberLab 2010 and tango. Through the immediacy of the newly conceived stages in the Box and Café Publik and through the numerous workshops and labs on the two rehearsal stages, all these formats have offered visitors the opportunity to participate intensively in the artistic events. With various participatory projects it has been possible to include people of all age groups in artistic processes and to promote their involvement with social issues, their creative attitude to and sensitisation for music and dance. Café Publik, curated by Andreas Fränzl, was opened in September 2009 and has already established itself as a performance venue, a workshop and communication platform. Every Wednesday – four times a month – the tango community gathers in the