Prelude to five further episodes: With Christian Kolonovits, Gert Steinbäcker and dancer Nicola Anna Gstöttner
Vienna (OTS) – While applications for the classical music support award “Golden Note 2024” are open until March 17th (details at
https://im-foundation.com/auditions-der-goldenen-note-2024/) run,
whose finale will be shown on ORF 2 on May 31st, the fourth season of the ORF young talent series “Stars & Talents” will enter its second half on March 3rd with another five editions. Leona König, initiator and presenter of both formats, accompanies up-and-coming talents – all finalists of the “Golden Note 2023” – part of their journey every Sunday at 5.55 p.m. on ORF and brings them together with established stars. It starts with an unusual artistic encounter:
Composer, conductor and music producer Christian Kolonovits, supported by STS icon Gert Steinbäcker, meets 14-year-old dancer Nicola Anna Gstöttner. The other prominent protagonists of the season are the Janoska Ensemble (with violinist Ana Maria Advahov on March 10th), soprano Ildikó Raimondi (with trumpeter Johannes Doppler on March 17th) and violinist Lisa Batiashvili (with dancer Noemi De Carvalho on March 24th). . March). As the fifth and final episode of the fourth “Stars & Talents” season, ORF 2 will show the highlights of the semifinals for the “Golden Note” 2024 on May 20th. Dacapos of the episodes will be available after the broadcast every Thursday at 11:10 a.m. on ORF 2.
Musical rainbow: From Eurovision Song Contest and Austropop to opera
The focus of the “Stars & Talents” edition on March 3rd is the renowned composer, conductor and versatile music producer Christian Kolonovits and the 14-year-old expressive dancer Nicola Anna Gstöttner from Piding in Bavaria.
The Burgenland native, who has followed the careers of numerous musicians such as Waterloo & Robinson, Wolfgang Ambros, Georg Danzer, Rainhard Fendrich, Ludwig Hirsch, Maria Bill, Stefanie Werger, the EAV, Opus, STS, describes himself modestly as an arranger, producer and sometimes also Pianist accompanied him, as a “good collaborator in Austropop”. But Kolonovits’ “musical rainbow” (quote Leona König) is very colorful and broad: he took part in the Eurovision Song Contest three times – the first time in Edinburgh in 1972 as the pianist of the “Milestones”, the other two times as a conductor and arranger – , wrote film music, worked for the Linzer Klangwolke, among others, worked with the rock band “The Scorpions”, with orchestras such as the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra as well as with classical music greats such as the “Three Tenors” Luciano Pavarotti and Plácido Domingo and José Carreras – for the latter he even composed the opera “El Juez”, which premiered in 2014.
“I never differentiated between classical and pop music, but only between music that I like,” says Christian Kolonovits in an interview with Leona König. “Music is a language that conveys love.” But his heart also beats for youth work: Among other things, Kolonovits was involved in a children’s music project in Moldova for seven years.
For “Stars & Talents” Kolonovits invited Gert Steinbäcker – Austropop veteran and frontman of STS, with whom he has worked together and been friends for around 30 years – to sing Nicola Anna Gstöttner’s dance performance with the legendary hit “Grandfather”. to support.
Tell stories and express feelings through dance
Before the show act at the end of the program, Leona König meets the young artist to dance on the ice at the Vienna Ice Skating Club. In a humorous conversation, Nicola talks about her dance career so far, which began when she was three years old: first with ballet, then with modern dance, which has been her passion ever since. She has been attending a contemporary class at the Austria Dance Academy in St. Johann in Tirol since she was ten. She wants to tell stories and express her feelings through her art. “What I like about dancing is that it is a special language that doesn’t need words. For me, that’s the miracle of dancing, that you can tell stories to people who may speak a completely different language and yet they still understand you,” says the 14-year-old, who is also an enthusiastic skier and is also active in the ÖSV youth squad.
With additional training as a dance teacher, she now and again teaches small children, which she also enjoys. Nicola has many plans for her future: First of all, this year she will graduate from the dance academy, later she will graduate from school, after which she can also imagine dancing in a company, as well as studying journalism and communication sciences.
She approaches the choreography for her “Stars & Talents” performance with great joy, but also respect. “It is a challenge for me because the song has great meaning for Austria. But I have the feeling that we have choreographed something good and that’s why I’m really looking forward to being able to present it.”