Alexander Müllenbach - Salzburg, 29.5.2011
Composer
Director of the International Summer Academy
University Mozarteum Salzburg
“I am delighted that I can thus honor Mrs. Astrid Rieder for her extraordinary merits to contemporary music in Salzburg and elsewhere. For several years now, Mrs. Rieder has been supporting young (and young at heart) composers in concerts and on the radio. She gives room to the whole range of the current so-called Serious Music, and welcomes originality with open ears and mind. Thereby, she has given many young talents the opportunity to present their work to an interested young audience, and has thus introduced them to the public. Also older artists who are too shy to present themselves in public, although their works are highly original, got the chance to perform and receive attention due to Mrs. Rieder. For this, we want to congratulate her sincerely. Her efforts deserve full support, also in the future.”
Mag. Elfrid Wimmer-Repp - 30. 05. 2011
President of the Salzburger Kunstverein
“Since July 2010, Astrid Rieder has rented a studio in the Salzurger Künstlerhaus. As a “Trans Art” artist she relates painting, literature, and music in her work, and constantly shows her open interaction with different media. Often it is a piece of music that evokes in her the desire to transfer it to a visual medium.
We have to emphasize especially Astrid Rieder’s wish to interest many people, regardless of age or profession, for contemporary music. Her Studio Concerts that still retain the character of intimate house concerts create accessible space for music and art, and offer composing people the chance to present their music out of traditional concert halls. Thus, over 170 people attended the most recent Studio Concert in the Künstlerhaus (“Studio Concert for Contemporary Music”, Saturday; 19.February 2011, 8 pm, in the great hall of the Salzburger Kunstverein).”
Greeting by Gottfried Franz Kasparek
in the program of the Studio Concert for Contemporary Music 2010
“Contemporary music needs openness of place and time. For several years now, Astrid Rieder’s Studio Concerts have been offering young composers the opportunity to present their music. Away from the solemnity of traditional concert halls and away from the so-called general public, in a workspace surrounded by visual art, the experiment finds its place and the new becomes an event.
This experiment is vitally important, as Giuseppe Verdi new already: “only one who creates something new is a composer”; and as Robert Schumann said, “without enthusiasm you cannot make music”. Creativity and enthusiasm are what makes the Studio Concerts so unique and valuable. Here, music is not instantly subject to the strict and sometimes prejudiced critics; here, music in its current variety reaches an audience that is interested in the new and has open ears and hearts.
The atmosphere of the Studio Concerts is not like the heavy serious air of the temples of contemporary music. Also the culinary senses are not left unattended. Great music often needs intimate space to have ample effect. That is nothing new: the exciting and still new music by Franz Schubert was initially performed only to his circle of friends. In this circle, visual artists had an important role. Music paints with the colors of sound – Astrid Rieder paints with resounding colors. The arts are near relatives.”
