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A LIFE DEDICATED
TO MUSIC
Profile of Josef Hussek, artistic planning director

Josef Hussek took up his appointment as artistic planning director of the Salzburg Festival in September 2001. Opera and classical music are of central importance in his life and for him it is not a contradiction to like both “light” and “serious” music. For instance he considers Robbie Williams to be “sensational”.

“You have to love opera if you make it the centre of your professional life”. And Josef Hussek believes that without a relationship to the final product, the performance on the stage or in the concert hall, you cannot really do your job properly. “For all of us working here at the Festival, the quality of the performances is the highest aim that every- thing leads up to. Our work is not a purpose in itself. Every day we have to react to new challenges – spon- taneously, creatively and, as we are dealing with artists, with sensitivity.”

Salzburg as an ideal

Since September 2001 Josef Hussek has been responsible for the artistic and organisational planning of the Salzburg Festival. “It is my job to set up a planning framework for opera and concerts and to fill it with artistic life”. Of course this occurs in close cooperation with Peter Ruzicka, artistic director of the Festival. The two men are well used to working with each other, they were after all together for nine years at the Hamburg State Opera, where Hussek was also responsible for artistic planning and organisational matters.

Life as a vagabond

The various stages in the career of Josef Hussek, Viennese by birth, took him from Austria to Switzerland, to Germany and now via Vienna to Salzburg. “Even though I am Viennese, as a child I wanted to live in Salzburg.” And now, having spent half a year in this “magnificent city”, he feels completely at home. He lives with his wife Martina, a nurse and their daughters Barbara and Agnes in the district of Nonntal. The family quickly adapted to life in Salzburg although his daughters had initially protested against moving house once again. “Of course it’s not easy for them to keep changing their school and circle of friends”. However, Hussek is convinced that life as a “vagabond” does also have advantages. “One remains flexible and it brings the family closer together”.

Josef Hussek and his team are responsible for the artistic and
organisational planning work of the Festival.

Support in the family

For Hussek the family is a place of retreat. “They are 100% behind me and I’m grateful for that”. It would indeed be difficult to carry out such a time-intensive job without the support and understanding of the family. It is hardly surprising that music is of central importance in the Hussek household.
“My two daughters are very well versed in opera. They cannot easily be caught out,” says their father, not without pride. The two teenagers made their first acquaintance with the world of the theatre at an early age in typical children’s roles such as Madam Butterfly’s child or the little moor in Der Rosenkavalier.

Robbie Williams and West Side Story

Josef Hussek’s artistic ambitions are primarily aimed at organisational tasks. “No one in the family did anything like this before.” Only his grandfather played the flugelhorn in a Viennese suburban orchestra. However, Hussek’s parents used to listen frequently to classical music. “Especially Verdi and Puccini”. Occasionally he himself plays the guitar – preferably his own compositions. “But I only do that for myself, without an audience”.
In his free time Hussek also likes to listen to various styles of music. “It does not always have to be opera or a classical concert. There are also excellent musicians in the so-called ‘entertainment’ sector”. Hussek is also very positive about operetta and musicals “when they are done professionally”.
His reply to the question about the most significant work in music theatre in the past century is therefore not surprising: “For me it is West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein. Since Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte no other work in the genre of music theatre has combined musical quality and popularity in equal measure.”

Susanna Berger

Ticket office of the Salzburg Festival
Telephone: 0043 662 8045-500
Telefax: 0043 662 8045-555

E-mail: info@salzburgfestival.at