Erasmus Baumgartner was appointed Artistic Director of the Vienna Boys Choir in the fall of 2023.
Baumgartner started his musical education as a choirboy at the Monastery of the
Canons Regular of St Augustine’s Order at St Florian in Upper Austria. At age 17,
he matriculated at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz, where he
studied choral and orchestral conducting as well as management, graduating
with honours. He later completed a masters’ degree in vocal and instrumental
paedagogy at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, again graduating with honours.
As a chorus member, Baumgartner has appeared at the prestigious Salzburg
Festival, in 1987 as a choirboy under Herbert von Karajan, and again in 2008 as
an adult singer under Seiji Ozawa and Franz Welser-Möst. While still a student,
Baumgartner founded the internationally acclaimed Academy Singers, a choir of
50 young singers based in Upper Austria. From 2009 to 2012, he served as the
Artistic Director of Juvenis Chor in Schärding, Upper Austria; in 2014, he joined
the Vienna Boys Choir campus as assistant to Gerald Wirth.
Erasmus Baumgartner is a sought-after choral clinician and vocal coach; he has
taught extensively at music schools in Austria and abroad, and at the Vienna
State Opera.