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HHGF members visit the “Accademia di Montegral“ Lucca, Italy. From May 13 thru May 18, 2005, Heidi Schmidt, Klaus Wolfgang Wildner and Augustin Wiedemann were guests at the “Accademia di Montegral“. Star conductor and head of the “Tiroler Festspiele” in Erl, Gustav Kuhn, established the “Accademia di Montegral“ in 1992. In the course of his activities as music director at the opera in Rome in 1987, Gustav Kuhn increasingly felt the necessity to promote art as the basis of man´s mental growth. As a result, the idea of an association emerged, aiming at educating artists in the fields of humanity, culture and professionalism in a holistic way. Since November 2000, the Accademia is located at the Convento dell’Angelo, a gorgeously situated monastery of the Padri Passionisti with a breath-taking view to the city of Lucca and its surrounding area. This is the place where the Accademia offers ideal conditions for artistic producing. The concept of the Accademia addresses artists with interesting projects from all areas of art, focusing especially on the world of music theater: singers, artistic directors, composers, directors, stage designers and costume designers. The Accademia di Montegral is supported by various members and friends. Amongst them are artists of international rank, e.g. Francisco Araiza, Renato Bruson, Luciano Pavarotti, Monserrat Caballé, Lucio Dalla, Gérard Motier and Lina Wertmüller. Given this impressing framework, the beginning of a trendsetting interdisciplinary project succeeded. Augustin Wiedemann, guitarist and member of the HHGF Foundation Board, met the outstanding opera singer Michael Kupfer, member of the Accademia di Montegral. Together, the two virtuosi rehearsed songs of Franz Schuber and Carl Maria von Weber. Accompanying these songs with a guitar is very rare. As for sound and style, the guitar is excellently suited for this, and already in Schubert´s period the songs were traditionally accompanied by the guitar. Augustin Wiedemann was playing a guitar of Johann Georg Staufer from 1830, whereat the guitar was tuned down a semitone compared to our contemporary tuning. Assuming that tuning has raised about a semitone since Schubert´s period, this tuning should be quite a good approach to the original tuning. Schubert´s voice is described as a tenor with a hint of baritone to it, that´s why baritone Michael Kupfer may be called an excellent cast. The rehearsals as well as the finishing evening concert on May 17, 2005 were digitally recorded, using a quantization of 24 bits. Members of the Accademia as well as numerous guests from the surroundings of Lucca attended the concert in the venerable church of the Accademia. The performance of the artists was rewarded with great enthusiasm and cheer. The recordings of the concert serve as a pre-production for a mutual project of the Hermann Hauser Guitar Foundation together with the Accademia di Montegral. Augustin Wiedemann was appointed member of the Accademia, Michael Kupfer became a member of the HHGF curatorship. We are extraordinarily looking forward to future cooperations and groundbreaking projects. http://www.montegral.com http://www.gustavkuhn.at http://www.tiroler-festspiele.at http://www.stadttheaterbremerhaven.de/ensemble/musik/kupfer_michael/ May 24, 2005