Audi 2009 Annual Report Download - page 112

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Exercises for the vocal cords: Clara Horbach works with voice teacher Barbara Bübl on her
singing technique and trains her vocal cords.
More time
“charisma” or “star appeal,” but rather
with intonation and musical interpreta-
tion. A soprano can either hit a note or
not. A bass is able to reach the D below
middle C, or only a G.
Quirin Würfl can even go down to the
second D below middle C. The 19-year-
old studies history and Latin in Regens-
burg. With his brown locks, open smile
and strong shoulders, he looks like he
has just stepped out of the pages of
Heidi. As his deep, mellifluous voice fills
the room – “The heavens declare the
glory of God” – Steidler leans back in his
chair for the first time that day and
folds his hands over across his lap.
For just one moment, he is no longer a
member of the jury, but a fan who does
not know what he should admire most:
Quirin’s talent or his pure love of music.
The Youth Choir Academy has 70 mem-
bers, including Quirin and Clara. 70 mu-
sic fanatics. 70 arguments against the
conventional wisdom that choral
singing and classical music have run
their course and that TV casting shows
are all the rage with young people. The
Youth Choir Academy is the complete
antithesis of the pop universe. “I would
never do that,” says Quirin. The things
that matter in these casting programs
are show, appearance, and how crazy a
person is. The youth choir, on the 
ing in the doorway, listening for quite
some time. He now forces himself to
say in a stern voice, “We told you that
you should relax for at least two hours
to prepare yourself for the concert to-
morrow.” “But I’ve hardly had a chance
to play the piano this week,” Clara
pleads. “Please. Just another ten min-
utes.” The corners of Steidler’s mouth
twitch as he tries very hard not to smile.
Any choir director who is unable to stop
his students from practicing for even
two hours can count himself a happy
man. “It is incredibly fun working here,”
says Steidler. A professor at the Univer-
sity for Music and Performing Arts in
Munich, he has been conducting the
Audi Youth Choir Academy since its in-
ception in the fall of 2007. Twice a year,
gifted students aged 16 to 26 are given
the opportunity to rehearse and per-
form under intensive professional su-
pervision. During the week of rehearsal
in Berlin, during which Clara hasn’t
been able to forget Johann Sebastian
Bach for even a moment during her
lunch break, the choir is studying the
“Creation” by Joseph Haydn, which will
then be performed as part of the Berlin
Fairy Tale Days.
Singers for the youth choir audition
shortly before the week of rehearsals
begin, and are selected by Martin Stei-
dler, Sebastian Wieser (a cultural stud-
ies graduate working at Audi) and the
pianist Jean-Pierre Faber, who among
other things teaches at the Mozarteum
university in Salzburg. It is the type of
audition known so well from TV casting
shows where the members of the jury
try to upstage each other in pure rude-
ness. Steidler, on the other hand,
always remains friendly. Even so, it
doesn’t make his verdict sting any less.
He often likes to interrupt, sometimes
singing one of the passages himself.
“Now do it again, and make it better
this time.” Steidler can be both hard
and fair at the same time. That’s be-
cause – unlike pop music – classical mu-
sic has a clear set of criteria, which have
nothing to do with such vague terms as
BEHIND THE SCENES
Experience the young choir singers at
rehearsals of Haydn’s Creation:
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