| Born on February 13th, 1949 in the well-known wine village of Gumpoldskirchen (25km south of Vienna) he was involved in music from his early childhood on. His father, Josef Wolfgang Ziegler , a well-known Austrian composer and choral director taught the first musical steps to him. Singing and playing the violin became his passions.
After finishing high school and pedagogical studies he worked as an assistant in music education at the University of Illinois/USA. There he started composing electronic music with Joseph Pinzarrone, Phil Musser and John Cage. He got pretty much involved in the American avant-garde scene at that time. As a professional interlude he joined the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra playing violin on a concert tour through Canada and USA.
Back in Austria he became choral director of the VOX HUMANA CHAMBER CHOIR, which he is still conducting today. Lots of special studies followed with Erwin Ortner, Herwig Reiter at the Music University in Vienna and with Eric Ericson.
After he had joined the professional Austrian Radio Choir (ORF-Chor) for some years he focused on conducting and composing choral music. A number of international concert tours to Germany, Italy, Czechia, Slovakia, Belgium, Hungary, Sweden, Israel, Estonia, Malta and Japan completed his musical work.
W.Z. was honoured by quite a number of national and international awards. The European Music Festival for the Youth in Belgium appointed him "Ambassador of the Festival". This was a tribute to his long engagement as a jury member of this festival.
In 2008 he founded CONCENTUS NOVUS, a large non-professional concert choir who had its first successful appearance with Brahms' German Requiem in Vienna in 2008 and the professional VIENNA SYMPHONIC LIBRARY CHORUS. The latter one is working on a special electronic voice project.
Some of Ziegler's compositions are published by Edition Music Contact in Germany, European Cultural Services, Musikkultur Niederösterreich and WOZIMUSIC. Various pieces have been commissioned by international choirs and festivals. |
