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13:30-15:00 House of Strauss /Strauss Saal Expert Lecture by Dr. Thomas Aigner (Wiener Institut für Strauss-Forschung): Delving intoThe Musical Influence and Timeless Appeal of Strauss and Classic Works of the Strauss Family.
- Thomas Aigner – Wiener Institut für Strauss-Forschung
- Thomas Aigner is a distinguished musicologist and expert in Viennese classical music, specializing in the Strauss Dynasty and its cultural legacy. He is a leading figure at the Wiener Institut für Strauss-Forschung (Vienna Institute for Strauss Research), an institution dedicated to the scholarly study, documentation, and promotion of the works of Johann Strauss and his family.
- Thomas Aigner was born in Vienna in 1958. He completed a doctorate in musicology at the university in his hometown and the inter-university course “Library and Information Studies” (MSc). From 1985 to 2000, he held various positions at the Conservatory of the City of Vienna (now the Vienna Conservatory – Private University). From 2000 to 2021, he was Head of the Music Collection of the Vienna Library in City Hall and from 2021 to 2023 of the newly created organizational unit Manuscripts, Music and Bequests and from 2019 to 2023 Deputy Director of the Library. He also taught at the Institute of Musicology at the University of Vienna from 2001 to 2015. Thomas Aigner has appeared in public with numerous academic lectures and publications as well as curating exhibitions on 19th and 20th century music, in particular on the Strauss family of musicians; most recently, together with Karin Neuwirth, he curated the Johann Strauss anniversary exhibition 2024/25 at the Theatermuseum. His most important discoveries include a copy of 100 love letters from Johann Strauss to Olga Smirnitskaja, three orchestral fantasies by Josef Strauss, the libretto to Franz Schubert’s unfinished opera Sacontala and a historical military march that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart used as a model for the end of Figaro’s aria Non più andrai in his opera Le nozze di Figaro.
