IOAN HOLENDER
wurde am 18. Juli 1935 in Timisoara (Rumänien) geboren. Nach der Matura studierte er Maschinenbau mit der Fachrichtung Dampfmaschinen an der Technischen Hochschule in seiner Heimatstadt. 1956 wurde er im dritten Studienjahrgang nach der 1. Staatsprüfung wegen seiner Teilnahme an den Studentenbewegungen aus politischen Gründen von allen Hochschulen des Landes exmatrikuliert. Bis 1959 war er Tennistrainer, Regieassistent und begann mit einem Gesangsstudium.
IOAN HOLENDER
Ioan Holender, General Manager of the Vienna State Opera, was born on July 18, 1935 in Timisoara, Romania. After graduating from high school, he studied for six semesters at the technical high school specializing in steam-engineering in his hometown and successfully completed the first round of the state examination. At the age of 22 he was expelled from all Romanian universities for political reasons. Thereafter he worked as a tennis trainer before he began studying singing.
1959 he came to Vienna where he continued his vocal studies at the Vienna State Conservatory from which he graduated in 1962.
From 1962 to 1966 he started a career as an opera- and concert-singer and sang two seasons at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt before entering the Starka Concert Agency which he later acquired and transformed into the worldrenowned Concert Agency Holender. In 1988 he was appointed General Secretary of the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Volksoper, in 1992 after the death of Eberhard Waechter General Manager of both Opera Houses. On August 31, 1996 he retired as General Manager of the Volksoper. His contract in Vienna ran until the year 2010, and he is the Vienna State Opera's longest serving director since 1869. In February 2007 Ioan Holender announced publicly that he would not be at disposal for an eventual prolongation of his current contract as General Manager of Vienna State Opera beyond August 2010. He held this position the longest in the history of the Vienna State Opera.
Nowadays he is advisor of the Metropolitan Opera New York and the Spring Festival Tokyo and artistic director of the George Eunescu Festival Bucharest. He is a lecturer at the University of Vienna and at the Danube University Krems. Further he is a jury member for several international singing-competitions.
He has received five honorary doctorates and is a recipient of the Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria and the Gold Medal for meritorious service to the State of Vienna, the Award in Gold of the State of Vienna as well as the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art I. Class. In 1999 he was appointed "Officier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" by the French Republic. He has been decorated with the most important Romanian medal. In December 2002 he received the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Republic of Austria. Further he received the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold of the Italian Republic in June 2004 and with this has been appointed "Commendatore". In May 2005 he was awarded the „Europäischer Kultur Initiativ Preis“ of the European Foundation for Culture Pro Europa. He also holds the Goldenes Verdienstkreuz des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland and the japanese "Orden der Aufgehenden Sonne am Halsband, goldene Strahlen".
Ioan Holender is an Honorary Member of the Vienna State Opera and the Vienna Volksoper. He holds the Golden "Franz Schalk" Medal given by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and has also been awarded the honorary citizenship of his native town Timisoara.
His autobiography "Ioan Holender – Der Lebensweg des Wiener Staatsoperndirektors" has been published by Böhlau Verlag Wien in 2001. In June 2010 he has published his new book „Ioan Holender: ‚Ich bin noch nicht fertig’ – Erinnerungen“ (Zsolnay Verlag).
Ioan Holender speaks Romanian, German, Hungarian, English, Italian and French.
He is married and has two sons and a daughter.