When four young musicians came together in 2015, it was unclear where their journey would lead. Four very different personalities met – but their shared love for music, the saxophone, and the goal of bringing classical music closer to people united them. In no time, they developed into a harmonious ensemble.
International awards and concert successes have taken AUREUM beyond Austria’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus to renowned concert halls and music festivals from Estonia to Singapore. The ensemble is also a regular feature on austrian radio programs like Ö1, Radio Klassik Stephansdom and international radio and is part the concert series and programs like Musica Juventutis, Jeunesse, Live Music Now and The New Austrian Sound of Music (NASOM). The music education project #klanginsel „Mach dir ein Bild vom Klang“ was the result of a successful cooperation with the Tonkünstler Orchester. The debut CD released in 2018 Newsorgsky and the following album in 2022 golden roots were very well received and were widely praised from critics.
SOPRANO
Martina Stückler
Martina, born in 1990 in Wolfsberg, Carinthia discovered her passion for the saxophone at the age of nine. She gratuated her studies of classical saxophone and musical education at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with her teachers Oto Vhrovnik and Barbara Strack-Hanisch and at the ArtEZ Hogeschool voor de Kunsten, with Johan van der Linden, with honors. Martina teaches saxophone as a lecturer at the Leonard Bernstein Institute at the mdw as well as didactics and teaching practice at the Franz Schubert Institute. She is also a saxophone teacher at the Johann Sebastian Bach Music School in Vienna.
Martina achieved a lot of awards in several competitions as for example Allegro Vivo, International Music Competition Svirel, Grachtenfestival Amsterdam, Alpen-Adria Competition and Rising Stars Grand Prix Berlin, where she had the honour to perform at the Philharmonie Berlin. As a soloist and as an orchestral musician Martina performed with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Carpe Diem Synfonieorkest, Riga Chamber Winds and others. Besides these, Martina frequently joins the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Wiener Symphoniker and the Radio-Symphonie Orchester Wien.
ALTO
Ferenc Takács
Ferenc, born in Budapest in 1995, has been playing saxophone and clarinet since childhood. He graduated with honors from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in 2022, studying saxophone with Oto Vrhovnik and Barbara Strack-Hanisch, and has been studying instrumental pedagogy with Michaela Reingruber since 2021.
As a soloist, he has performed with ensembles such as the Prague Philharmonia and the Budapest String Orchestra. He is a laureate of Musica Juventutis and other national and international competitions. In addition to his diverse activities in chamber music and contemporary music, he works as an arranger and instrumental pedagogue, and regularly performs with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Volksoper, and the Ensemble Kontrapunkte.
TENOR
Viola Jank
Viola, born in 1996 in Lower Austria was eight years old when she began taking piano lessons. At the age of ten she started to play the saxophone. Since 2014 she studied classical saxophone with Barbara Strack-Hanisch at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, as well as the additional studies for music education. In both she graduated with honors in 2020 and 2022. Furthermore, Viola studies Biology at the University of Vienna.
Viola has achieved several winning awards at competitions as Prima la Musica, Allegro Vivo, Musica Juventutis and others. As a soloist, as well as an orchestral musician Viola played with the Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich, the Orchestra Academy of the International Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Wiener Symphoniker and many other chamber ensembles.
BARITONE
Lukas Seifried
Lukas was born in 1990 in Vienna. He got in touch with music ever since his early childhood and started playing the saxophone when he was ten years old. Lukas studied musicology at the University of Vienna and graduated with honors in 2012. In 2013 he started studying classical saxophone as well as studies for music education at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Barbara Strack-Hanisch. Both studies he graduated with honors.
Lukas works as a music educator in varied ways and plays in various ensembles and orchestras, for example the Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich, the Wiener Orchesterverein and others. Furthermore, he is engaged in Carinthian and Viennese folk music and is active as Schrammelharmonika player. His musicological tasks he addresses at the Arnold Schönberg Center Vienna.
