New Flights from Vienna to Newark

On July 2, 2014, the Austrian Consul General in New York, Georg Heindl, participated in the festive launching of the new Austrian Airlines flight route between Vienna and Newark at the Newark Liberty International Airport, together with Lufthansa Regional Director Thomas Scharfenberger and Airport GM Rich Heslin. Austrian Airlines is now flying directly to Newark five times a week in addition to its daily flight service each day to New York's JFK airport.Austrian Airlines also serves Washington, D.C. and Chicago with non-stop flights from Vienna.

For more information visit www.austrian.com

Concert | Philippe Raskin & Johannes Fleischmann

On August 8, 2014, the Austrian Consulate General in Los Angeles together with Villa Aurora will present Philippe Raskin & Johannes Fleischmann in concert. The duo, which first met in 2009 during the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, France, has already toured extensively throughout Europe, Africa and South America. Their performance in Los Angeles will include pieces by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Nino Rota and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The concert starts at 8 PM at Villa Aurora, 520 Paseo Miramar, Los Angeles, CA 90272.

Parking is available. Tickets can be bought online at www.brownpapertickets.com

For more information on the artist please visit: www.two4music.com

Mostly Mozart Music Festival at Lincoln Center in NYC

From July 25 until August 23, 2014, the Lincoln Center hosts the classical music festival Mostly Mozart sponsored by Bloomberg.

The festival will feature hour-long, late-night recitals by the Festival Orchestra under the leadership of Renée and Robert Belfer Music Director Louis Langrée. The program will include many of Mozart's popular pieces, a rare Festival performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. as well as performances by the Emerson String Quartet, joined this year by the lyrical clarinetist Martin Fröst; the Mostly Mozart debut of the lively pianist Yuja Wang; and virtuosic presentations by Joshua Bell, Richard Goode, and Christian Tetzlaff.

Composers of today are also showcased in performances by the Mostly Mozart Festival artists-in-residence, the International Contemporary Ensemble; in the world premiere of John Luther Adams's Sila: The Breath of the World, commissioned jointly by Mostly Mozart and Lincoln Center Out of Doors; and in an intimate presentation of Adams's Mathematics of Resonant Bodies by the masterful percussionist Steven Schick.

Find the full program and further information at http://mostlymozart.org/

Special Olympics World Winter Games 2017

Above from left: Peter Wheeler, Special Olympics Chief, Strategic Properties; Timothy Shriver, Special Olympics Chairman of the Board; Mayor Hermann Kröll; Janet Froetscher, Chief Executive Officer; Ambassador Hans Peter ManzOn Friday, August 1, 2014, the President of Special Olympics Austria, Hermann Kröll, visited the Special Olympics headquarters in Washington, D.C. to give an update on the next World Winter Games, which will be  hosted by Austria in 2017.

Hermann Kröll served as Mayor of the City of Schladming from 1975 to 2005 and was a Member of the Austrian Parliament from 1996 until 1999. In 1993, Mayor Kröll was responsible for hosting the first Special Olympics World Winter Games outside the United States, which took place in Schladming and Salzburg in 1993. Since then, Special Olympics Austria has grown into one of the strongest Special Olympic Programs in the world.

Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and competitions to more than 4.2 million athletes in 220 countries. Special Olympics competitions are held every day, all around the world—including local, national and regional competitions, adding up to more than 80,000 events a year.

For more information visit http://www.specialolympics.org

Austrian Pianist Mark Damisch in Concert for Friendship and Peace

When: Friday, August 8, 2014 | 7:30 p.m.

Where: Austrian Cultural Forum (Embassy of Austria) | 3524 International Court NW | Washington, DC 20008

Admission: FREE | Please register for this event at http://markdamisch.eventbrite.com/

On August 8, 2014, the Austrian Cultural Forum Washington presents a classical music evening featuring a concert for friendship and peace by Austrian pianist Mark Damisch. Mr. Damisch will play a classical mix comprised of the following pieces:

Romanian Folk Dances | Béla Bartók
Romanian Folk Dances is a suite of six short piano pieces composed by Hungarian composer Béla Bartók in 1915. He later orchestrated it for a small ensemble in 1917 as Sz. 68, BB 76. It is based on seven Romanian tunes from Transylvania, originally played on fiddle or the shepherd's flute.

Piano Sonata No. 23 | Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57 (colloquially known as the Appassionata, meaning "passionate" in Italian) is among the three famous piano sonatas of his middle period (the others being the Waldstein, Op. 53 and Les Adieux, Op. 81a); it was composed during 1804 and 1805, and perhaps 1806, and was dedicated to Count Franz von Brunswick. The first edition was published in February 1807 in Vienna.

Wanderer Fantasy | Schubert
The Fantasie in C major, Op. 15 (D. 760), popularly known as the Wanderer Fantasy, is a four-movement fantasy for solo piano composed by Franz Schubert in November 1822. It is widely considered Schubert's most technically demanding composition for the piano. Schubert himself said "the devil may play it", in reference to his own inability to do so properly.