Leise rieselt der Schnee

Ernst Raffelsberger comes from Gmunden, Upper Austria. He studied music education and church music at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, as well as choral conducting at the Mozarteum Salzburg. From 1983 to 1986, he was Kapellmeister of the Vienna Boys’ Choir. During this time, he conducted the ensemble in Vienna and on tours through Europe, South Africa, Canada, and the USA. From 1986, Ernst Raffelsberger was choral director and Kapellmeister at the Landestheater Salzburg (participating in the Salzburg Mozart Week and the Salzburg Festival). In 1989, he moved as choral director and Kapellmeister to the Theater in Freiburg/Breisgau. Since autumn 1993, Ernst Raffelsberger has been engaged as choral director at the Zurich Opera House. Here, he has overseen approximately 150 premieres and countless revivals and has collaborated with many renowned conductors such as Marco Armiliato, Riccardo Chailly, Teodor Currentzis, Christoph von Dohnányi, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Zubin Mehta, Gianandrea Noseda, and Franz Welser-Möst. Guest performances with the Zurich Opera House have taken him to Vienna, London, Paris, and Tokyo. From the summer of 2012, he also began a 10-year tenure as choral director of the Vienna State Opera Chorus for the Salzburg Festival. This led to successful collaborations with Riccardo Muti, Mariss Jansons, and Sir Simon Rattle, among others. After Ernst Raffelsberger concluded this work with the 2021 festival season, he has, since 2025, been responsible once again, at Maestro Muti’s request, for choral preparation for his festival concerts in Salzburg. Numerous CD and DVD recordings document his work in both Zurich and Salzburg.