Kristina Hammer will have a president from Germany in the future
Kristina Hammer, successful car company with a reputation for success in marketing, will sharpen the image of the Salzburg Festival in the future. We introduce you.
When Michael Sturminger’s amusing Salzburg film satire appeared in late summer and the local festival president Helga Rabl-Stadler had the attention of her last season, the magnifying glass was increasingly focused on the requirements of the festival, which – in addition to maintaining contacts and representation duties – also requires a nanny for to be all. Everyone: That specifically includes the artist rascals who invade summery Salzburg with their claims and vanities – and trigger an explosive group dynamic here and there with threats of rejection by famous conductors, provocative directors and singers gifted by God.
The expectations of Kristina Hammer are high in Salzburg
This is what Helga Rabl-Stadler has achieved in her 26-year presidency: pacification in crisis situations, mediation work, good persuasion when the emotions shot up due to art …
No wonder that this is now also being hoped for by her successor – disguised by the expectation of “high social competence”. Also explicitly differentiated from the artistic decisions of the artistic director or the economic decisions of the commercial director.
Kristina Hammer is Helga Rabl-Stadler’s successor from January 2022 for five years. By making a selection – from among 32 applications – it becomes clear what the Festival Board of Trustees – above all social competence – sees as particularly urgent for the festival. The 52-year-old doctor of law earned her good name in the business world when she repositioned branded products – especially in the automotive industry: including Ford, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Mercedes-Benz, before starting her work on Lake Zurich in the Switzerland made self-employed.
Hammer already worked at the Zurich Opera House and at the Lucerne Festival
Once cars and other luxury goods, in the future a large cultural enterprise of the Austrian public sector, where is the connection? It is part of the key term “premium brand”, which the Salzburg Festival – quite rightly – sees itself as. And that means: protecting, expanding, sharpening this premium brand and, very importantly, maintaining the existing patrons and sponsors plus expanding this illustrious circle. If Mercedes is now also joining Audi, one may ask pointedly.
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In all of this, the German Kristina Hammer, who was born in Karlsruhe and is married to an Austrian and two children, is anything but alien to art: Visiting the Salzburg Childhood Festival, she explains, and in Switzerland she was also in responsible positions at the Zurich Opera House and at the Lucerne Festival. But now, as President in Salzburg, she will also succeed Richard Strauss. Which honour!