Markus Hinterhäuser has been selected as the winner of the 2026 Austrian Music Theatre Prize. The pianist, festival director, and cultural manager will receive the "Grand Jury Prize," as announced by the organizers on Thursday. The 68-year-old has not only shaped music theatre but has also consistently encouraged artists to think beyond their own boundaries.

Markus Hinterhäuser

"With his courage to embrace the unconventional, his programmatic vision, and his unerring instinct for exceptional artistic personalities, he has created new spaces for encounter, discourse, and artistic experience, thereby providing crucial impetus for the development of music theatre," explained Karl-Michael Ebner, initiator and president of the Austrian Music Theatre Prize. "The 'Grand Jury Prize' recognizes this outstanding and lasting impact."

Born in 1958 in La Spezia, Italy, Hinterhäuser studied piano at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and at the Mozarteum University Salzburg. As a soloist and chamber musician, he has performed in the world's most prestigious concert halls, including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Musikverein and Konzerthaus in Vienna, and La Scala in Milan. He has also appeared at international festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Lucerne Festival, and the Berlin Festival.

Alongside his work as a musician, Hinterhäuser developed into a festival organizer. He founded the "Zeitfluss" festival at the Salzburg Festival and the "Zeit-Zone" festival at the Vienna Festival. From 2007 to 2011, he was responsible for the concert program of the Salzburg Festival, which he led as artistic director in the 2011 season. From 2014 to 2016, he served as artistic director of the Vienna Festival before taking over the directorship of the Salzburg Festival in 2016.

The Austrian Music Theatre Prize has been awarded since 2013 for outstanding achievements in opera, operetta, musical theatre, and ballet. It is organized by the Art Projekt association. This year's ceremony will take place on September 8th at the Votive Church in Vienna. There are 61 nominations in 14 categories. Prizes will also be awarded in four special categories, including the "Grand Jury Prize.".

Previous recipients of the "Grand Jury Prize" (until 2023 "Special Media Prize") include the Polish tenor Piotr Beczača (2015), the German tenor Jonas Kaufmann (2021), the Latvian mezzo-soprano Elšna Garanča (2022), the Finnish soprano Camilla Nylund (2023), the Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian (2024), and most recently the Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli.

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