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Josef Herowitsch

1936-2014 AT

A.k.a. Monsignore Prof. Pfarrer Josef Herowitsch

Josef Herowitsch (1936–2014) was an Austrian pastor and the founding director of Lockenhaus Festival. He was ordained in 1960 and had been officiating at the parochial church Pfarrkirche St. Nikolaus, Lockenhaus since the mid-seventies. An avid opera enthusiast, Herowitsch decided to organize a music concert in his church. The first Lockenhauser Konzerte took place at the rectory's entrance hall in 1974. Two years later, Gidon Kremer gave a warm-up concert in Lockenhaus on the eve of his major Viennese premiere. Kremer had been returning every year since then. He often invited fellow Russian musicians to participate in Lockenhaus Concerts with him, including David Geringas, Andrei Gavrilov, Elisabeth Leonskaja, and Oleg Maisenberg. In 1981, Josef Herowitsch persuaded Kremer (who were looking for a spot to organize a chamber music festival) to co-found a summer international Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, with concerts hosted at St. Nikolaus' Church and the well-preserved medieval Burg Lockenhaus castle. The festival aimed to present chamber music for small audiences in a less commercial, more academic setting. Gidon Kremer became an Artistic Director, while Herowitsch served as the festival administrator. By 1987, Lockenhaus expanded to a European tour and US concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

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