Cagliostro – Johann Strauss in the circus tent
Circus
10. Sep - 28. Sep 2025
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With an extraordinary career spanning over 35 years and reaching all continents, Johnny Bertl’s musical output as a composer, arranger, producer, conductor, and guitarist is more diverse than most.
His career began in 1977 in Vienna, where he studied classical guitar at the University of Music, followed by studies in composition, jazz theory and arrangement, conducting, and world rhythm in Rio de Janeiro. His first major successes came in the early 1980s as an arranger and producer in the so-called Austropop scene (Hirsch, EAV, Fendrich, Ambros, ...). Early commissions from the Goethe-Institut led to several tours through India and Brazil.
In 1986, he launched the crossover project V.S.O.P., initiating a collaboration with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra that also took him to China. As his reputation grew, so did the list of artists for whom he arranged: Placido Domingo, Elīna Garanča, Michael Bolton, Chaka Khan, Omara Portuondo, Joe Zawinul, Bobby McFerrin, Alan Parsons, Boban Marković, Royston Maldoom, and others.
In 2000, he wrote the hit musical Falco meets Amadeus for the Theater des Westens in Berlin (1.2 million viewers) and began a collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. He conducted the opening concert of the Wiener Festwochen at Rathausplatz four times and also provided the musical arrangements. He oversaw both the 16th Life Ball and BaRock Summer Night Dream by the British fashion label Agent Provocateur.
Another musical followed: Martin Luther King premiered in 2007 at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin. For the past 20 years, opera stars such as Angela Denoke, Julia Novikova, Angelika Kirchschlager, Juan Diego Flórez, Piotr Beczała, Ramón Vargas, and many others have relied on his orchestrations for Christmas in Vienna, the annual Christmas gala at the Vienna Konzerthaus.
In 2014, Bertl and TaKeTiNa founder Reinhard Flatischler created a new classical music piece: a polyrhythmic suite for orchestra, choir, and percussion. The world premiere of Waves upon Waves at Auckland Town Hall (NZ) was a great success.
With an extraordinary career spanning over 35 years and reaching all continents, Johnny Bertl’s musical output as a composer, arranger, producer, conductor, and guitarist is more diverse than most.
His career began in 1977 in Vienna, where he studied classical guitar at the University of Music, followed by studies in composition, jazz theory and arrangement, conducting, and world rhythm in Rio de Janeiro. His first major successes came in the early 1980s as an arranger and producer in the so-called Austropop scene (Hirsch, EAV, Fendrich, Ambros, ...). Early commissions from the Goethe-Institut led to several tours through India and Brazil.
In 1986, he launched the crossover project V.S.O.P., initiating a collaboration with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra that also took him to China. As his reputation grew, so did the list of artists for whom he arranged: Placido Domingo, Elīna Garanča, Michael Bolton, Chaka Khan, Omara Portuondo, Joe Zawinul, Bobby McFerrin, Alan Parsons, Boban Marković, Royston Maldoom, and others.
In 2000, he wrote the hit musical Falco meets Amadeus for the Theater des Westens in Berlin (1.2 million viewers) and began a collaboration with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. He conducted the opening concert of the Wiener Festwochen at Rathausplatz four times and also provided the musical arrangements. He oversaw both the 16th Life Ball and BaRock Summer Night Dream by the British fashion label Agent Provocateur.
Another musical followed: Martin Luther King premiered in 2007 at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin. For the past 20 years, opera stars such as Angela Denoke, Julia Novikova, Angelika Kirchschlager, Juan Diego Flórez, Piotr Beczała, Ramón Vargas, and many others have relied on his orchestrations for Christmas in Vienna, the annual Christmas gala at the Vienna Konzerthaus.
In 2014, Bertl and TaKeTiNa founder Reinhard Flatischler created a new classical music piece: a polyrhythmic suite for orchestra, choir, and percussion. The world premiere of Waves upon Waves at Auckland Town Hall (NZ) was a great success.
