CURRICULUM VITAE
For me,
being a classical musician means creating something timeless and new.
JOHANNA BEISTEINER
CLASSICAL GUITARIST, SINGER & Actress
Johanna Beisteiner is an internationally renowned concert guitarist and singer. In addition, she devotes herself to composing, arranging, writing and acting.
As a soloist, Beisteiner has performed at prestigious venues and festivals, including the Vienna Musikverein, the Sochi Philharmonic, the Palace of Arts in Budapest, the International Valletta Baroque Festival and the Teatro della Concordia (Italy). She has also performed guitar concertos with various orchestras, including the Budapest and Sochi Symphony Orchestras, the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, the Graz Chamber Philharmonic and the Budapest String Chamber Orchestra. In doing so, she has collaborated with renowned conductors such as Michelle Castelletti, Béla Drahos, Achim Holub and Oleg Soldatov.
In autumn 2022, as part of a US tour, Beisteiner presented her one-woman show Farkas in America – a particularly varied programme featuring music, dance and poems by Karl Farkas. A second North American tour followed in autumn 2023, along with the opening programme of a series dedicated to Ingeborg Bachmann at the Maison Heinrich Heine in Paris.
In 2026, Beisteiner published her first book with Margarete Tischler Publishing House: Between Melbourne and Vienna, a literary narrative that weaves together historical fragments from the lives of Austrian diplomat Carl Ludwig Pinschof and his wife, opera singer Elise Wiedermann, in Australia at the turn of the 20th century.
Johanna Beisteiner’s artistic work extends beyond the performance of standard repertoire to include the expansion of the classical guitar repertoire through collaborations with contemporary composers and the creation of her own works. In her programmes, which are often built around a specific theme, she combines instrumental, vocal, dance and literary elements in a distinctive way. Through these projects, she explores new possibilities of artistic expression while demonstrating the versatility of the classical guitar as both a solo and an accompanying instrument across a wide range of eras and styles.
Johanna Beisteiner has premiered several compositions by Robert Gulya and Eduard Schafranski. Inspired by her, Gulya composed a guitar concerto and further works for various ensembles. In 2017, the Maltese composer Reuben Pace selected Beisteiner as the soloist for the world premiere of his Concertino for Guitar, Harpsichord and Orchestra at the Teatru Manoel in Valletta. Their continued collaboration led to the premiere of Pace’s Mdina Suite for solo guitar at the Vienna Musikverein in 2019.
A series of recordings featuring classical and contemporary
repertoire has been released by Gramy Records. Alongside her focus on classical music, Beisteiner has also gained experience in popular music, including through soundtrack recordings for the films Truce (USA, 2004) and S.O.S. Love! (Hungary, 2007).
At the age of sixteen, Beisteiner began studying guitar at the
University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in 1992. Alongside her studies, she also received private tuition in singing, dancing and acting from various teachers and coaches. In 1994, she graduated from a secondary school specialising in foreign languages in her hometown of Wiener Neustadt. After completing her degree in 1999, she embarked on her first international concert tours, performing several times at the Teatro della Concordia (Italy), the Yekaterinburg Actor House (Russia) and at events dedicated to the revitalisation of Hohenschönhausen Castle in Berlin. Parallel to her first artistic projects, Beisteiner completed a doctorate in 2005 with a dissertation entitled “Art music in figure skating, synchronized swimming and rhythmic gymnastics”.
Alongside her concert career, Johanna Beisteiner teaches classical guitar at education centres (Volkshochschulen) in Vienna and gives masterclasses.
Awards
* 2008: Crystal trophy 200 Years Teatro della Concordia (Italy)
* 2011: Honorary Membership in the Association Hohenschönhausen Castle in Berlin (Germany)
* 2016: Premio Teatro della Concordia for the composition Don Quixote Fantasy on themes from a ballet by Minkus
