5. Bruckner Spring: Flute Evening "Trio Traversi"

Early on, Helmut Trawöger received his first flute lessons from his brother Karl Trawöger. He completed his studies with Rudolf Leitner (Linz), Dr. Walter Haseke (Salzburg), and Prof. Kurt Redel (Munich), graduating in 1973 from the Mozarteum University in Salzburg. This was followed by two intensive years of repertoire studies with Wolfgang Schulz in Vienna. He also received important musical impulses from Prof. Helmut Eder (composition) and Nikolaus Harnoncourt (performance practice) at the Mozarteum.

Helmut Trawöger developed a diverse artistic career as a soloist, chamber musician, and conductor. Concert tours took him through Austria and across Europe, to Egypt and Japan. He performed a large number of world premieres, many of which are dedicated to him. These include works by Helmut Eder, Augustinus Franz Kropfreiter, Balduin Sulzer, Johannes Berauer, Gunter Waldek, Helmut Schmidinger, Elmar Raida, and others.

He founded the Grieskirchen Chamber Orchestra, the Flautissimo Ensemble, the Enchanté Ensemble, and the Pablo Wind Quintet. Helmut Trawöger participated in international festivals, radio, television, and CD productions. Between 1989 and 1995, he conducted the Upper Austrian Youth Orchestra and the Upper Austrian Chamber Orchestra. As a guest conductor, he worked with the Martinu Chamber Orchestra in Brno, the South Bohemian Chamber Philharmonic in Budweis, the Romanian Philharmonics in Craiova and Ploiesti, among others.

Helmut Trawöger has extensive experience in music education, where he held leading positions. From 1990 to 1995, he served as director of the Upper Austrian Music School System, and from 1992 to 2011, he was a professor of flute, didactics, and professional practice at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz. Many prize winners emerged from his flute classes, with many now playing in renowned orchestras or teaching at music schools or universities. Numerous invitations as a juror underline his broad music educational spectrum.

Helmut Trawöger is the founder of the Academy Schloss Tillysburg, which he directed for 13 years. In 2012, he was awarded the Golden Honorary Badge for services to the Republic of Austria. The flute-playing family tradition is continued by his son Norbert Trawöger (performing, teaching, and writing musician) and his daughter Karin Bonelli (Vienna State Opera, Vienna Philharmonic).

Karin Bonelli loves it when a sea of sounds and the people who ignite it become one. It is a stroke of luck that she has been part of the unique sound ocean called the Vienna Philharmonic since 2012. She was the first woman to be engaged in the wind section of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and thus with the Vienna Philharmonic.

But luck alone does not lead one into this immeasurable sound collective. It is a path that began with her first flute lessons from her mother—her father is also a professional flutist—and took her to teachers in Linz, Vienna, Lyon, and Munich, such as Gisela Mashayekhi-Beer, Günter Voglmayer, Philippe Boucly, Wolfgang Schulz, Julien Beaudiment, Philippe Bernold, and Karl-Heinz Schütz. These encounters allowed Karin Bonelli to experience different geographies, sound aesthetics, and playing styles early on, leading her to her sound, without ever wanting to put an end to her search. Alongside early competition successes, she made her debut in the international orchestral world at a young age with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, and the Opéra National de Lyon. Not only does she perform worldwide with her orchestra alongside all the great conductors and soloists of our time, but she is also a founding member of the "Vienna Wind Quintet" and the "Klangkollektiv Wien," loves chamber music with sound-intensive partners such as violinist Benni Schmid and pianist Markus Schirmer, or plays flute concertos as a soloist with orchestras from near and far. Another passion she lives out is passing on the fire by helping young flutists discover their own qualities. She currently focuses her experiences from various teaching positions (University of Music in Graz 2017-18, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna 2019-2023, Music and Arts Private University of the City of Vienna 2022-2023) in her own academy in the Salzkammergut, the Penthesilea Academy.

Anyone who hears Karin Bonelli play will not be surprised that she would have liked to become a singer as well. The next time you swim in the ocean or dream on the mainland, sharpen your ears. Then you will hardly want to escape her singing on the flute. As mentioned, it’s about the whole.

Norbert Trawöger is a performing, writing, and creative musician, and since summer 2025, he has been the artistic director of the Brucknerhaus/LIVA. Until 2025, he was the artistic director of the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and the artistic director of the first Upper Austrian Culture EXPO "Anton Bruckner 2024." Trawöger comes from a family where Franz Schubert was a guest in Gmunden in 1825, "most unreservedly, as at home" (quote from a letter by Schubert to his parents). He studied flute at the music colleges in Vienna, Gothenburg, and Graz and completed the prestigious program "Executive Master in Arts Administration" at the University of Zurich. In 2010, he published a biography of the composer Balduin Sulzer, and in 2022, his essay "Spiel." In 2024, his journal of passion "Bruckner!" was published by Residenz Verlag, and most recently, the essay "Zuckerbutterbrottage. Ein Zuruf." was released by the newly founded Vienna publisher Wasser. The "cultural whirlwind" (OÖN) and "sought-after instigator of creative thinking and action" (A-list) lives "genius-quirky" (OÖN) in ever-changing artistic aggregates, repeatedly speaking restlessly on society, art, and culture, playing the flute and with his children.