Just a few years into his career, Christoph Zimper found himself the solo clarinetist with the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, and in great demand as an orchestra- and chamber musician. In 2018 he decided to leave the orchestral jobs behind and find out how to express existential matters – like an “intensely perceived moment”, for example, “that may look perfectly unremarkable from the outside” – in a musical language of his own. Or how one might use musical means to get Millenials – to which he belongs himself – to ponder the eternal questions of life. Here now is Zimper’s fascinating debut album as a composer, for which he has asked a selection of hand-picked soloists, the Eggner-Trio, and the group Plattform K+K Vienna to join him in the studio.

“What if we treated faith not as something that must be studied? If we no longer felt compelled to defend our beliefs but rather trusted in faith itself – in all its diversity? A living faith. As if faith was something one simply remembered; something that has essentially always been. […] The Millennials Mass is a musical piece structured like a liturgical mass, without assuming a specific faith or presuming to give answers. On the contrary, its purpose is to create more room for one’s personal search for the remembered faith. It’s a mass for all those who search for faith within themselves.

“I am aware that it isn’t hip to write a mass these days. However, the desire to tackle the tricky topic of faith and perhaps to contribute to reducing the seemingly insurmountable chasm between religious institutions and people – although I do not know how to – is truly heartfelt. In the end, it’s just words and images that separate us, nothing more.”

Christoph Zimper is a renowned soloist and chamber musician and former solo clarinet at the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg. He is the first-prize winner of numerous competitions in Austria and abroad and performed – besides his longtime engagement in Salzburg – also with the Vienna and Munich Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, and the orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera. Since 2017 he is professor for clarinet at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw). Besides his teaching activities, Christoph Zimper is also active as a composer of border-crossing chamber music works, as well as the artistic director of the Weißensee Klassik Festival.