Many singers, especially those of the younger variety, often concentrate on one style of music – whether that be Pop or Rap or Country.
Although only 15-years-old, Joachim Bischof distains being categorized, being put in a box that would limit his choices in the music he sings. For Joachim loves music of all kinds – loves to listen to it and, most of all, loves to sing it. So he asks: Why only pop or classical music? Jazz or country? Operetta or opera?
Joachim’s love of all kinds of music feeds his wish to make people happy with whatever the music he makes — whether that’s a song by Roger Cicero, a classical piece from Winterreise by Schubert or something more recent by Boyzone. He has been blessed with a voice that allows him to magnificently perform music of many styles and from many cultures.
At age 15, he’s progressed beyond puberty and his voice has matured. He’s mastered his “new†voice incredibly well. While It’s far from “perfect†in his eyes, it’s very, very polished.
Joachim Bischof was born on October 13, 1996 in Mühlbach, a small town in Salzburg, in the beautiful province of Austria. Being from Salzburg, Joachim is in very good company as that is also where Mozart lived and composed most of his music. He was first exposed to classical music at the famed Salzburg Festival Hall (think “Sound of Musicâ€) at just three-years-old when he watched the rehearsals for Camina Burana, a production that his choirboy older brother would perform in. His mother reports that Joachim found it very funny to hear a grown counter-tenor voice and laughed so much at the sound that mother and son were asked to leave the rehearsal. But from that point on, music became a very important part of Joachim’s life. No matter what he’d be doing, he could be heard constantly singing.
At school, Joachim was something of a prodigy in some areas, which led to an early problem in his life. The problem wasn’t that he could read at age four years, would constantly speak in English rather than German, or could read 5-digit numbers. Not even his constant penchant to always be singing was the problem.
The problem was that while his strengths were so marked and so striking so, too, were his weaknesses – his weaknesses in several academic areas. The problem arose when his school tended to dwell, not on what he could do well, but on those things he was not as good at. It caused much anxiety in the early stages of his schooling but, over time, Joachim has become OK with who he is. After all, one can not know everything, nor do you have to be the master of everything. This is an attitude that has always been conveyed to him by his family.
Joachim Bischof – la canto
httpv://youtu.be/5JR5eAnnBjE
At that stage in his life, for his parents, the question became what to do with Joachim. It was obvious that “normal†school, with it’s stress on academics, was not a place where he could thrive or be happy. So where should he be placed to put him in the best position to succeed in life?
One day, after much research by his parents (who are not musicians or even particularly musically inclined) they decided the answer to that question was to seek a place for Joachim with the Vienna Boys’ Choir. He was accepted and attended the 4th Grade of primary school at the choir’s Augarten Palace in Vienna, as a boarding student.
With the choir, he performed on many stages and traveled all over the world – to China, Germany, America, and even went on a Mediterranean cruise!
But then, after a while, it became clear that the choir wasn’t a great match for Joachim. His homesickness grew, as he missed his parents and his siblings more and more. His mother tried to help the situation by travelling by train to Vienna often to see him. But that wasn’t the solution as she would almost spend more time on the train than actually being with Joachim (six hours on the train on some weekends).  Added to this was that Joachim wasn’t good at being a “social animalâ€. He spent more and more time with his music than with the other children on the soccer field. This wasn’t helped by the fact that he had discovered a new world for himself — composing on the PC. With SynthFont, Cubase and other software he spent hours on the computer designing his own music, often combining various styles.
Joachim Bischof – Hello
httpv://youtu.be/kbWqmAPmo-M
He was beginning to develop from being the choir singer to being a solo singer!
So he returned home — back to his family — and began to lay the foundation for the singer he is today. Not only was he now singing Bach, Hayden and Mozart with an incredibly strong and loud voice, but his mother exposed him to Youtube videos of Johannes Kalpers, Bjoern Casapietra, Thomas Borchert and Paul Byrom, showing him that a classical singer can sing something else as well.
For a musical rebel, that represented a magnificent challenge! He began to sing everything from country to jazz. It’s not so easy to change from singing classical to singing pop and jazz music, but It helps when you have Joachim’s perfect pitch.
He started auditioning for various musical events to see how he would fare. After a few audition attempts, he realized that he was often chosen because he is an ex-Vienna Boys Choir member and that organizers of events have recognized that his strong, clear voice brings good attendance and/or good press reviews.
Today, at 15, Joachim prefers singing all types of music. His goal is to become a professional solo singer. As mentioned earlier, he has composed and arranged his first songs and is hoping a record company will like them and offer a contract. And, beginning in 2013 when he’s 16, Joachim will work as a wedding singer and has been practicing to prepare for that.
He is now homeschooled and will soon take his admission exam for graduation. In his spare time, he travels. He also loves skiing. That’s no surprise with a 3000-meter mountain in front of his house. His hometown is also a famous ski-resort, after all. But given the choice between skiing and composing music, he’ll take the latter any day.
Joachim has no idea what the future will bring. He hasn’t decided whether to continue to study singing on a formal basis. But if one day someone calls him a star, he gets recognized as having big talent, or he gets compliments from great artists such as Marika Lichter (a famous Austrian musical star), he says that won’t change him. He won’t become what he calls a “show-offâ€.  For him, nothing is more terrible than being called a show-off.
What’s important is that his future contains the ability for Joachim to compose and sing a wide variety of music. He’ll be very satisfied and happy if he can do that.