An era at the municipal music school ended very quietly: Christoph Wandinger, who was its deputy director for 31 years, has retired.
His successor, Berthold Reitinger, is no stranger to the school and the local music scene.
There is a new deputy director at the Weilheim Music School.
Christoph Wandinger, who shaped the institution and the music landscape in and around Weilheim for 31 years, retired.
He has known his successor, Berthold Reitinger, for a long time.
Weilheim
- It was a quiet farewell - without kettledrums and trumpets.
And it would most likely not have been any different if the times had been different and Corona hadn't played a role.
Because neither Christoph Wandinger, the longtime deputy director of the “Städtische Musikschule” Weilheim, who retired in July, nor his successor Berthold Reitinger, who started his service at the beginning of September, is a big fuss.
"We sat down a bit among colleagues, that was enough," says Wandinger.
In 1989 he took over as deputy director of the music school after playing bassoon with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra for ten years.
After this time, the native Ettaler moved back to Bavaria.
During his 31 years of activity he shaped the music school as deputy director and as a teacher for saxophone and bassoon and thus shaped the music landscape in and around Weilheim.
Music school works closely with the Weilheim grammar school
Thus, among other things, the close cooperation with the grammar school in Weilheim was started, which is evident, for example, in the two school big bands: mainly students from the music school play there and the big bands are led by Arthur Lehmann, who is at the grammar school as also taught at the music school.
Lehmann and Reitinger have been leading the “Symphonic Air Connection”, the symphonic wind orchestra of the Weilheim Music School, since 1997, which usually meets for two week-long rehearsals a year and then gives an annual concert in November.
For this year, the concert, which is a highlight of the music year for fans of unusual and demanding brass music, had to be canceled due to Corona.
"At the time, it was important to us to show that there was fantastic symphonic brass music," says Reitinger about the motivation for founding the orchestra 23 years ago.
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That the students of the music school play in different formations and orchestras outside the institution was always welcome, says Wandinger: “The music school has always been a continuous flow heater.
We want our students to go out and not sit on them like a mother hen. "
In the past few years, musicians who made a name for themselves nationally and internationally and consolidated Weilheim's reputation as a city of music, such as saxophonists Johannes Enders and Joscha Arnold or guitarist Max Frankl, have emerged from this "instantaneous water heater" in Weilheim.
Many years after they had taken lessons there, some former students met and heard again in Weilheim: when they returned to the music school for a concert.
The fact that there was regular live jazz in the hall under the roof of the music school also happened on Wandinger's initiative.
Over the years he has initiated and persistently supervised various concert series such as “Jazz right up” on the upper floor of the music school.
He was also significantly involved in the start of the Weilheim jazz days "Ammertöne" in 2005.
Saying goodbye to the music school and his work there was "difficult and easy" at the same time, says Wandinger.
It was easy for him to leave the bureaucratic hurdles behind, such as data protection laws and corona rules.
“These are all things that a music teacher doesn't necessarily like,” he says.
On the other hand, it was difficult to say goodbye to colleagues and to his work: "Firstly, being a musician and, secondly, dealing with young people has always been fun."
Christoph Wandinger: "Music is a food"
It was important to him to convey joy in making music.
For many years, Wandinger experienced first hand how enriching and important music is: “I always say music is a food.” And the 65-year-old, who now lives in Wessobrunn, would like to devote himself more actively to this “food” in his retirement : "I want to make music until nothing comes out."
"Music is incredibly fulfilling, you can totally lose yourself in it," says his successor.
Reitinger was already teaching at the music school when Wandinger came to Weilheim 31 years ago.
The two have known each other since then and have played chamber music together, among other things.
Berthold Reitinger was and is musically active in the region in various ways: Among other things, he was the conductor of the “Musikverein Polling” and the “Stadtkapelle Weilheim”, and he is also familiar with the management of a music school: from 1991 to 2006 he has Branch in Tutzing managed.
At the Weilheim music school with its 35 teachers and around 800 students, things should continue as before, says Reitinger.
Because the deputy director at the music school is mainly responsible for the operational business, he is now sitting more in the office than before, but that is tolerable because he is still a music teacher and musician: “It's a lot of fun, others Giving people something with music, ”says Reitinger.
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