Walter Fink
Encyclopedia
Walter Fink is a German
retired executive and a patron
of Contemporary music. He is mostly known for being a founding member, Executive Committee member and sponsor of the Rheingau Musik Festival
.
and learned conducting with Kurt Thomas
.
Walter Fink joined the company of his father in 1930 and expanded the it. He was Managing director of the Firmengruppe Fink (FINK Schuhe + Sport GmbH) in Wiesbaden
until his retirement in 2002.
He founded a church choir at the Christuskirche in Wiesbaden and served there for 25 years as organist.
In 1987 he was one of the founding members of the Rheingau Musik Festival
, together with Michael Herrmann
, Tatiana von Metternich-Winneburg
, Michael Bolenius, Hans-Clemens Lucht, Ulrich Rosin and Claus Wisser. He has been on the board of the Rheingau Musik Festival Förderverein, an association to support the festival. He has been on the Jury of the Rheingau Musikpreis, together with Rolf Beck, (Artistic Director of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival
), Leo-Karl Gerhartz (retired Music Programme Director of the state broadcast Hessischer Rundfunk
and Peter Hanser-Strecker (Board Chairperson, Schott Music
).
Walter Fink received the Bundesverdienstkreuz in 2007. He is Grand Officier of the Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs
. On 19 October 2011 the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe granted him an honorary
Doctorate of Philosophy.
. He supported the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt
. He was interested in premieres and a personal friend of composers, Wolfgang Rihm
was his Best man. Several composers dedicated music to him, such as Volker David Kirchner
his clarinet quartet Exil in 1995 and Toshio Hosokawa
Temple Bells Voice from the last movement of his oratorio Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima in 2001.
For the Rheingau Musik Festival he initiated in 1990 the annual Komponistenporträt, the presentation of a living composer and his or her work, music of György Ligeti
, Mauricio Kagel
, Volker David Kirchner
, Wilhelm Killmayer
, Wolfgang Rihm
, Dieter Schnebel
, Aribert Reimann
, Helmut Lachenmann
, Karlheinz Stockhausen
, Hans Werner Henze
, Krzysztof Penderecki
, Steve Reich
, Sofia Gubaidulina
, György Kurtág
, Arvo Pärt
, Henri Dutilleux
, Heinz Holliger
, Toshio Hosokawa
, Rodion Shchedrin
and Kaija Saariaho
, as of 2010. He has been the personal contact to the composers and a sponsor of the concert series.
His 80th birthday was celebrated in a concert of the Rheingau Musik Festival on 16 August 2010, in Schloss Johannisberg
with compositions of five composers including three premieres, works of Kirchner, Rihm, Hosokawa, Lachenmann and Jörg Widmann
for clarinet, percussion, piano and saxophone. The title of Hosokawa's composition for soprano saxophone and piano, percussion ad libitum, is Für Walter.
the Walter-Fink-Award for electroacoustic music, dance and media. The prize (Euro 10,000,) was awarded for the first time in 2009 to rosalie, Humberto Teixeira and Matthias Ockert.
Germans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
retired executive and a patron
Patronage
Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows to another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings or popes have provided to musicians, painters, and sculptors...
of Contemporary music. He is mostly known for being a founding member, Executive Committee member and sponsor of the Rheingau Musik Festival
Rheingau Musik Festival
The Rheingau Musik Festival is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres...
.
Biography
Walter Fink received piano instructions from age seven. In Frankfurt he took organ lessons with Helmut WalchaHelmut Walcha
Helmut Walcha was a blind German organist who specialized in the works of the Dutch and German baroque masters and is known for his recordings of the complete organ works of Johann Sebastian Bach.- Biography :Born in Leipzig, Walcha was blinded at age 19 after vaccination for smallpox...
and learned conducting with Kurt Thomas
Kurt Thomas (composer)
Kurt Thomas was a German composer, conductor and music educator.He was born in Tönning and died in Bad Oeynhausen....
.
Walter Fink joined the company of his father in 1930 and expanded the it. He was Managing director of the Firmengruppe Fink (FINK Schuhe + Sport GmbH) in Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden is a city in southwest Germany and the capital of the federal state of Hesse. It has about 275,400 inhabitants, plus approximately 10,000 United States citizens...
until his retirement in 2002.
He founded a church choir at the Christuskirche in Wiesbaden and served there for 25 years as organist.
In 1987 he was one of the founding members of the Rheingau Musik Festival
Rheingau Musik Festival
The Rheingau Musik Festival is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres...
, together with Michael Herrmann
Michael Herrmann
Michael Herrmann is a German culture and music administrator. He founded the Rheingau Musik Festival in 1987 and is its Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer.-Professional career:...
, Tatiana von Metternich-Winneburg
Tatiana von Metternich-Winneburg
Tatiana von Metternich-Winneburg was a German patron of the arts of Russian birth. She published her books and watercolours under the name Tatiana von Metternich. She supported charity, especially the Red Cross and the Order of St...
, Michael Bolenius, Hans-Clemens Lucht, Ulrich Rosin and Claus Wisser. He has been on the board of the Rheingau Musik Festival Förderverein, an association to support the festival. He has been on the Jury of the Rheingau Musikpreis, together with Rolf Beck, (Artistic Director of the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival
Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival
The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival is a classical music festival held every year in summer time all over the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany....
), Leo-Karl Gerhartz (retired Music Programme Director of the state broadcast Hessischer Rundfunk
Hessischer Rundfunk
Hessischer Rundfunk is the public broadcaster for the German state of Hesse. The main offices of HR are in Frankfurt am Main. HR is a member of the ARD.- Studios :...
and Peter Hanser-Strecker (Board Chairperson, Schott Music
Schott Music
Schott Music is one of the oldest German music publishers. It is also one of the largest music publishing houses in Europe and is currently the second oldest music publishing house. The company headquarters of Schott Music was founded by Bernhard Schott in Mainz, Germany in 1770.Established in...
).
Walter Fink received the Bundesverdienstkreuz in 2007. He is Grand Officier of the Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs
Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs
La Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs is an international gastronomic society founded in Paris in 1950. The Chaîne is based on the traditions and practices of the old French royal guild of goose roasters, whose authority gradually expanded to the roasting of all poultry, meat and game...
. On 19 October 2011 the Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe granted him an honorary
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...
Doctorate of Philosophy.
Engagement for contemporary music
Fink's interest in contemporary music was instilled in 1947 by Hindemith's opera Mathis der MalerMathis der Maler (opera)
Mathis der Maler is an opera by Paul Hindemith. The libretto is also by the composer.The opera's genesis lay in Hindemith's interest in the Protestant Reformation...
. He supported the Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik in Darmstadt
Darmstadt
Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...
. He was interested in premieres and a personal friend of composers, Wolfgang Rihm
Wolfgang Rihm
Wolfgang Rihm is a German composer.Rihm is Head of the Institute of Modern Music at the Karlsruhe Conservatory of Music and has been composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival...
was his Best man. Several composers dedicated music to him, such as Volker David Kirchner
Volker David Kirchner
Volker David Kirchner is a German composer and violist.-Biography:Kirchner studied at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory in Mainz from 1956 to 1969 under Günter Kehr and Günter Raphael...
his clarinet quartet Exil in 1995 and Toshio Hosokawa
Toshio Hosokawa
is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music.-Biography:Hosokawa studied with Yun Isang at the Berlin University of the Arts. Since 1998, Hosokawa has served as Composer-in-Residence at the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. In 2004, Hosokawa became a guest professor at Tokyo College of Music...
Temple Bells Voice from the last movement of his oratorio Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima in 2001.
For the Rheingau Musik Festival he initiated in 1990 the annual Komponistenporträt, the presentation of a living composer and his or her work, music of György Ligeti
György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...
, Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Kagel was a German-Argentine composer. He was notable for his interest in developing the theatrical side of musical performance .-Biography:...
, Volker David Kirchner
Volker David Kirchner
Volker David Kirchner is a German composer and violist.-Biography:Kirchner studied at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory in Mainz from 1956 to 1969 under Günter Kehr and Günter Raphael...
, Wilhelm Killmayer
Wilhelm Killmayer
Wilhelm Killmayer is a German composer of classical music and an academic.-Professional career:Wilhelm Killmayer studied conducting and composition from 1945 to 1951 in Munich at Hermann Wolfgang von Waltershausen’s Musikseminar...
, Wolfgang Rihm
Wolfgang Rihm
Wolfgang Rihm is a German composer.Rihm is Head of the Institute of Modern Music at the Karlsruhe Conservatory of Music and has been composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival...
, Dieter Schnebel
Dieter Schnebel
Dieter Schnebel is a composer. From 1976 until his retirement in 1995, Schnebel served as professor of experimental music at the Berlin Hochschule der Künste.-Career:...
, Aribert Reimann
Aribert Reimann
Aribert Reimann is a German opera composer, pianist and accompanist, known especially for his literary operas. His version of King Lear was written at the suggestion of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau who sang the title role....
, Helmut Lachenmann
Helmut Lachenmann
Helmut Lachenmann is a German composer associated with musique concrète instrumentale.-Life and works:...
, Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
, Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
, Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki , born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these...
, Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
, Sofia Gubaidulina
Sofia Gubaidulina
Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina, is a Russian composer of half Russian, half Tatar ethnicity.Gubaidulina's music is marked by the use of unusual instrumental combinations...
, György Kurtág
György Kurtág
György Kurtág is a Hungarian composer of contemporary music.- Biography :György Kurtág was born in Lugoj in the Banat region, Romania.In 1946, he began his studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he met his wife, Márta, and also György Ligeti, who became a close friend...
, Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt
Arvo Pärt is an Estonian classical composer and one of the most prominent living composers of sacred music. Since the late 1970s, Pärt has worked in a minimalist style that employs his self-made compositional technique, tintinnabuli. His music also finds its inspiration and influence from...
, Henri Dutilleux
Henri Dutilleux
Henri Dutilleux is one of the most important French composers of the second half of the 20th century, producing work in the tradition of Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, and Albert Roussel, but in a style distinctly his own...
, Heinz Holliger
Heinz Holliger
Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger Heinz Holliger (born 21 May 1939 is a Swiss oboist, composer and conductor.-Biography:He was born in Langenthal, Switzerland, and began his musical education at the conservatories of Bern and Basel. He studied composition with Sándor Veress and Pierre Boulez...
, Toshio Hosokawa
Toshio Hosokawa
is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music.-Biography:Hosokawa studied with Yun Isang at the Berlin University of the Arts. Since 1998, Hosokawa has served as Composer-in-Residence at the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. In 2004, Hosokawa became a guest professor at Tokyo College of Music...
, Rodion Shchedrin
Rodion Shchedrin
Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin is a Russian composer. He was one оf the leading Soviet composers, and was the chairman of the Union of Russian Composers from 1973 until 1990.-Life and Works:...
and Kaija Saariaho
Kaija Saariaho
Kaija Saariaho is a Finnish composer.Kaija Saariaho studied composition in Helsinki, Freiburg and Paris, where she has lived since 1982. Her studies and research at IRCAM have had a major influence on her music and her characteristically luxuriant and mysterious textures are often created by...
, as of 2010. He has been the personal contact to the composers and a sponsor of the concert series.
His 80th birthday was celebrated in a concert of the Rheingau Musik Festival on 16 August 2010, in Schloss Johannisberg
Schloss Johannisberg
Schloss Johannisberg is a winery in the Rheingau wine-growing region in Germany, that has been making wine for over 900 years. The winery is most noted for its claim to have "discovered" late harvest wine.- History :...
with compositions of five composers including three premieres, works of Kirchner, Rihm, Hosokawa, Lachenmann and Jörg Widmann
Jörg Widmann
Jörg Widmann is a German composer and clarinetist. He lives and works in Munich and Freiburg.- Education and career :...
for clarinet, percussion, piano and saxophone. The title of Hosokawa's composition for soprano saxophone and piano, percussion ad libitum, is Für Walter.
Walter-Fink-Award
Walter Fink created in collaboration with the Institut für Musik und Akustik of the Center for Art and Media KarlsruheCenter for Art and Media Karlsruhe
The Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe in Karlsruhe, Germany is an interdisciplinary art museum and research institution focusing on new media....
the Walter-Fink-Award for electroacoustic music, dance and media. The prize (Euro 10,000,) was awarded for the first time in 2009 to rosalie, Humberto Teixeira and Matthias Ockert.
External links
- Komponisten ehren Mäzen Walter Fink (in German), Hessischer RundfunkHessischer RundfunkHessischer Rundfunk is the public broadcaster for the German state of Hesse. The main offices of HR are in Frankfurt am Main. HR is a member of the ARD.- Studios :...
, 13 August 2010 (in German) - Dank für das tiefe Hören Volker Milch in Wiesbadener Tagblatt, 18 August 2010 (in German)
- Stille, Geräusch und Klang Frankfurter Neue Presse, 18 August 2010 (in German)