Bernhard Wünsch

Bernhard Wünsch (* 1965 in Augsburg ) is a German conductor , pianist and arranger .

education

Bernhard Wünsch's father was the long-time Bamberg cathedral organist and cathedral music director Wolfgang Wünsch . His piano lessons began at the age of six, and violin lessons at the age of nine. In addition, Bernhard Wünsch completed basic training as an organist , which he completed in 1982 with the D exams and in 1984 with the C exams in Catholic church music. This included training as a choir director.

Already before graduation Bernhard custom began in 1982 a guest studies in music theory / music analysis ( Zsolt Gárdonyi ) and 1984 Piano (Schulz-Thierbach) at the Music Academy in Würzburg , at the same time he was in 1982, while still a student of a high school, an assistant of Rolf Beck , the then Intendants of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra , the Bamberg Symphony Choir and studied the great works of the choral symphonic repertoire (Requiem by Verdi , Mozart , Brahms , Donizetti , Mahler's Symphonies No. 2 and 8, the great oratorios by Bach , Mendelssohn , Handel , etc.) . During this time he undertook his first concert tours with Rolf Beck, the South German Vocal Ensemble and members of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in Germany, Spain, Israel and the Benelux countries as well as France as an assistant and continuo player on organ and harpsichord in major works such as: B. Handel's Messiah and Bach's St. John Passion . At the same time he also excelled as a jazz bassist in the Bamberg BArTRIO. The young trio played a series of concerts with the talented pianist and organist Stefan Kessler and the percussionist and later founder and first professor of the percussion department at the Academy of Arts in Prague, Tomas Ondrusek.

Bernhard Wünsch studied conducting at the Musikhochschule Würzburg and from 1987 to 1990 in Munich with Hermann Michael . In addition to his studies, Bernhard Wünsch conducted the Munich Symphony Orchestra , ensembles of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and was guest conductor of the Bad Reichenhall Philharmonic Orchestra with 50 concerts per year. In addition, he worked as a pianist, organist and harpsichordist with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and was able to closely follow the work of conductors such as Horst Stein , Georges Prêtre , Charles St. Clair , Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos , Wolfgang Sawallisch and Giuseppe Patanè and work with these conductors . In this context he conducted many stage music for large symphonic works (e.g. Richard Strauss ' Eine Alpensinfonie , Mahler's 2nd Symphony (Mahler) ). Conducting workshops with Rolf Reuter and Colin Davis completed his training. He worked with Horst Stein from 1986 to 1988 at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festival and assisted him in many productions of the Bamberg Symphony; In 1990 he also worked as an assistant for Franz Welser-Möst in Austria and Spain ( Salome ).

Act as a conductor

Bernhard Wünsch then went to traditional German opera theaters ( Bielefeld and Wiesbaden ) for five years and conducted there in rehearsals and quickly also in performances of essential works of the opera, operetta and musical repertoire ( Don Giovanni , Die Entführung aus dem Serail , La clemenza di Tito , Le nozze di Figaro , Salome, Ariadne auf Naxos , Lohengrin , Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg , La forza del destino , Otello , The bird dealer , The begging student , Cabaret , La Cage aux Folles and others) and ballet performances ( The Nutcracker , Swan Lake and others).

Years at the English-oriented Musical Theater with Les Misérables , Jekyll & Hyde and Dance of the Vampires followed .

Since 1998 Bernhard Wünsch has conducted numerous concerts and recordings in Germany and Europe. Guest performances in u. a. to France, Great Britain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Russia, Israel, Puerto Rico, Denmark, Spain, Greece, Austria, Slovenia, Belarus and finally to Japan. The repertoire includes symphonic works as well as numerous works from opera, operettas, musicals and films. He conducted a. a. in the Philharmonie im Gasteig Munich, the Alte Oper Frankfurt , the Laeiszhalle Hamburg and the Konzerthaus Berlin . Bernhard Wünsch has worked as an assistant or conductor in concert operas, for example B. in Così fan tutte ( Hessischer Rundfunk ) and Das Rheingold ( Lucerne Festival ), remained associated with the Hessian State Theater Wiesbaden beyond the contract period as a guest conductor.

Working as a pianist

His work as a pianist focuses primarily on the song, here he has given numerous recitals at the theaters in Bielefeld and Wiesbaden with the singers of the respective ensembles and played works from Schubert to Pfitzner and Shostakovich . Since 2011 he has been on concert tours with the soprano Eilika Wünsch in Europe and Asia, the repertoire here ranges from Mozart to Szymanowski . The two artists put u. a. presented the world's first complete recording of the twelve songs op. 17 by the latter composer.

Bernhard Wünsch has been a permanent guest conductor of the symphony orchestra of the National TV & Radio Company Belarus since 2012 . Since 2018 he has been the musical director of the Musikhaus am Bielstein and the chamber music series "SEESEN classics" and "Rathauskonzerte Karlstadt" together with Eilika Wünsch.

Web links

• official homepage
• Works by and about Bernhard Wünsch in the catalog of the German National Library