Benkert Music School

Logo of the Benkert Music School

The Akkordeon-Schul-Service Benkert GmbH , or Musikschule Benkert for short (spelling: Musikschule BENKERT), was founded in 1978 by Winfried Benkert. Within a short time the music school in Hammelburg grew to several hundred students. Countless appearances in pedestrian zones and at events in favor of the problem child campaign followed . Over the years, a total of around 30,000 German marks has been raised for the problem child campaign .

history

In 1979 the company began producing its own accordions , which took place in Italy . A total of about 6000 instruments were produced. In 1985 the music school was included in the ZDF show Na sowas! , moderated by Thomas Gottschalk . There she performed with 521 students who all played the title From the Blue Mountains We Come .

In 1985, Gotthilf Fischer performed another appearance at Esslingen Castle with over 600 children. In the same year the Internationale Sing- und Spielring eV was founded in Hammelburg by Winfried Benkert and Gotthilf Fischer . This association had set itself the task of preserving the German folk songs through youth and turning it into a hobby through youth-friendly musical training and group experiences. Gotthilf Fischer came to Hammelburg at that time and signed the Golden Book of Hammelburg there under Mayor Elmar Hartung.

There were a number of other appearances, for example on the golden hit parade of folk music ( Sat.1 ), in the Musikantenstadl , as well as on Hallo Heino and many more. Thanks to the great commitment of Winfried Benkert ( artist name Larry ), together with Herrmann († 1999) and Stefanie Benkert († 1999), who mainly headed sales, Ingeborg Kleinhenz, who worked in administration, and Wolfgang Benkert, who did a lot of organizational work , the Benkert Music School continued to grow and became one of the largest music schools in Germany.

In the best of times the school had over 1,500 students. Over the years a total of around 10,200 students have been trained to play the accordion and keyboard. Branch offices were also set up, for example in Jena and Erlangen . The whole area covered an area from Bavaria through Thuringia to Hesse . The music school Benkert was dissolved in 2002 by the founder Winfried Benkert. Even today there is a foundation plaque in the town hall of Hammelburg .

Accordion production

Production began in 1979 in Castelfidardo , Italy, a well-known place for the manufacture of accordion instruments. There the Benkert accordions were made by hand in the traditional way. Most of the instruments is made as a piano accordion with a treble - keyboard on the right side. The Stradella bass , also known as the standard bass , was used as the bass technique. By 1990 about 6000 piano accordions and a few individual pieces were made as button accordions .