Wolfgang Fink
At a press conference on 5 March 2008, Dr. Thomas Goppel, Bavarian State Minister for Science, Re-search and the Arts and Chairman / President of the Advisory Committee of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra / Bavarian State Philharmonic Foundation, introduced Wolfgang Fink and welcomed him as the orchestra’s new General Manager and the Director of the Foundation.
“We are very fortunate to have found in Mr Fink a candidate who combines extensive experience of the international scene with a deep knowledge of German culture and musical life.” Wolfgang Fink takes up the post in September 2008.
Wolfgang Fink was Head of Classical and E-Music Programming at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt am Main from 1989 until 1997, when he moved to the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, where he was Chief Programmer and Head of the Artistic Administration until 2000. He was then Artistic Administrator and Programme Planner for the Orchestre National de Lyon until May 2005, when he became Director of Artistic Operations at the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, his last post before the appointment to Bamberg.
Wolfgang Fink has collaborated closely with many noted artists, conductors and composers. In Lyon, he was involved in the development of ‘SymphoNet’, a programme of cooperation between the Orchestre National de Lyon, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the City of Birmingham Symphony Or-chestra. During his professional career he has organized many mini-festivals and concert series including both contemporary music and the classical repertoire.
Born in Reutlingen in 1954, Wolfgang Fink is married and has three children. He received a doctorate in musicology from the University of Tübingen and has contributed numerous articles to international public-cations on music.
Interview with Wolfgang Fink
Mr Fink, in September 2008 you take up your post as General Manager and Director of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra / Bavarian State Philharmonic Foundation. Until then, you are still Director of Artistic Operations at the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. How do your responsibilities and operations in Sydney compare with the work that awaits you in Bamberg? Are there differences?
They do have one thing in common: Bamberg’s management team is much the same size as Sydney’s Artistic Operations Department, although, as is usual in the Anglo-Saxon world, the entire Sydney ma-nagement is considerably larger. Artistic Operations works in close consultation with the Chief Conductor, who in this instance is also the Artistic Director.
I’m entirely responsible for the orchestra’s artistic side and for its extensive educational programme, including a sort of orchestral academy. But the important thing about Sydney is that as well as taking care of artistic demands you’re responsible for your budget. Traditionally in the English-speaking orchestral world, artistic organizations are very much businesses too and money is an important topic, even if the artistic side is supposedly the main priority.
What attracted you to Australia in 2005? It’s a long way from Europe and quite a drastic step for your personal and family life!
I’d always wanted to work in the English-speaking world one day, partly for personal reasons – my wife is American. I didn’t consciously pursue that wish, though – there was an element of luck that it turned out that way. Australia really is a world away; admittedly, it’s a visibly European society but the country has developed a very distinctive dynamic and attitude, people are very self-confident, there’s this ‘can-do’ approach, which is both touchingly naïve and refreshing. Moving to a country like that, and to such a young country, was a challenge – but, of course, hugely enriching for my family and for me. You get maybe one chance like that in a lifetime and I certainly wasn’t going to let it pass me by!
What had you done professionally before Sydney?
Before working at the Sydney Symphony Orchestra I spent four years in a similar post at the Orchestre National de Lyon. The Chief Conductor there was David Robertson, who incidentally was Jonathan Nott’s predecessor in charge of the Ensemble InterContemporain in Paris. Before Lyon I was Chief Programme Planner and head of Artistic Administration for the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, from 1997 to 2000, and before that, Head of Classical Music and E-Music Programming at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt am Main, from 1989 until 1997. Frankfurt gave me the chance to develop my own way of doing things.
I like to think I get on very well with creative people, especially composers, and in Frankfurt I had the joy and privilege of working with composers a lot. Finally, my first job was at South German Radio in Stuttgart, as an unpaid volunteer. That was a crucial experience, it was just at the time when radio was reorganizing itself. I’d got the radio bug as a schoolboy. I got to know the musical repertoire very well from radio, though it also taught me a lot about literature. I built up quite an archive of off-air recordings which I listened to again and again.
What convinced you to come back to Germany and come to Bamberg as General Manager?
I’d never intended to leave Germany for good and emigrate to Australia, it was only ever meant to be an episode in my life. Obviously, when I began to get signs of interest from Bamberg, that was an extremely attractive prospect. The Bamberg Symphony Orchestra is unique in Germany, at least I don’t know of a comparable one. I have huge respect for this orchestra’s history and hard work.
I often came to Bamberg to hear it: my first visit was in the early ’90s, when the new hall was built, and my latest as recently as 2005. In July 2000 I came for a concert in which Jonathan Nott conducted Varèse’s Amériques and Strauss’s Alpine Symphony. I found that combination very intriguing and was fascinated to hear how Jonathan Nott would tackle it – and I was bowled over. So I’ve always admired the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra from afar and I’ve also admired the way the orchestra has grown over the last few years. Its flexibility, its openness to a wide range of repertoire are impressive. That’s exactly the road an orchestra should be going down today.
The field of so-called ‘classical’ music is very conservative, anyway, possibly the most conservative of all the arts – not without reason: continuity is very important for an orchestra. But today the opposite is also true: you cannot afford to stop reinventing yourself. In Bamberg, the conditions are just right for that.
You’ve mentioned your interest in contemporary music, which brings us to your dissertation – you have a PhD in musicology from Tübingen, for which you took your subject from contemporary music?
Yes, I wrote my thesis on Pierre Boulez’ Le Marteau sans maître, a very special business (laughs)! The reason I studied musicology is that I wanted to know what made new music ‘new’, if I can put it like that.
The original impetus came on 6 April 1971, I remember it perfectly, it was the day Igor Stravinsky died. I was still at school and late that evening I watched a TV documentary about the great composer. I didn’t know too much about the subject but I immediately realised that this was the end of an era and that a central figure of the century had died, someone from that generation which had driven the revolution in the arts. From that day on I started reading about music, I got hold of a pile of books and just got stuck in. When I reached Boulez, I knew straight away that I’d be deeply involved with his music.
You’re married and have three children. Are they as mad about music as their dad?
In the case of my eldest daughter I can say quite categorically: no (laughs) – she’s a triathlete! I’m just so impressed, she’s such an amazing sportswoman. Anyway, I never expected the children to follow a musical career, even though it’s so much a part of our lives, my wife’s and mine. Of course, we often take our children with us to concerts, we let them know how much music means to us but we don’t put any pressure on them, there’s no secret desire for them to follow in our footsteps, quite the contrary. Our two younger children both play instruments and are good, attentive listeners, so let’s just see what happens…
Which composers mean most to you / are closest to your heart?
Actually, that’s a question I can’t answer. Oh go on then, if you insist!… Schubert, I’d say, Bruckner, Bach, Berg and Boulez. But they’re not the whole story, far from it: that’s what’s so great about music, you’re always discovering new things, and I’m constantly amazed at the music that appeals to me, though I’d never have imagined that it would. Music has many paths, and they all lead to incredibly rich possibilities. That’s why I find the expression ‘classical music’ somewhat out of place / inappropriate, it hides the sheer contrasts in music, its sheer richness and diversity, which we’re free to discover for yourselves and in ourselves.
Culturally, Bamberg has something very special to offer, not just in the arts but as a way of life. It’s a World Heritage City and it also has a remarkable concentration of breweries. Have you had a chance to get to know the city better? What’s your first impression?
It’s just heavenly the way everything in this city is so near, you can get just about anywhere on foot – with a river running through it. We lived right in the centre of Lyon and that was the same, despite the differ-rences. Sydney, too, with all those branches coming far inland from the harbour, that’s a cityscape de-fined by water, water is the city’s elixir of life. Which brings us to beer (laughs)! I’m a fan of Bamberg’s smoky Rauchbier.
Looking at the 2008/2009 season, what are you especially looking forward to?
First of all let me say I find the coming season quite exceptional. I’m really grateful to my predecessor Paul Müller for bequeathing me this programme. I’m especially looking forward to Pierre-Laurent Aimard whom we’ll be able to enjoy several times as Artist in Residence with the Orchestra. I know him and his family, he was born – here’s a coincidence! – in Lyon. So, unexpectedly and without any forethought on my part, we come full circle. That’s just wonderful.
Every incoming General Manager has new ideas which he hopes to introduce and bring to fruition? Do you have plans for what you’d like to focus on in Bamberg? What can Bamberg audiences look forward to – and the orchestra, too, of course?
Right now, obviously, that’s hard to answer. Things need to develop, I think. First I must get a feel for which projects fit here and are feasible. One thing’s clear: any artistic initiatives have to suit the Orchestra – and the audience. Those two factors are the key to determining what a General Manager should do.
The interviewer was Torsten Blaich.