Brass music “Strauss in the Park”

Musikkapelle PartenkirchenThere have always been brass bands in Partenkirchen since the 18th century. However, the orchestra was officially re-founded in 1883. Since then, amateur musicians from all professions have been making music in the Partenkirchen brass band with great joy and commitment. Today, the orchestra has almost 60 active members aged between 15 and 85. The band is led by conductor Josef Grasegger senior. As representatives of culture and tradition, the musicians have grown over the years to become a permanent fixture in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. But the orchestra is also in demand beyond the borders of the market town and is often a guest at international events. Most recently together with the Musikkapelle Garmisch at the Royal Military Music of Oman and the Military Brass Band Festival in St. Petersburg. However, the weekly concerts in Partenkirchen’s Kurpark are still the main part of the band’s musical work. The popularity of this concert series, which has been running for over a hundred years, is demonstrated by the steadily growing number of listeners. The orchestra is always open to new ideas. This year, for example, the orchestra was delighted to take on the challenge of organizing a themed concert around Richard Strauss.

Ilme StahnkeThe young mezzo-soprano Ilme Stahnke completed her Bachelor’s degree with KS Prof. Christiane Iven at the Munich University of Music. She completed her master’s degree there with Prof. Daniela Sindram and graduated in 2023 in concert singing. Ilme Stahnke can regularly be heard throughout Germany as a lieder singer and soloist in major works such as the Christmas oratorios by Bach or Saint-Saens or Handel’s Messiah. During her studies, Ilme Stahnke sang in several opera productions at the conservatory, for example in the role of the second lady or the second boy in Mozart’s Magic Flute, as well as in the role of “Nireno” from Handel’s opera “Giulio Cesare in Egitto” and others. In summer 2024, she will make her stage debut as the Second Lady in Mozart’s Magic Flute at the Saarpolygon Opera Festival. Ilme Stahnke is a scholarship holder of the Evangelisches Studienwerk Villigst.

Friedrich SzepanskyBorn on January 4, 1959 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Friedrich Szepansky studied singing with Kammersänger Franz Nagl in Innsbruck from 1978 to 1980 after graduating from high school. From 1981-1986, he studied conducting, piano and music theory with Prof. Hans Kast, Prof. José-Luis Prado and Prof. Hans-Elmar Bach at the conservatories in Cologne and Düsseldorf. After his studies and assignments as deputy conductor in various music corps of the German Armed Forces, he took over the direction of the Army Music Corps 12 in Veitshöchheim near Würzburg in 1991. In 1993, he was called to Potsdam to join the newly established Army Music Corps 400, now the Bundeswehr Staff Music Corps. The particular challenge here was bringing together musicians from various music corps of the National People’s Army and introducing them to the “Bundeswehr system”, which was completely foreign to them. In 1996, he moved to Hanover to join Army Music Corps 1, which he led for 12 years. From 2008, Friedrich Szepansky served as head of the Marine Music Corps in Kiel until his retirement in spring 2022. Numerous concerts with wind and symphony orchestras have taken him at home and abroad, including to Canada, Russia, Israel, Lebanon, Latvia, Great Britain and Cyprus. Today, he performs chamber music as a pianist and continues to arrange works for ensembles and orchestras.