Vivaldi Orchestra: A “terrific, phenomenal success story” – Dachau

After years of planning, postponements and rescheduling caused by the pandemic, there was finally a big celebration in Karlsfeld on Saturday: The Vivaldi Orchestra Karlsfeld, founded in 1970, turned fifty years old in 2020 – and today it is as young and active as ever. And it is, you can hardly believe it, managed by its founder Monika Fuchs-Warmhold, who also conducted the anniversary concert, for 52 years now.

Reinhold Werstler, first director of the Vivaldi Orchestra Karlsfeld, spoke of a “terrific, phenomenal success story” when welcoming the guests in the sold-out community center, many of them prominent politicians. This success story is closely linked to the personality of Monika Fuchs-Warmhold. She came to Karlsfeld when she was just 19 years old. What she missed here was making music on plucked instruments, which in her homeland, the Saarland, had and still has the same importance as brass music in Bavaria. Which is why the young woman quickly founded a music school and offered guitar and mandolin lessons there.

“An excellent sense of talent”

A year later, a small play group was founded with its students, which initially went under the name “Zupforchester Karlsfeld”, and from 1978 as the “Vivaldi Orchestra Karlsfeld”, joined the Karlsfeld Music Association. The group grew, only a few years later, in 1974, the children’s and later youth orchestra was founded with the “Vivaldi Tigers” and the “Vivaldi Mice”. First appearances in renowned concert series such as the Blutenburger or the Ameranger concerts followed, as well as the first radio and television recordings. Prize after prize was won in orchestra competitions, which were initially nationwide and later international, and young orchestras have repeatedly achieved great success in “Jugend musiziert”. Today the “big” orchestra consists of about 40 musicians, all of them amateur musicians, and another two dozen members of the youth orchestra.

All this was no coincidence. Thomas Hammer, President of the Bavarian State Association in the Bund Deutscher Zupfmusiker, attested Monika Fuchs-Warmhold on Saturday “an excellent sense of talent”, as well as “empathy and the ability to convey fun in music”. This has developed into the largest and most diverse association in the plucked music scene. With its size, the club combines a “unique combination of musical breadth and the highest musical quality”.

Youth work plays an important role

Against the background of this success story, combined with numerous concert tours throughout Europe, the second mayor of Karlsfeld, Stefan Handl, spoke of the Vivaldi Orchestra as “Karlsfeld’s outstanding ambassador”. The importance of the association for the community is not least related to its continuous youth work, both within the music school and youth orchestra as well as in the “plucking classes” initiated by Fuchs-Warmhold at Karlsfeld elementary schools.

Open detailed view

Open detailed view

The anniversary concert itself demonstrated the level of musical skill and enthusiasm with which both the “big” orchestra and the adjoining youth orchestra played music. In accordance with the concert motto “Four Seasons – Five Decades”, parts of the work by Antonio Vivaldi, who gave it its name, were performed, such as “The Winter” from Concerto opus 8, No. 4, but also modern compositions such as “The Song of Japanese Autumn” by Yasuo Kuwahara or Francesco Civitareale’s “Danza dello struzzo”, which was heard in the world premiere on Saturday. Film music by Ennio Morricone or Adele’s “Rolling in the Deep” also impressively show the different genres in which the Vivaldi Orchestra is touring.

Individual soloists repeatedly set special accents in the concert: the renowned mandolin player Veronika Schleicher as a guest, as well as the orchestra member Brigitte Rost, also on the mandolin, Julia Hiller as a vocal soloist or the flutists Ulrike Pobel, Katrin Nozicka and Angelika Tausch.

Pure joie de vivre

Andreas Froschmayer excelled on the electric guitar, while Martin Ziegenaus was not only the focus of attention as a solo saxophonist but also proved to be a master of the “singing saw”: an instrument that is apparently mastered by very few experts in the scene. Angelika Tausch and Ralf Hanrieder, who led the concert through their knowledgeable and witty moderators, explained that Ziegenaus had learned how to deal with the unusual material via “distance learning”.

Whether to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”, whether to encores such as “Music” by John Miles or “Tequila” – the audience always reacted with storms of enthusiasm and loud cheers. And not just inspired by free beer with pretzels and a Bavarian parade march before and during the break to celebrate the traditional “fifth season” in Bavaria, the Oktoberfest time, and not because of the “hands-on package” that you, with “shaker” and equipped with small LED candles, found under the seat – but quite simply: because music by and with the Vivaldi Orchestra Karlsfeld conveys pure joie de vivre with a high potential for infection. “You have greatly enriched my life,” explained Monika Fuchs-Warmhold in her acceptance speech to the orchestra members. But the same can be said about the orchestra’s founder and director herself: she greatly enriched musical life in Karlsfeld and far beyond.