|
The Austrian accordionist, Wolfgang Dimetrik, had his first instruction in accordion already at the age of 6 from Franz Maurer. When he was 11 years old, he entered the class taught by Professor Mag. Erwin Moder at the Johann-Joseph-Fux Conservatory for Music in Graz. Six years later (in 1992) he began his studies at the Institute of Music in Graz with Guest Professor Mogens Ellegard, James Crabb and Geir Draugsvoll. He obtained his diploma there in 1996, and then moved with a stipend to Würzburg in Professor Stefan Hussong’s class at the Hermann-Zilcher-Conservatory. He obtained the artistic diploma with honours in 2001, and took in 2003 that most regal of all courses, a master-class.
At the relatively young age of 24 Wolfgang Dimetrik was offered a teaching position at the Professional School of Music in Altötting in Bavaria. He has taught there since then in the departments of accordion, accordion/chamber music, methodology, history of performance and the literature, didactics of accordion and music pedagogy. After numerous master-classes around the world, he now concentrates on very well known contemporary ensembles such as the Musikfabrik Nordrhein-Westfalen, the Neues Ensemble Hannover, the Ensemble recherché, the Ensemble SurPlus, the Ensemble Modern and the Ensemble RECONSIL.
Works for solo accordion and accordion chamber music continue to appear out of his active collaboration with composers of our time like Adriana Hölszky, Uros Rojko, Marko Zdralek and Thomas Heinisch. Wolfgang Dimetrik can point to innumerable premieres, such as Lied für Orchester by Jörg Widmann with the Bamberger Symphoniker conducted by Jonathan Nott, and the contemporary opera Die Wände (The Walls) by Adriana Hölszky under Alfons Kontarsky at the Frankfurt Opera. Hae also participated in the first performance of Arnold Schoenberg's The Lucky Hand (Die glückliche Hand, in an arrangement for chamber orchestra) by the United Ensemble Berlin, conducted by Peter Hirsch.
Wolfgang Dimetrik was hailed as a noteworthy newcomer by the international press after the release of his first CD with J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations (BWV 988). His second recording followed in 2003 with selected piano sonatas of Joseph Haydn. His third CD appeared in 2007, a portrait of the composer Uros Rojko with the programmatic title “Spin”.
The Stuttgarter Allgemeine called Dimetrik “the master of pure tone”, Der Spiegel called him “a magician on the keyboard”, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said that he keeps the Schifferklavier [Translator’s note: meaning “seaman’s piano”, a term sometimes pejoratively applied in German to the accordion) on the go, and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung praised his memorably divine tone that is joyous, clear, pearly, intimate, affecting.
Wolfgang Dimetrik was awarded the Pasticcio Prize on September 27, 2007 by the Austrian classic radio station Ö1 for his CD with the Haydn piano sonatas. The new and also fresh interpretations of the four Haydn sonatas led to this award - Haydn on accordion as CD of the Month for September 2007. |
