Walter Fink (16 August 1930 – 13 April 2018) was a German entrepreneur and a

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

of contemporary classical music. He is known for being a founding member, executive committee member and sponsor of the

Rheingau Musik Festival The (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, ...

, where he initiated a series of annual portraits of international composers of contemporary classical music.

Career

Fink was taught piano from the age of seven. In Frankfurt he took organ lessons with

Helmut Walcha Arthur Emil Helmut Walcha (27 October 1907 – 11 August 1991) was a German organist, harpsichordist, music teacher and composer who specialized in the works of the Dutch and German baroque masters. Blind since his teenage years, he is known ...

and learned conducting with Kurt Thomas. He joined the company of his father in 1930 and expanded it. He was

Managing director A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...

of the Firmengruppe Fink (FINK Schuhe + Sport GmbH) in

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

until his retirement in 2002. He founded a church choir at the Christuskirche in Wiesbaden and served there for 25 years as organist. In 1987 he was one of the founding members of the

, together with

Michael Herrmann Michael Herrmann (born 4 February 1944, in Wiesbaden) is a German culture and music administrator. He founded the Rheingau Musik Festival in 1987 and is its Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer. He also runs a concert agency in the Frank ...

, Tatiana von Metternich-Winneburg, Claus Wisser, Michael Bolenius, Hans-Clemens Lucht and Ulrich Rosin. The advertising department of his company designed the logo for the festival. Fink was on the board of the Rheingau Musik Festival Förderverein, an association to support the festival, and was its president during the first years. He was a member the jury of the Rheingau Musik Preis, together with Rolf Beck (Artistic Director of the

Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival is a classical music festival held each summer throughout the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany. History The festival was founded in 1986 by German concert pianist Justus Frantz. In 2006, the 2 ...

), Leo-Karl Gerhartz (retired Music Programme Director of the state broadcaster

Hessischer Rundfunk Hessischer Rundfunk (HR; "Hesse Broadcasting") is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, ARD. Studios Do ...

and Peter Hanser-Strecker (Board Chairperson of Schott Music). Fink received the Cross of the

Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany The Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Verdienstorden der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or , BVO) is the only federal decoration of Germany. It is awarded for special achievements in political, economic, cultural, intellect ...

in 2007. He was Grand Officier of the

Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs La Confrérie de la Chaîne des Rôtisseurs () is an international gastronomy, gastronomic society founded in Paris in 1950. The Chaîne is based on the traditions and practices of the old French Royal Guild of Goose Roasters, whose authority gra ...

. On 19 October 2011 the Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe granted him an honorary

Doctorate of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

Engagement for contemporary music

Fink's interest in contemporary music was instilled in 1947 by Hindemith's opera ''

Mathis der Maler ''Mathis der Maler'' (''Matthias the Painter'' is an opera by Paul Hindemith. The work's protagonist, Matthias Grünewald, was a historical figure who flourished during the Reformation, and whose art, in particular the Isenheim Altarpiece, inspi ...

''. He supported the

Internationale Ferienkurse für Neue Musik "The Internationale" (french: "L'Internationale", italic=no, ) is an international anthem used by various communist and socialist groups; currently, it serves as the official anthem of the Communist Party of China. It has been a standard of th ...

in Darmstadt. He was interested in premieres and a personal friend of composers;

Wolfgang Rihm Wolfgang Rihm (born 13 March 1952) is a German composer and academic teacher. He is musical director of the Institute of New Music and Media at the University of Music Karlsruhe and has been composer in residence at the Lucerne Festival and the Sa ...

served as his

best man A groomsman or usher is one of the male attendants to the groom in a wedding ceremony and performs the first speech at the wedding. Usually, the groom selects close friends and relatives to serve as groomsmen, and it is considered an honor to be ...

. Several composers dedicated music to him, such as

Volker David Kirchner Volker David Kirchner (25 June 1942 – 4 February 2020) was a German composer and violist. After studies of violin and composition at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory, the Hochschule für Musik Köln and the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, he w ...

his piano quartet with clarinet ''Exil'' in 1995 and

Toshio Hosokawa is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music. He studied in Germany but returned to Japan, finding a personal style inspired by classical Japanese music and culture. He has composed operas, the oratorio ''Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima'' ...

''Temple Bells Voice'' from the last movement of his oratorio ''Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima'' in 2001. For the Rheingau Musik Festival he initiated in 1990 the annual Komponistenporträt, the presentation of a living composer and his or her work. Fink was the personal contact to the composers and a sponsor of the concert series, presenting the composers and their music:

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde composers in the latter half of the twentieth century ...

Mauricio Kagel Mauricio Raúl Kagel (; 24 December 1931 – 18 September 2008) was an Argentine-German composer. Biography Kagel was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family that had fled from Russia in the 1920s . He studied music, his ...

Wilhelm Killmayer Wilhelm Killmayer (21 August 1927 – 20 August 2017) was a German composer of classical music, a conductor and an academic teacher of composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München from 1973 to 1992. He composed symphonies and s ...

, Dieter Schnebel,

Aribert Reimann Aribert Reimann (born 4 March 1936) is a German composer, pianist and accompanist, known especially for his literary operas. His version of Shakespeare's ''King Lear'', the opera '' Lear'', was written at the suggestion of Dietrich Fischer-Diesk ...

Helmut Lachenmann Helmut Friedrich Lachenmann (born 27 November 1935) is a German composer of contemporary classical music. His work has been associated with "instrumental musique concrète". Life and works Lachenmann was born in Stuttgart and after the end of ...

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th and early 21st-century ...

Hans Werner Henze Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large oeuvre of works is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Stravinsky, Italian music, Arabic music and jazz, as well as ...

Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best known works include ''Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', '' Polish Requiem'', ' ...

, Steve Reich, Sofia Gubaidulina,

György Kurtág György Kurtág (; born 19 February 1926) is a Hungarian classical composer and pianist. He was an academic teacher of piano at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music from 1967, later also of chamber music, and taught until 1993. Biography Györ ...

, Arvo Pärt,

Henri Dutilleux Henri Paul Julien Dutilleux (; 22 January 1916 – 22 May 2013) was a French composer active mainly in the second half of the 20th century. His small body of published work, which garnered international acclaim, followed in the tradition of ...

Heinz Holliger Heinz Robert Holliger (born 21 May 1939) is a Swiss virtuoso oboist, composer and conductor. Celebrated for his versatility and technique, Holliger is among the most prominent oboists of his generation. His repertoire includes Baroque and Classic ...

, Rodion Shchedrin,

Kaija Saariaho Kaija Anneli Saariaho (; ; born 14 October 1952) is a Finnish composer based in Paris, France. During the course of her career, Saariaho has received commissions from the Lincoln Center for the Kronos Quartet and from IRCAM for the Ensemble Inte ...

Hans Zender Johannes Wolfgang Zender (22 November 1936 – 22 October 2019) was a German conductor and composer. He was the chief conductor of several opera houses, and his compositions, many of them vocal music, have been performed at international festival ...

and

Péter Eötvös Péter Eötvös ( hu, Eötvös Péter, ; born 2 January 1944) is a Hungarian composer, conductor and teacher. Eötvös was born in Székelyudvarhely, Transylvania, then part of Hungary, now Romania. He studied composition in Budapest and Colog ...

. His 80th birthday was celebrated in a concert of the Rheingau Musik Festival at

Schloss Johannisberg Schloss Johannisberg is a castle and winery in the village of Johannisberg to the west of Wiesbaden, Hesse, in the Rheingau wine-growing region of Germany. It has been making wine for over 900 years. The winery is most noted for its claim to ...

on 16 August 2010, with compositions of five composers including three premieres, works of Kirchner, Rihm, Hosokawa, Lachenmann and

Jörg Widmann Jörg Widmann (born 19 June 1973) is a German composer, conductor and clarinetist. In 2018, Widmann was the third most performed contemporary composer in the world. Formerly a clarinet and composition professor at the University of Music Freibu ...

for clarinet, percussion, piano and saxophone. Among the works was Lachenmann's ''

Sakura-Variationen ''Sakura-Variationen'' (''Sakura Variations'') is a 2000 trio composition scored for saxophone, piano, and percussion by Helmut Lachenmann. It is written in the form of variations on a Japanese folk song about the cherry blossom called "Sakura Sa ...

''. The title of Hosokawa's composition for soprano saxophone and piano, percussion ad libitum, is ''Für Walter – Arc Song II''.

Walter-Fink-Award

Fink created, in collaboration with the ''Institut für Musik und Akustik'' of the

ZKM Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe The ZKM , Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (until March 2016: ZKM Center for Art and Media Technology), a cultural institution, was founded in 1989. and since 1997 is located in a listed industrial building in Karlsruhe, Germany, a former muni ...

, the ''Walter-Fink-Award'' for electroacoustic music, dance and media. Fink sponsored it until 2012. The prize (Euro 10,000) was awarded for the first time in 2009 to rosalie,

Humberto Teixeira Humberto Cavalcanti de Albuquerque Teixeira (5 January 1915 – 3 October 1979) was a Brazilian lawyer, politician, musician, and composer, mostly known for his partnership with musician Luiz Gonzaga. Together, they wrote one of the most impor ...

and .

References

External links

* * Sabine Siemon
Eine besondere Herzensangelegenheit / Rheingau Musik Festival – Komponistenwerkstatt zum 80. Geburtstag von Walter Fink
freundederkuenste.de 12 August 2010
Trio Accanto / Helmut Lachenmann 75
Berliner Festspiele
Personen M.A.K.-Stiftung
mak-stiftung.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Fink, Walter 1930 births 2018 deaths German patrons of music Recipients of the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Businesspeople from Hesse People from Wiesbaden 20th-century philanthropists