History
of Stadtmusik Stockach
Our orchestra can look back on 300 years of an eventful history of music. The first reference goes back to the year 1711, where in old town bills the municipal musicians got officially cited for their participation during the town fair.
Nevertheless, musical activity can be tracked back to the time of the thirty years’ war, where in old records of the carnival association “Narrengericht” gleemen already have been mentioned.
100 years later the “Stockachische Musikgesellschaft” counted 28 musicians. Establishing a municipal school of music in 1905, the orchestra involved not only wind and drums but also strings.
After WWI the association “Musikverein Stockach” was founded, however that became abrogated and was continued as NS-County Orchestra by the NS regime.
On January 25th, 1947 -after the chaos of war - the music association reformed under Wilhelm Seebacher who handed over the conductor’s baton to Edwin Gommeringer in 1950. Within the 30 years of his conduction, the orchestra achieved great results. In 1980, Josef Thomann took over the ensemble as well as the youth wind ensemble, which had formed in 1965.
A new era began, when Helmut Hubov became musical director of the “Statdmusik” in 1989.
Throughout the year, there are diverse opportunities for the orchestra to present itself. The annual concert in spring, which from time to time is being held together with another orchestra. In addition, the orchestra plays gala, church and entertainment concertsyet the year’s highlight is the festive Christmas concert.
One can also book our ensembles for smaller celebrations like weddings and birthdays. The ensemble “kleine Besetzung “ for example plays mainly pieces by Ernst Mosch but also other traditional folk music.
A commission together with the conductor does the selection of literature for the respective concerts. In addition, this commission is in charge of supporting the conductor, motivating the musicians and organizing concert tours.
Thus the orchestra travelled to Hungary and Itlay in 1990 and 1994 respectively, where the Orchestra reached second place during an international assessment play. In 1998 Statdtmusik Stockach achieved the “best in class” at the Landesmusikfest in Ehingen Ulm with “Le premier jour” by Jean Balissat.
The next mile stone for the orchestra was competing in the Volkstümliche Hitparade of SWR4 – a national radio station, where they won first place. The only brass band to achieve this before, was Ernst Mosch and no other brass band could achieve this after he passed away. Reaching second and third place in the following years re-assured the Stadtmusik’s success.
All of this would not have been possible without the commitment of our conductor Helmut and the actively playing musicians. Especially a big recognition needs to be given to the instrumental section leaders, as they are contributing to the success of the orchestra by extra rehearsals before all concerts.
Furthermore the future of the band is secured by the good relationship and strong collaboration with the local music school, where already the youngsters get an excellent education through highly qualified teachers.
Along with solo pieces we have some national premiers in our repertoire like e.g. Of Sailors and Whales by Francis McBeth, Five Folksongs for Soprano and Band by Bernard H. Gilmore, Star Wars by John Williams arranged by Donald Hunsberger. And now we can also add the world premiere of Vox Populi by Brett Abigana in Carnegie Hall in NYC to the list.