Wolfgang Zamastil - Biography

Read the interview "Intrada", sended on 9th of January 2004

1981: - Born in Salzburg (Austria) on 13th March
1986: - Begins cello studies at the Salzburg Music School under Claudia Gabrielli and Irmtraud Hubatscheck
1990:

- Graduation into the Salzburg Mozarteum, Vorstudent under Prof. Wilfried Tachezi
- Individual lessons also with Heinrich Schiff
1995: - Winner of several local and national prizes (Prima la Musica)
- Founds string quartet
1997: - Becomes pupil of Clemens Hagen
- Founds nuevo-ensemble “anochesido”
- Chamber music performances in Austria, Germany and Italy
1999: - Abitur (high school graduation) at the BGIII Salzburg
- Individual lessons with H. Schiff
2000: - Passes the entrance examinations for the music schools of Detmold, Saarbrücken and Berlin (Hochschule für Musik)
- Becomes student of Prof. M. Sanderling at the Hochschule für Musik Berlin
- Founds a piano trio (work on pieces by Rihm, Ravel)
- Founds the new nuevo-ensemble “Continuum” ; own arrangements and compositions.
- Work on projects of Musik und Theater Saar (Die Zauberflöte, 16 performances)
2001: - Work on projects of the Neuköllner Oper Berlin (Essen und Sterben)
- Passes audition for the Kammerorchester Concerto Dresden / Semper Oper
- Composition of numerous songs for children , string quartets, solo suites, tangos
2002: - Foundational stage of studies completed with distinction.
- Interruption of studies for one semester, due to the discontinuation of studentship under M. Sanderling.
- Composition of the the Concerto for Cello and Orchestra Le Mouton Enragé
+ First Performance on 27th of July in "Grosse Aula der LMU - München", Cond.: David Danzmayr (SEM München)
- Artistic participation in the Tiroler Festspiele (Conductor and organizer: Gustav Kuhn, Wagner`s Rheingold and
  Bruckner`s 9th Symphony)
2003: - Becomes student of Jens Peter Mainz at the HfM Berlin
- Second season of artistic participation in the Tiroler Festspielen (Wagner`s Rheingold, Walküre, Siegfried,
  Götterdämmerung)
- Accepts position as occasional cellist for the Deutsche Symphonieorchester Berlin
- Concerts in the SFB Berlin, Berlin Konzerthaus, Brucknerhaus Linz, Guggenheim Museum Berlin
- Production of own CD
- Composition of the four -part tango Cote Atlantique
2004:

- Lots of Compositions for children
- Work with the pianist Gianfranco Sannicandro, concerts in Austria
- Composition of two Sonatas for Violoncello and Piano (The Prescription/Gráinne), the six - part tango "Esta es"
   a String Quartet, a string trio (vla/vcl/cb), several works for Solo - Cello
- Starts working on the next Continuum - production "A la inmensa minoria"
- Composition and production of the popalbum "Pressure's off"
- Composition and production of the Continuum - album "Vueltas"
- Financial support of the spanish foundation "Fundation Promete", Concerts in Spain
- Participant of the "Lucerne Festival Acedemy" ,Concerts under Pierre Boulez & Maurizi Pollini,
   Individual classes with members of the Ensemble Intercontemporain Paris
- Teacher for composition at the Conservatorio Profesional De Musica de Logrono / Spain
- Works with the swiss choreograph H. K. Aebli, composition & concept of a dance - music - fusion
2005:

- Works together with the Publishing House Musikverlag Varner, Editions of Children Literature
- Work with the pianist Gianfranco Sannicandro, concerts in Austria
- Composition of the five - part cellosonata "Portrait"
- Teacher for composition at the "Sommerstudio" Salzburg
- Works with the swiss choreograph H. K. Aebli, performances in Berlin
- Final exam Violoncello
- September: Begin of the One Year - Scolarship of the International Ensemble Modern Academy

Intrada Ö1 Portrait
Sended on 9th of Jan. 2004 / Austrian Radio Ö1
Wolfgang Danzmayr in a conversation with Wolfgang Zamastil

Wolfgang Zamastil is born in Salzburg / Austria and studies in Berlin now... you studied also in Salzburg the Cello, could we say that this is an ordinary carrier of a Cellist?

That's how it started, yes. I beganwith nine years to study as a "Jungstudent" at the University Mozarteum and i stayed there for a couple of years. With sixteen i changed my teacher and began to work with Clemens Hagen. After my final exam in school i just wanted to break away from Salzburg...

Why?

In Salzburg there were no possibilities at all for what i was planning to do. I wanted to go somewhere better, where i would have more chances... Salzburg is very conservative... the musicians here aprechiate the ordinary and classical way of dealing with music, they do not like new ways and views, at least they do not show something like that. That's why i left Salzburg, i did some entrance exams in universities all over Germany and decided finally to study in Berlin.

But you already started in Salzburg, what you where developing later... to study the work of piazolla?

Yes, i started to listen and transcribe his music for my Nuevo - Ensemble anochesido with sixteen. This music makes incredible differences to all the other kinds of music, it is really frontal, fascinating and still not too intellectual.
 After three years i recognized that it could not go on like this, just to transcribe and play the music of Piazolla. I saw that i was able to compose too, that i could start to write my own music. This is how i came to write new music, especially tango, besides the big tango boom that conquered the world in this time... It was always important for me to develope the tango for myself.

----ENGLISH VERSION WILL BE FINISHED SOON----