Günter Wand

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Günter Wand (born January 7, 1912 in Elberfeld, Germany; died February 14, 2002 in Ulmiz near Bern, Switzerland) was one of the outstanding German orchestra conductors of the 20th century. He was also a composer.

Wand was born in Elberfeld and studied in Wupertal, Allenstein and Detmold. He studied composition with Philipp Jarnach and piano with Paul Baumgartner, but was largely self-taught as a conductor. He started his career in Cologne, where he was to stay for several decades, as a conductor of the Cologne Opera orchestra.

Between 1947 and 1974 he was conductor of the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne (Gürzenich-Orchester Köln). In 1948 he also started teaching conducting at a music school in Cologne. From the early 1950s he guest-conducted a number of orchestras, making his London debut in 1951 with the London Symphony Orchestra. In 1974, he left Cologne to conduct the WDR and NDR Symphony Orchestras. In 1982, Wand became chief guest conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Wand was particularly associated with the music of Franz Schubert and Anton Bruckner but he had a broad and varied repertoire. He was a devoted interpreter of the contemporary music of such composers as Bernd Alois Zimmermann, Olivier Messiaen, Frank Martin, György Ligeti, and Edgard Varèse.

Wand also composed music, mostly songs with orchestral accompaniment and music for ballet. He was awarded the German Record Award, the German Record Critic's Prize, the Echo Award, the Diapason d'Or and the Hans von Bülow Medal.