Teachers

Redmond O’Toole

Redmond O’Toole is described by the Irish Times as “Ireland’s most distinctive guitarist”. He plays on an 8-string Brahms guitar and has been “Artist in Residence” at prestigious venues in Ireland such as the National Concert Hall and the National Opera House. In 2019 concert tours will take him to Finland, Germany and the USA. In April he will make his US solo debut at the renowned Rhode Island Guitar Festival.

As a former member of the Dublin Guitar Quartet, he has toured around the world and appeared as a soloist with orchestras such as the BBC Ulster Orchestra and the Irish Baroque Orchestra. As a guitarist he accompanied the legendary Irish group “The Chieftains” on various tours.

O’Tooles repertoire includes the most important works of the classical guitar, which have been reworked for his 8-string guitar, as well as new arrangements and commissioned compositions. He has premiered works by internationally renowned composers such as Nico Muhly, Kevin Volans, Micheal Gordon and Ian Wilson and has collaborated with artists such as Raphael Wallfisch, Derek Gripper and the Vanburgh String Quartet.

In addition to his extensive concert programme, Redmond teaches at the Royal Irish Academy of Music and is a winner/award winner of the RDS Music Bursary and the Rising Star Award of the National Concert Hall.

Günter Bozem

The field of action of the percussionist Günter Bozem is very diversified. Born in 1965, he already played drums and percussion in jazz bands as a student. The studied professional musician and instrumental pedagogue (e.g. as lecturer at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory of the city of Mainz) has more often engagements at theatres and various musicals, e.g. at the Schauspiel Frankfurt at the musical “Hair” or for the production of “Cats” at the Luisenburg Theater.

He is a partner and co-founder of the “Blue Noises” label and has drummed and shaken all kinds of percussion and percussion instruments on numerous CD productions.

He is the author of a conga and percussion school. As a specialist for Odd-Meters he has been playing with the well-known Kurdish musician Mikail Aslan for years and is a permanent member of Paddy goes to Holyhead. He has also worked together with others: Emil Mangelsdorff, Vitold Rek, Clare Fischer, Phil Mattson, Gunter Hampel, Manolo Lohnes, Alfred Harth, Annemarie Roeloffs, Barbara Dennerlein, Manni von Bohr, Patrick Steinbach and Ron Williams.

Frauke Preisler

Frauke Preisler is a teacher of music and English at the Dreieichschule Langen. The Gymnasium is a school with a focus on music. There she has been conducting the string orchestra since 2004 and wind classes since 2005. In addition to the main focus of the wind classes in the 5/6 grade, she mainly teaches music in the upper grade. This experience led to her being appointed to the Music Commission of the HKM (Hessian Ministry of Culture) in 2011, which is responsible for the tasks of the Hessian Central Abitur in the field of music.

Since 2004, she has been a lecturer at the IMC String Camp (then still Pirazzi) and is one of the initiators of the wind camp. Together with Jon Diven she founded the Rockestra in 2007 and later took over the deputy camp management.

Her main instrument is the violin, but she also feels at home on the viola and double bass. As a “pure” string player, she studied wind instruments more intensively after her studies, took trombone lessons and, after completing her string class training, also completed the wind class training at the Academy for Music Pedagogy.

Markus Kiefer

Dr. Markus Kiefer founded and organized the camp in 1999 and has been leading the annual summer week ever since. His basic idea has remained the same to this day: To offer children from string and brass classes, beginners and advanced instrumentalists a beautiful, exciting and musically profitable summer week.

After initial support from the Peter Pirazzi Foundation – which gave the camp its name – and under the auspices of the Academy for Music Education in Wiesbaden, the camp has been independent since 2011. The association “Internationale Musikcamps Oberwesel e.V.” is the organisational basis of the summer week. Parents, friends and alumni volunteer their time to help us organize the summer camp.

At the camp Markus Kiefer takes over the co-leadership of an orchestra and rehearses the common pieces of all participants for the concert on Friday.

Simon Gößling

Simon Gößling comes from Tübingen. At the age of five he was taught the recorder by his mother, at nine he began to play the piano. With the change to the grammar school he began to learn French horn with Peter Hoefs (HfM Stuttgart). During his school time he made trips abroad with various ensembles and took part in competitions. He won the German Orchestra Competition with the Symphony Orchestra and the Wind Orchestra, as well as various competitions with the Brass Ensemble. After graduating from high school, Simon Gößling began to study history in Tübingen. During this time he changed from horn to trombone.

From 1997 to 2002 he studied music for the teaching profession at grammar schools in Mainz. After completing his state examination, Simon Gößling studied trombone in Mannheim with Prof. Ehrhard Wetz. He completed his studies very successfully in 2004.

Merle Vogel

She lives and works in Frankfurt am Main. Music and dance have accompanied her since early childhood. Already during her secondary school years she began to teach this to young people.

Inspired by her older sister, she also received piano lessons at pre-school age. With the visit of the orchestra class of the Bettinagymnasium from the 5th school year the cello became her main instrument.

Since 2007 she has been teaching music as a primary school teacher and has gained extensive experience in leading school choirs, rhythm and dance groups for children and young people. She taught string classes at the Schumann primary school in Wiesbaden for several years.

Since 2004 she has been regularly working in the string camp and has been leading the elementary orchestra for several years.

Alice Levy-Janicaud

I find children inventive and full of ideas. I am interested in getting to know each of them as a person of their own.

This goes very well through making music together.

It would be nice if your child came back from the brass camp encouraged and motivated. The sense of achievement lies in how “unhewn” sounds can begin to shine and how each individual with his instrument in the ensemble contributes to the formation of a sound body.

Music becomes an emotional experience.

I am at your disposal to accompany solo works from the piano as well as to supervise duos/trios and quartets. The corresponding sheet music may be sent to me beforehand.

Vitor Fernandez

He was born in Portugal, into a family of musicians. Experimentalist, improviser and pedagogue. Over the years he has developed a very personal methodology for musical experience and study in fusion with concepts coming from other areas of knowledge.

Their methods are mirrored in the project The Open Game / Musical Gymnastics that involves design of games, performative events, thematic workshops. He attended the Conservatory of Music of Aveiro and the Percussion Course of the Vocational School of Music of Espinho. But it was self-taught that he developed most of his pedagogical-musical experiences. It started a new path of creative exploration, promoting events and contexts for informal learning through play.

In Águeda, his hometown, he founded with his brothers the Orfeu Cultural Association, he created AparqA! – Alta Vila Creative Center (2008-2011). Coordinator of several inter-associative productions and fomenting the fusion between disciplines through experimentalism and creativity. He lectured at the Instituto Piaget de Viseu, collaborated as a monitor at the beginning of Tocá Rufar, with the educational service of Casa da Música in Oporto and with the CCB Arts Factory.

Charlotte Westhauser

Charlotte Westhauser studied music in Mannheim and Paris as well as mathematics for the teaching profession at grammar schools. After eight years of violin lessons in childhood and adolescence, she switched to violoncello at the age of 14, which she finally studied as a major. In addition to training in piano and classical singing, she also studied conducting, which led to the practical examination of the 1st State Examination in Choir and Orchestra Conducting. She gained experience as an ensemble leader in the Bammentaler Sinfonieorchester, the Collegium Musicum Mannheim and the Heidelberger Musikfreunde, where she is currently the first solo cellist to lead the cello vocal group. In addition to her freelance work as a cello teacher, Charlotte Westhauser has also been conducting one of the school choirs of the St. Raphael Gymnasium in Heidelberg since 2018. Concert tours have taken her to Sweden, France, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the USA.

Charlotte Westhauser has been attending the international music camp in Oberwesel every year since 2002: first as a participant, later as a tutor and since 2014 as a lecturer of the Rocking Strings Orchestra. She experienced and witnessed for herself the motivation and joy of making music together during the summer holidays in the children, until the young strings form a formed and harmonious body of sound after a week in camp. The musically as well as personally valuable work with the young artists has not only strengthened and accompanied the career aspirations of the music teacher in her, but also shows each year anew which boundaries are crossed in ensemble playing and which (musical) friendships can be made.

Barbara Marsch

Barbara Marsch plays and teaches cello with passion. She works with students of all ages – from 4 to 84. In addition to her teaching at the Peter Cornelius Conservatory in Mainz and at the Music School in Bergen-Enkheim/Frankfurt, she has been active for many years in string classes at primary and secondary schools – in other words: making music together from the very beginning!

After the first beginnings in the string class or in individual lessons, the motto is: get into the orchestra – develop and experience literature together. She dedicates herself to this project-related orchestral work in workshops at the music school and with great pleasure at the IMC Oberwesel. She knows how to motivate her students again and again and to inspire them for music.

In recent years she has placed a special emphasis on her training as a Suzuki teacher, a method which, in addition to individual lessons with games and fun in group lessons, is already aimed at the youngest. In this context she has gained experience and insights at international workshops in Germany and England.

Since 2009 she is a member of the Carl-Maria-von-Weber-Trio with whom she performs regularly.

Stephan Loew

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore aatem.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Tobias Holzmann

Tobias Holzmann studied viola, chamber music and cultural management in Frankfurt am Main, Mannheim, Brisbane (Australia) and Toulouse (France). After numerous stations in German cultural orchestras as an orchestral musician (including Stuttgarter Philharmoniker, Staatsorchester Darmstadt, Museumsorchester Frankfurt) and as a teacher at German music schools, he now lives with his wife and three children in Toulouse, where he works as a teacher and chamber musician in the Quatuor Alizé, is active as an orchestral musician (Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre National de Montpellier, Orchestre de Chambre de Toulouse) and as a cultural manager (Toulouse International Organ Festival, Toulouse Symphony Orchestra).

His favourite activity is music education for young and old and for those who are not used to it or are no longer able to attend classical music concerts. Tobias Holzmann has been a member of the IMC Oberwesel team for over ten years now. In the program selection for the chamber orchestra, he places great value on the mixture of known and unknown repertoire, be it new music or works that have fallen into oblivion.

He enjoys coaching chamber music ensembles from duo to sextet or octet. With expert advice and great experience he helps the participants of the IMC to rehearse chamber music compositions in such a way that they delight every listener in the final concerts.

Carla Herold

Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore aatem.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

Sonja Fischer

Hello, I am Sonja Fischer and in “normal” life I am a violin teacher. I teach violin and viola at various music schools and give string lessons at various primary and secondary schools.

I enjoy making music with students of all characters and ages and I also like the mixture of individual and group lessons very much in my everyday life. I also find it exciting that I get around in so many different schools and work in teams with so many different colleagues. I find it particularly exciting to find the right pedagogy for each child and, when working with groups, to always look for ways in which, despite all the heterogeneity, I can largely do justice to everyone and challenge and encourage everyone according to their possibilities.

If then something arises together that fascinates everyone because it is ultimately greater than the sum of its parts, I find that very enriching for me as well. I like the challenge of getting even those who don’t even know that they can enjoy making music together or who are firmly convinced that they are not musical.

My conviction is that a good relationship with the teacher, joy in doing and pride in the newly acquired learning steps are the best motivation for successful learning – according to the motto “the way is the goal”. I have been a member of the string camp team for many years and every year it gives me unbelievable pleasure to work so intensively with music-loving children for a week in the inspiring atmosphere of the camp.

Jon Diven

Jon Diven is solo bassist of the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck in Darmstadt and comes from Texas. He has lived in Germany since 1989. He teaches double bass, cello and electric bass at the Carl-Bosch-Gymnasium in Ludwigshafen and at the music school Badische Bergstrasse in Weinheim.

He has been a lecturer at the IMC String Camp since 2001 and founded the “Rockestra” with Frauke Preisler in 2007, for which he also writes the arrangements. He is a lecturer at the Akadamie for Music Pedagogy in Wiesbaden and at the Rheinische Orchester Akadamie Mainz (ROAM).

In his spare time he plays electric bass in the hard rock band “Days of Thunder” and plays keyboard, bass and guitar in the cover band “The Footprint”. From 1994-2002 he worked for Stella-Musicals in Stuttgart and Berlin and was also tour bassist for Helmut Lotti. He received a “Grammy Nomination” in the category “Best Orchestral Performance” in 2011.