“Every concert has its own attraction”
On this Wednesday in March 2024, the rows of seats in the Großes Haus in the Theater Münster are all filled with musicians from all over Europe. The University of Münster’s Young Symphony Orchestra striking up the prelude to Act III of Wagner’s “Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg” at 8 pm precisely marks the beginning of the European Student Orchestra Festival (ESOF). Over the following evenings, European university orchestras delight participants as well as audiences from the city. Münster is transformed into an open-air concert hall. Passers-by at many places in the city hear and watch chamber orchestras, for example from France, Slovenia or Estonia.
Two years before, members of the Young Symphony Orchestra started their preparations for the event. One of them was business administration student Max Sommer. He and PhD student David Eidecker were responsible for the logistics in particular. How to get the chairs into the concert hall? How can the orchestra from Ljubljana get a harp? Without their hard work, the numerous rehearsals and performances of the seven university orchestras would not have been possible.
Arranging 80 chairs in a certain layout in the rehearsal room; taking a minivan taxi at short notice to drive to the Halle Münsterland to exchange a double bass; converting the stage in the Aasee Auditorium for the next orchestral rehearsal – and, in between, as an “orchestra buddy”, explaining to the Tallinn University Symphony Orchestra how to get to the concert hall. This, roughly, is what Max Sommer’s days were like during the festival. Added to all this were his own performances with the Young Symphony Orchestra. “Each orchestra has different requirements for props, and a lot of requests came spontaneously. I was on the go from morning till evening,” says the 26-year-old Sommer with a laugh. “Heaving stuff around certainly didn’t do my knees much good.” But, as he emphasises, organising the event wasn’t down to just one person. “We had a lot of busy helpers who all made the festival happen.”
Max Sommer grew up in a town near Bonn and, as a six-year-old, he tried out various instruments and discovered his love of music. Every week he played a new instrument. “I ended up staying with the violin,” he says. At the age of ten he joined a children’s orchestra. He enjoyed making music together with others, and a few years later he was playing in a chamber orchestra. He took part in numerous concert tours which took him for example to Israel, Hungary and England. Sommer invests a lot of time in his passion, with heart and soul. “For me, making music relaxes me and stimulates me mentally. It’s a source of calm and strength.” Still, it is only a hobby. Career-wise, he wants to go in a different direction. In five years he would like to be working as a management consultant or as an auditor.
“What was special about the ESOF,” Sommer comments, “was the diversity of the orchestras. Each orchestra was seen as being of equal value, despite having different qualities, and each one had its own musical attraction.” It was above all the pieces that were typical of each home country that thrilled him. Now he knows that “I really like Estonian music too.” The cultural exchange was an enrichment anyway. Almost every evening the orchestras’ members met to chat and celebrate. The good relationships among the musicians continued after the festival. A few months later, for example, festival participants from Paris put up others from Lüneburg for the night. “These friendships are the true reward for all the hard work,” says Sommer.
If there were another large festival to be organised, he would very much like to help again. However, it is unlikely that this will happen – unless the festival takes place in Vienna – because Sommer will be embarking on his master’s thesis in “finance and accounting” in the Austrian capital. “Vienna is an extraordinarily musical city with a lot of orchestras,” he explains. After all, geniuses such as Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and Mahler lived there and left their mark on the city’s musical heritage. So Max Sommer is certain that, “I’ll be in good hands there musically, too.”
Linus Peikenkamp
This article is from the brochure "Twelve months, twelve people", published in February 2025.
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