Organ matinee with Raphael Attila Vogl and Wenzel Fuchs

Wenzel Fuchs actually wanted to become a ski racer, but then he broke his foot and couldn’t train any more. As a clarinettist in a wind ensemble, the Innsbruck native had the opportunity to play for an oboist from the Vienna Philharmonic who was on holiday in the area just then. “I played for him in my parents’ sports shop, and he said I should come to Vienna. So I went there,” Wenzel Fuchs recalls. The principal clarinet of the Berliner Philharmoniker studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where he initially played as a substitute with the Vienna Philharmonic. He began his professional career as principal clarinettist of the Vienna Volksoper and the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra before joining the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1993: “What makes working with the Berliner Philharmoniker so unique? Communication, enthusiasm for playing, collegiality and quality.” In addition to his work with the orchestra, Wenzel Fuchs is active as a soloist and chamber musician, appearing with such partners as Yefim Bronfman, Emmanuel Pahud and András Schiff. He also teaches at the Karajan Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker, is a visiting professor at the Geidai University in Tokyo and holds an honorary professorship at the  Shanghai Conservatory. Wenzel Fuchs gives master classes throughout the world and is a professor at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg.

When his new CD was released, he was acclaimed by the professional magazine The American Organist for his "great talent, creative imagination and musical passion". The 27-year-old Raphael Vogl is not only a gifted organist, but also a creative arranger, who arranged all the works in today's concert for organ and clarinet himself. Raphael Vogl lives in New York, but is originally from Bavaria, where he began recivngpiano lessons at the age of six. He began playing the organ at the age of eleven and progressed quickly, going to Passau Cathedral organist Ludwig Ruckdeschel for further lessons; he achieved his first successes at the Jugend Musiziert competition. After graduating from high school, Vogl studied organ and church music in Regensburg and Budapest. Awards followed, including at the International Mendelssohn Organ Competition in Switzerland (2015), the 2017 International Tariverdiev Competition in Russia, and the World Bach Competition of the Boulder Bach Festival (Colorado). His masters studies took him to the prestigious Juilliard School in New York, where he graduated in 2020 with Paul Jacobs. That same year, Vogl made his debut at Alice Tully Hall in New York in Sofia Gubaidulina's The Rider on the White Horse for orchestra and organ.