Bergmannsblasorchester loses an important figure due to the death of Stefan Richter
The musicians of the Bergmannsblasorchester Aue-Bad Schlema mourn for their long-term executive director. After a severe illness, Stefan Richter died on April 7, 2022. Up until the end the 72 year old was an honorary chairman at the association, whose foundation he spirited in 1990. Furthermore, his name will forever be linked with the European Wind Band Festival. With the death of Stefan Richter, the music association also lost an important advocate in the city council of Aue-Bad Schlema. The thoughts of the board are with the members of his family who have our deepest condolences.
The musicians of the Bergmannsblasorchester Aue-Bad Schlema mourn for their long-term executive director. After a severe illness, Stefan Richter died on April 7, 2022. Up until the end the 72 year old was an honorary chairman at the association, whose foundation he spirited in 1990. Furthermore, his name will forever be linked with the European Wind Band Festival. With the death of Stefan Richter, the music association also lost an important advocate in the city council of Aue-Bad Schlema. The thoughts of the board are with the members of his family who have our deepest condolences. Thomas Harnisch stands in front of the office premises of the Bergmannsblasorchester Aue-Bad Schlema and ponders. He met Stefan Richter as an apprentice in a business for mining equipment. Starting in the 1970s, they made music together in the United Brass Band of the Wismut Aue. “I am the last musician here from that time” , says Thomas Harnisch. He played clarinet, while Stefan Richter played the drums. From 1990 to 2018 Stefan also dictated the rhythm as the executive director. It was mainly his efforts that made it possible to transfer instruments from the band of the SDAG Wismut to the music association. His contacts with the Stadtkapelle Herrenberg in Baden-Württemberg helped with the foundation of the new association. “Stefan was already very driven and determined during the reunification,“ his longtime companion Thomas Harnisch remembers. Many members of today‘s Bergmannsblasorchester Aue-Bad Schlema express themselves alike. Such as Dajana Schreyer who doesn‘t just play tenor horn but also supported Stefan Richter as a permanent employee for years. Talking about the best time in her professional life: “I owe him a lot. Stefan always fought until the very end – for others, for his goals, for his ideas and his ideals.” Some people say he was a stubborn man sometimes – Dajana Schreyer argues against it and pins it on his clear imaginings without which he never would have made it this far. “Of course sometimes there have been huge clashes like in a thunderstorm, but afterwards there was always sunshine. Stefan never bore grudges.”
“When it came to music, there were never any compromises,” Ricco Broßmann adds. He and Stefan Richter played together in the small combo of seven musicians for years. Stefan was not only the executive director of the association but also a musician with heart and soul: “For the sake of music all obstacles would get removed. Together through thick and thin, even privately.”
Even as a young man Stefan Richter played drums and not just in the brass orchestra. Gotthart Kaulfuß, who was a member of the Bergmannsblasorchesters board for years, was there for the musical beginnings: “We started making dance music together as adolescents in Lößnitz.” Starting at 14 years old, Stefan Richter played in different bands and combos. In 1971 at age 21 he finally joined the company band of the Wismut in Aue.
Jana Beyer, treasurer of the Bergmannsblasorchester since 2009, worked together with Stefan Richter on the board for 10 years. “Stefan had clear lines and ideas.” He also personally raised the funds necessary for the European Wind Band Festival every year. He’d been persistent. “Stefan didn’t leave the companies until he had their assurance for support.” Jana Beyer remembers. She smiles: “Many said, if they threw him out the front, he’d come back in through the back door. That’s what he was known for.”
But he also had a knack for handling the sponsors, always striking the right cord. “Despite his persistence, he had the right sensitivity to individually talk to the sponsors. He always found the right words. That is why we have so many sponsors and supporters today”, says Thomas Schaumberger, president of the Bergmannsblasorchester since 2009 who has been tending to the European Wind Band Festival with the board since 2019.
It was launched by Stefan Richter in 1992, back then as Festival of Wind Music, then as International Music Festival and for more than two decades as European Wind Band Festival. His credo: “music connects and knows no borders.” By now the festival is known worldwide. Stefan Richter made it possible for bands from more than 40 nations to play in Bad Schlema, including Japan, Columbia, Australia and the USA, because he was able to plan tactically and established so many contacts. The festival made sure that his home was known all over the world. Every year on the third weekend in September Aue-Bad Schlema welcomes up to 20,000 visitors and turns the biggest city in the Ore Mountains into Europe’s capital of brass band music.
In 2002 at the International Music Fair in Frankfurt am Main, the Bergmannsblasorchester was honoured as the “federal victor and first prize winner for innovative, modern and voluntary dedicated association work” on that account. Stefan Richter himself as the inventor of the European Wind Band Festival was honoured with an Order of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany in 2021 and received it from the hands of Saxon governor of state Michael Kretschmer. For years the Saxon governor of state has been the patron of the European Wind Band Festival, something else Stefan Richter made possible.
Stefan Richter thanked all the voluntary helpers “Without them we wouldn’t have been able to manage the huge music festival.” 150 people help every year with putting up the marquee, the catering and the selling of drinks for the around 4,000 guests.
“We will try to carry on the festival like he would have wanted. In 2019 we did a good job. However, I am still going to miss his words of advice. He just had so much experience that we will probably just have to gain over time.” says president Thomas Schaumberger. As part of the city council of Aue-Bad Schlema, Stefan Richter still fought for the European Wind Band Festival in the past couple of years. Among other things a specific festival ground is supposed to be built.
In 2018 at 68 years old Stefan Richter vacated his post as executive director of the music association Bergmannsblasorchester Aue-Bad Schlema and as chief organiser of the European Wind Band Festival. A short time before, he had been able to win Rico Reinwarth from the county school of music of the Erzgebirgskreis for the youth work of the Bergmannsblasorchester. He is now the executive director of the music association. “Long before his departure Stefan made sure that his succession was clear, that there was a future for the association and that his works would fall into the right hands,” says Rico Reinwarth.
Young band members who haven’t known Stefan Richter for as long but still like remembering going on trips together with him and the youth band pay the longstanding executive director respect as well. “We were in Zurich together at the World Youth Music Festival for example or on a band trip in Spain,” trombonist Hannes Landgraf remembers. “He was our pack leader.” Trumpeter David Bachmann adds “Even as a child I admired his visions. He was something of a father figure for me.” Because the adolescents already knew that you didn’t contradict Stefan, they printed T-shirts saying “Ja, Steff!” Stefan Richter just took it with a chuckle.
“Stefan left us with big shoes to fill,” president Thomas Schaumberger sums up and adds: “But also a good foundation. We have many sponsors that will continue supporting our association and our festival. We have countless contacts with bands all over the world.” That’s why it’s a given for the board and the band members to continue and advance what Stefan Richter established over almost 30 years.
This year’s Wind Music Festival will be the first one without its founder and longstanding organiser. On Holy Thursday the musicians had one of their gravest performances. They played at the funeral for one of the most significant fellow musicians in the history of the Bergmannsblasorchester one last time.