Wolfgang Dimetrik - classical accordion

This exceptional musician, hailing from Austria, was born in 1974. He already had his first instruction in accordion at the age of six from Franz Maurer.

When he was eleven years old, he entered the class taught by Prof. Mag. Erwin Moder at the Johann Joseph Fux Conservatory for Music in Graz.

Six years later he began his studies at the Institute of Music in Graz with Guest Prof. Mogens Ellegard, James Crabb and Geir Draugsvoll.
He obtained his diploma there in 1996, and then moved with a stipend to Würzburg in Prof. Stefan Hussong’s class.

He obtained the artistic diploma with honours in 2001, and took in 2003 that most regal of all courses, a master class.

At the relatively young age of 24 he was offered a teaching position at the Professional School of Music in Altötting in Bavaria.
He has taught there since then in the departments of accordion, accordion/chamber music, methodology, history of performance and the literature, 
didactics of accordion and music pedagogy. After numerous master classes around the world,
he now concentrates on very well known contemporary ensembles such as the Ensemble Modern,
the Ensemble recherche, the Ensemble SurPlus and the Ensemble RECONSIL.
Works for solo accordion and accordion chamber music continue to appear out of his active collaboration with composers of our time like Adriana Hölszky,
 Uros Rojko, Marko Zdralek and Thomas Heinisch.

Wolfgang Dimetrik can point to innumerable premieres, such as “Lied für Orchester” by Jörg Widmann with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Nott,
and “Die Wände” by Adriana Hölszky under Alfons Kontarsky at the Frankfurt Opera.

Wolfgang Dimetrik was hailed as a noteworthy newcomer by the international press after the release of his first CD with Bach’s Goldberg Variations.
His second recording followed in 2003 with selected piano sonatas of Joseph Haydn. His third CD appeared in 2007, a portrait of the composer Uros Rojko with the programmatic title “Spin”.

The Stuttgarter Allgemeine called Dimetrik “the master of pure tone”, Der Spiegel called him “a magician on the keyboard”,
the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung said that he keeps the Schifferklavier [Translator’s note: meaning “seaman’s piano”,
a term sometimes pejoratively applied in German to the accordion) on the go, and the Neue Zürcher Zeitung praised his memorably divine tone that is joyous,
clear, pearly, intimate, affecting.

Dimetrik was awarded the Pasticcio Prize on September 27th, 2007 by the Austrian classic radio station Ö1 for his CD with the Haydn piano sonatas.
The new and also fresh interpretations of the four Haydn sonatas led to this award – Haydn on accordion as CD of the Month for September 2007.