MAX WAGNER
P erhaps Max Wagner didn’t think
he would become the executive
director of the Gasteig in Munich,
Germany, but his various career
moves to date will stand him in
good stead, now that the institution faces its
biggest upheaval since opening in 1985.
The Gasteig is the largest cultural center in
Europe – a multidiscipline 86,000m2 (925,696ft2)
site housing the city’s philharmonic orchestra,
library, municipal center of further education
and the University of Music and
Performing Arts, as well as many other
halls, work rooms and foyer spaces
dedicated to cultural expression.
Unusual career path
The Munich-born 50-year-old joined
the Gasteig in 2016 but had two quite
different careers previously, first as a
classical singer and then as a lawyer. “This
strange combination helps me a lot in my
job today,” he begins. “You know what
performers need, because you know how
they feel. This is crucial, as performers take
you more seriously. And an ugly staircase
to take you to the stage doesn’t help if you
have to sing Schubert later.”
Singing was Wagner’s full-time job for
three years, mainly in Germany, but also
in France, Belgium and the UK, but “it
was not at a very high level and it was
hard to pay the rent,” he says.
Having studied law before singing,
Wagner went part-time
as a lawyer, but then got an offer
to manage the Stuttgart Chamber
Orchestra. “It was a hard decision
for me to go behind the scenes,
but I really don’t regret it,” says
Wagner. “My law training helps
me to think in a structured way
and to see processes. Now I do
much less singing, but I still
respect what artists need and
I also understand when some
exaggerate their needs a little.”
Wagner says the move
into cultural institution
management came about by
coincidence. “In the last years of
my singing studies I also worked at
a music academy, organizing the
orchestra’s office, and the professor
of conducting repeatedly asked
AUDITORIA 2019 VOLUME ONE 13
Stefan M Prager