WALTER SCHIRNIK
Walter Schirnik studied piano and conducting, and since then has been working as a Music and Film Composer & Producer. He was the managing director of NeckarTon GmbH, c2m GmbH & Co. KG and first chairman of the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra (Stuttgarter Symphoniker e.V.). He wrote the soundtrack for the Cannes Award winning TV-documentary directed by Jo Müller about the blockbuster director Roland Emmerich (Independence Day). As a composer, producer and arranger, he has worked for major record companies and TV channels like ARD, ZDF, SAT1/Pro7 and award winning cinematic productions.
He signed his first record deal in 1994 with Intercord/EMI as an exclusive artist and already at the time, he fundamentally worked with orchestras. He was the first German to compose and produce two Top-Ten Hits in Turkey.
In 1998, he had been number one in the German Charts for 12 weeks with the title "Let it rain" (in2deep). He also received a Golden Record for the Live-DVD "Heimspiel" of the German Band "Die Fantastischen 4".
He is the initiator, co-producer and film music composer of the cinematic documentary film about David Helfgott titled "Hello I am David" (Netflix), which has won the "Deutscher Kamerapreis 2016". On top of this, Walter Schirnik is involved as president of Zuflucht Kultur e.V. in integrative opera projects with refugees from Syria (www.zufluchtkultur.de). The ZDF program "Die Anstalt" with the Syrian refugee choir "Zuflucht" from the opera project, received the Grimmepreis in 2015.
As a media and PR manager for Christoph Eschenbach among others, he is developing new formats and concepts to make the Classical world available to a new and broader audience.
From 2015 until June 2017 he worked as creative film producer for the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. In parallel he produced in coproduction with ServusTV and ORF the TV documentary "The Vienna Philharmonic – Beyond Music!". The film was screened on numerous international film festivals and has been awarded, inter alia, in Cannes and Hollywood.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE ––
–– Jan 2020 – current
Brandenburger Festspiele
First Chairman, Artistic Director
www.brandenburger-festspiele.com
–– Nov 2014 – Jan 2020
Maestro Christoph Eschenbach
Media & PR Manager, Head of Production
(c2m GmbH & Co. KG)
–– Oct 2015 – Jan 2018
Wiener Philharmoniker
Head of Production Film & Media
(c2m GmbH & Co. KG)
–– Jan 2011 – Oct 2015
Stuttgarter Symphoniker /
Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra
Intendant (Artistic Director)
–– Jan 2006 – Dec 2011
Producer
Walter Schirnik Musik- & Filmproduktion GmbH
–– January 1993 – current
Musician, Producer, Composer, Arranger
Walter Schirnik
HONORARY POSITION ––
–– Jan 2022 – current
Wisocky Society (Wien)
Vorstandsmitglied (Member of the board)
www.wysocki-society.org
–– Jan 2019 – current
Brandenburger Festspiele e.V.
Präsident, 1. Vorsitzender
(President, First Chairman)
www.brandenburger-festspiele.com
–– May 2014 – current
Zukunft Kultur e.V.
(ehemals Zuflucht Kultur e.V.)
1. Vorsitzender (First Chairman)
www.zukunft-kultur.de