ROMSO Cyprus Knowledge Base

Walter L. Mik (* 15). May 1951 in Dinslaken is a former German academic music director and was head of the former Forum for Cultural Cooperation of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn.

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Training
Walter L. Mik received his musical education first at the Gesamthochschule Duisburg, as well as the Conservatories Duisburg (Folkwang Hochschule im Ruhrgebiet) and Düsseldorf (Robert Schumann College) in the subjects cello and singing. Further training took place at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Cologne and through master classes with Helmuth Rilling, Manfred Schreier, Laslo Heltay and others. His further conducting training took place at the Conservatory in Arnhem (ArtEZ) in the Netherlands with Joop Schets.

Professional career
His professional career led Walter L. Mik as music school director to various parts of Germany, including as choir and music school director to the Hofer Symphoniker in Bavaria. In 1990 he was finally appointed as Academic Music Director of the Collegium Musicum at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn. Until 2012, he was responsible for working with the university’s great symphony orchestra and choir. In recent years he has performed with these ensembles in Bonn, Cologne and other cities in Germany as well as on numerous concert tours in over twenty countries, including as the world’s first orchestra in North Korea. In addition, during this time he was invited to conduct with various amateur and professional ensembles in Bulgaria, Belarus, Poland, USA, Netherlands, Cyprus, Egypt and Palestine.

His work is now documented by several CD recordings. Particular mention should be made of recordings with the Requiem by Johannes Brahms, the first recording of the Bonn symphonies by Joseph Touchemoulin and Medieval music from Cyprus. In addition to his Bonn duties, Walter L. Mik worked as a teacher at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln and several times as visiting professor at the “Cairo Conservatoire”.

Recently, collaborations with the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Palestine occupy a large space and led to a major project with the Palestinian Youth Orchestra and the Bonn University Orchestra in Ramallah, Jerusalem, Haifa, Amman and Damascus.

In 2008, together with students and lecturers, he founded the now closed Forum for Cultural Cooperation of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, which has since
Cooperation projects of student cultural groups initiated, advised and supported.

In addition to the main professional musical activities, he had performances as a recitator. Programs on Dadaism, melodrama and other poetry, always in connection with music, characterize this work.

Discography
Joseph Touchemoulin: The Six Symphonies in Bonn, Op. 1
Johannes Brahms: A German Requiem
Eugen Roth: Love and Life