The Mecklenburg Wind Academy comes together once every semester for an intensive seminar for advanced students at Gutshaus Ilow (Ilow Manor) near Wismar followed by concerts. It is made up of students at Rostock University of Music and Drama and members of the Berlin Staatskapelle’s orchestral academy. The players spend a week rehearsing a challenging chamber music programme under the direction of professors at the hmt and mentors from the Berlin Staatskapelle, and subsequently give concerts at venues such as Ilow, Rostock and Bad Doberan. The Mecklenburg Wind Academy has also given several concerts in Poland (Stettin, Kolberg and Kamien Pomorski), e.g. as part of a cultural exchange between the state of Mecklenburg-West Pomerania and the West Pomeranian Wojewodschaft Stettin sponsored by the Mecklenburg-West Pomeranian Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. Its repertoire includes works for larger wind ensembles by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn, Antonín Dvořák, Richard Strauss, George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein.

The Mecklenburg Wind Academy was founded in the summer semester 2005 on the initiative of Sabine Kaselow, oboe teacher at the hmt, principal oboist Prof. Gregor Witt, principal clarinettist Heiner Schindler and principal bassoonist Mathias Baier from the Berlin Staatskapelle and horn player Prof. Günter Weidlich from the hmt Rostock. The Berlin Staatskapelle principals named all teach at the hmt Rostock.

The foundation of the Wind Academy heralded a successful collaboration between the hmt and the Berlin Staatskapelle’s orchestral academy, which focuses on gaining experience of chamber music and widening the repertoire of these young musicians.

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