Competent and passionate

He has long stopped counting the many opera performances and concerts he has attended. Probably only a few music fans will have seen as many performances in as many opera houses and concert halls as Ulrich Etscheit, Head of Performance Promotion at Alkor-Edition. However, such music events were not the content, but the fruit of his long activity for the stage agency. Alkor distributes the rental material of Bärenreiter and other publishers for operas as well as large-scale orchestral and ensemble works.

After a music dealer apprenticeship and gaining degrees in musicology, Italian studies and civil law with a focus on copyright in Heidelberg, Ulrich Etscheit took on this fundamentally important task for Bärenreiter in 1995. The best music editions are of no use if they are not accepted in practice. He had discussions at eye level with conductors, directors and professional musicians and knew how to convince them of the importance of works and high-quality editions. His competency gave him access to prominent artists all over the world. Bärenreiter is indebted to him for numerous opera premieres, commissioned compositions and first performances.

Although Ulrich Etscheit was committed to all musical epochs right up to contemporary music, his special love was Baroque opera and in particular the stage works by George Frideric Handel. In fact, he wrote his doctorate on Handel’s “Rodelinda”. It is largely to his credit that Handel operas based on the “Halle Handel Edition” now form part of the core opera repertoire.

At the end of March Ulrich Etscheit will retire from Bärenreiter but will continue to be devoted to the world of music as an interested, inquisitive as well as passionate concert and opera-goer.