Siegfried Fink
Siegfried Fink (born 8 February 1928 in Zerbst/Germany, died 3 May 2006 in Würzburg/Germany) was a German percussionist, composer and professor. He is recognized as an important figure in the development of the professional percussion scene in Germany after World War II. Life. From 1948 to 1951, Fink studied timpanis and percussion in the class of Alfred Wagner at the University of Music in Weimar (Germany). He also studied composition in the class of Helmut Riethmüller at the same institution. After several orchestral and teaching positions in Weimar, Magdeburg, Lübeck and Hannover, he attained a permanent  teaching position for timpanis and percussion at the Hochschule für Musik Würzburg. In the year 1974, he was promoted to a full professor and became head of the "Studio für Perkussion" in Würzburg. He held this position until his retirement in 1993. Work. Under the guidance of Fink, the "Studio für Perkussion" in Würzburg became one of the world's most renowned schools for percussion. He educated more than 100 students and claimed, that he developed new teaching methods and new ways of playing percussion instruments, especially concerning contemporary art music. Unfortunately there are no pieces from internationally recognized great  composers from Germany or abroad dedicated to him. So it is hard to verify, what he actually developed. In the local, maybe German, percussion scene, Fink was known as the self-announced "Percussion-Papst" ("The pope of percussion"). For his achievements in art music and teaching, he has been awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz (Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany), received some art prizes and was honoured with doctorates of the Universities for Music of Sofia and Barcelona, where his students got a teaching position . For his life work in teaching he received the "Lifetime Achievement in Education Award