Welcome Innsbruck - Winter 2019

W E L C O M E 45 Museumstrasse 19 in Innsbruck 101 Jahre frisch! T H E S O U N D O F B R A S S Benedikt Sonnleitner is a master brass instrument maker and musician. That’s not a given as not everyone who builds brass instruments can play them. He came to instrument making by chance. Since he could not really decide what to study after graduating from high school, Benedikt Sonnleitner completed an internship with a brass instrument maker to bridge the gap. Since he had been playing the trumpet since he was twelve years old, he was interested in its manufacture. The intern- ship turned into an apprenticeship, followed by the craft ex- amination in 2011. He had the idea of concentrating on the trumpet during his training. An instrument maker who can play the trumpet properly has a clear advantage, he thought. He began his studies at the Conservatory in Innsbruck and at the same time passed his master’s examination. In 2015 he opened his workshop in Maximilianstraße in Innsbruck. He has enough work. In contrast to other instruments, brass has an expiry date. After a while the material suffers with signs of wear. When it comes to stringed instruments even amateurs can probably immediately come up with famous violin makers, but in the field of brass instruments there are no well-known names. This has to do with the young history of this craft and the way the instruments are made. Today most brass instru- ments are manufactured industrially. Not so those made by Benedikt Sonnleitner. Apart from the valve parts, everything is handmade. The aesthetic qualities and balanced proportions are important to him in defiance of industrial production, where one piece ideally looks like the other.