Guntram WOLF was born in Kronach in Bavaria/Germany in March 1935 and graduated from high school there. He joined the German Air Force and achieved the rank of Flight Lieutenant in 1959. He studied at the Universities of Erlangen and Munich in the subjects of Early Oriental Archeology with his special field being the!Hittites and subsequent cultures. As part of his course, he conducted successful excavations and further studies on site in Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Iran and Iraq and was instrumental in discovering the lost city of Arinna. In addition to Archeology, he obtained a teaching degree with the main subjects of History, Biology, English as well as the special Government qualifications for teaching Music and as Instrumental teacher. He was lecturer at the Robert Schumann School for Music in Düsseldorf!in the subjects of History and Development of Musical Instruments!and Music!Performance. The company he started after retiring from public service makes reed instruments and exports them to all parts of the world. ! “During my whole life I have played instruments - woodwind and brass - in wind bands, orchestras etc. and since about 1975 I have been interested in historical instruments. I played in several groups and I started with first trials of making woodwind instruments. This became quite successful. I prepared for!the master's degree in instrument making and after the examination in 1992 I have qualified for the title of “Master Instrument Maker”. This allowed me to start!my own company and to make woodwind instruments full-time. Since then our firm has gained an excellent reputation among musicians worldwide and we are known for several innovations - for example we were award first prize for our!newly constructed "" (see above photo), which is played, amongst many others, in the Vienna, Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras”. Our latest instrument is the “Lupophone,”an improved design of a bass .

“One of my ideas was to enable children to start playing woodwind instruments as early as possible, especially reed instruments. To make this possible I developed a full range of , clarinets and specially designed for children - easy to play and with good intonation. We take great care to make these instruments as ergonomic as possible in accordance with the latest medical research.” Guntram Wolf Thomas PINSCHOF was born in Vienna and studied flute with Camillo Wanausek, Aurèle Nicolet, Karl-Heinz Zöller, Severino Gazzelloni, Jean-Pierre Rampal and also 17th and 18th century performance with Professor Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Some of his fellow conductor students in the class of the famous Professor Hans Swarowski in Vienna were Claudio Abbado, Zubin Metha and Riccardo Muti. Five years of working with Professor Ellen Müller-Preis has enabled Thomas to develop and teach specific techniques of breath control previously not achievable on the flute. Apart from performing and recording for Philips, Deutsche Grammophon and other labels with artists like Ingrid Häbler, Eduard Melkus and Gillian Weir, he has also published music and articles on various topics. His interest in developing and improving the design of mechanical aspects of the flute has resulted in the availability of various new types of large flutes like the "Pinschofon", a special bass flute named after. Thomas has also been invited several times to lecture in Salzburg at the prestigious International Summer Academy "Mozarteum" and the "Stratford upon Avon International Flute Festival". He has performed and given lectures, master courses and seminars in many parts of the world including Germany, Austria, Taiwan, Hong Kong and New Zealand. He also is an experienced examiner and juror at countless international competitions. After a six months scholarship at Indiana University he came to Australia in 1976 as Artist in Residence to the Victorian College of the Arts and taught there until 1989. He was acting Head of Woodwind for several years and apart from producing many of Australia"s leading flute players he lectured in many different capacities from conducting the orchestra, wind ensembles, flute ensemble to coaching chamber music, supervising orchestral materials, repertoire and performance master classes. He founded and organised the international summer school “Mozart on the Mountain” it for several years and he is the Artistic Director of the Mozart Orchestra. For several years, he also taught at the Canberra School of Music and the University of Melbourne as well as in public schools such as Blackburn-, MacRob- and McKinnon High, which gave him extensive insight and experience all aspects of music education in Australia. The!Kinder Harmony Program

An initiative by!the Mozart Orchestra and devised by leading educator Thomas Pinschof, it combats the notorious shortage of and Oboe players and is supported by Magic Flutes International and Guntram Wolf, who developed and manufactures these instruments. The program gets young children started on Bassoon, Oboe as well as Clarinet at a very early age. Designed for group lessons, initially for groups of three or more students of the same or any mixture of instruments it incorporates specially arranged music from Renaissance to contemporary.!This program makes true a requirement of the National Review into School Music Education (Seares Report) to give all children!equal access to all instruments. By eliminating the age barrier, Kinder Harmony Instruments are the only solution available that completely removes the cause of the problem. Conceived in Australia, the Kinder Harmony Program itself is perfectly suited to be part of any school curriculum and guarantees the school a full compliment of well-trained wind players for their Orchestra and Band Programs. It starts at the grass root level and fosters teamwork, social interaction, communication skills and will stop bullies in their tracks. Like no other method known to me, the Kinder Harmony Program teaches these young instrumentalists not only how to master their respective instruments but to listen to each other and play independent parts in harmony from a very early stage, allowing them to develop perfect intonation and all the other skills necessary for becoming accomplished musicians.!These players will be familiar with many styles of music and used to play their individual parts confidently and in tune and in time as part of a team of equals.!If you are in charge of a music program this is a program you cannot afford to ignore!

We encourage everybody to have a go and see how easy it is to play a Kinder Harmony Instrument. In October 2007 a Symposium was held in Kronach and attended by 99 young reed players who performed together in a concert (see photo below).

Now at last Australian Music Educators have the unique opportunity to be world leaders in this field and we have a duty to future generations to give our children the best possible start in life. Learning to play a musi- cal instrument is the key to self discipline, concentration and developing good social skills, it combats violent behaviour, makes!learning! easier and more rewarding.

MUSICAL LITERACY IS THE FUN WAY TO ELIMINATING ILLITERACY!