Admission test
With music in marching step
If you want to do your basic military service with a weapon and instrument, you have to have a lot of skills. A local inspection of the entrance test for future military musicians.
The barrier opens, you can hear the exact rhythm of the marching soldiers' steps - and a trumpet cadence: the Khevenhüller barracks in Lendorf near Klagenfurt are home to the rehearsal rooms of the Carinthian Military Music (MilMu), which has scheduled an audition for the enlistment date in August. "Military music is a link between the military and the population," says bandmaster Dietmar Pranter.
He and his musicians perform 120 concerts a year. The broad repertoire ranges from marches, hymns and fanfares for festive occasions to music from Hollywood films at concerts and tango and twist at balls.
"With me, we are 16 cadre soldiers. 30 musicians can do their six-month basic military service and a further seven months with the band," explains the colonel.
Everyone in the squad has an additional function: one is the instrument keeper, one is responsible for the archive, one for the uniforms, one for the technology, the lighting...
Oberst Dietmar Pranter, Militärkapellmeister in Kärnten
18 men and three women are auditioning this year, such as East Tyrolean Mathias Lukasser, who plays trumpet in the band in Ainet and attends music school: "I want to do my basic military service musically and then possibly study music." Music master Josef Schmidl assesses technique, rhythm, performance, ear... Klagenfurt trumpeter Herbert Taschek, who is already studying at the University of Music in Vienna, plays in one of the smaller rehearsal rooms, while Stefan Schusser taps the skills of Zweinitz percussionist Lukas Hausharter. Kilian Sepperer from Mölltal wants to convince Johannes Glawischnig on the horn.
Johannes Unterkofler from Fresach, who plays flugelhorn and trumpet, has long since passed his audition, is already deputy registrar and has embarked on a career as a non-commissioned officer.
Katrin Podgornik from Bleiburg has been playing clarinet in the military band since August 2022: "I was the only girl back then, there are currently six of us, and I've been warmly welcomed here right from the start."
In addition to the numerous rehearsals, for which 7,000 music titles are stored in the archive labeled "Notenbank", the program includes service at arms, military education, drill and sport. "Sport is extremely important, because we often have to stand for long periods in the heat or cold when we go out, so we have to be in very good physical condition," says Colonel Pranter, who himself joined the band as a basic conscript in 1986, studied jazz trumpet and trained as a bandmaster in Graz, Vienna and Linz.
His band's programs not only delight audiences in Carinthia. And what Wagner says in the Meistersinger and what is written on the orchestra's rehearsal room still applies: "The master is the one who doesn't regret the trial."
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