Happy retirement Wolfie!

Originally from Berlin, Wolfie emigrated to Australia with his mother at the age of 16. After first living in Sydney, Wolfie moved to Perth with his partner in 1990, saw his first WASO concert in 1991, and started volunteering on his retirement from hairdressing in 1993.

As one of WASO’s longest serving volunteers, things have certainly changed from when Wolfie first started with WASO. In 1993, WASO had just 36 patrons. Wolfie hand-wrote letters to each of the patrons, looked after the mail that came in, and with the assistance of his partner, organised dinners and events to entertain the patrons.

When the WASO Administration moved from Adelaide Terrace to Hay Street, Wolfie took on more responsibilities including overseeing the mail-outs, monitoring newspapers for mentions of WASO, looking after the concert programs for Morning Symphony performances and assisting other concert volunteers.

29 years has seen plenty of change for the organisation and Wolfie. WASO now has over 1,200 patrons, which means no more hand-written letters! However Wolfie has continued to help with the mail-outs and his other volunteering duties in the WASO Administration and the Concert Hall.

Wolfie’s favourite composers are Beethoven and Verdi, and he recounts one of his favourite WASO concerts as the 2019 performance of Verdi’s Requiem, featuring both the WASO Chorus and Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Chorus.

“The WASO Chorus are particularly good, especially when they sing in German. Their German was so good [when they performed recently] I understood every word they were singing, it was quite amazing.”

Whilst there is no one particular memory that stands out for Wolfie in his time at WASO, he looks back on the decades fondly.

“There’s so many highlights that you can’t choose one. All up I’ve had a wonderful time since I’ve been here.”

We would like to thank Wolfie for his many years of service to WASO, and wish him a happy (volunteering) retirement!