The Executive Committee

Founding Members and Executive Committee of the Joseph Marx Society

The Executive Committee of the Joseph Marx Society:

• President: Prof. Kurt Schwertsik (composer)
• 1^st Vice President: Dr. Peter Rastl (music lover) [the former 1^stVice President Dr. Peter Vujica retired as from 15 March 2013]
• 2^nd Vice President: Stefan Esser (composer)
• General Secretary: Berkant Haydin (Marx biographer)

The society was registered and founded in March 2006 in Vienna by Berkant Haydin and the well-known Austrian music critic and composer Peter Vujica.

About the Inaugural Meeting, 1 April 2006, in Vienna:

The Founding Members are:

• Prof. Dr. Friedrich Cerha — Composer
• Prof. Dr. Gertraud Cerha — Friedrich's wife; expert on musical history
• Prof. Kurt Schwertsik — Composer, Marx student
• Dr. Peter Vujica — Music critic and composer, Marx student
• Dr. Haide Tenner — Chief of Cultural Affairs at the Austrian Broadcast Company ORF and President of the Vienna RSO
• Dr. Robert Hanzlik — Musicologist
• Prof. Dr. Richard Schrodt — Professor of German philology
• Eric Marinitsch — Promotion Director of Universal Edition
• Mag. Heinz Prammer — Conductor and composer
• Martin Rucker — Ethnomusicologist and cultural visionary
• Berkant Haydin — Marx biographer

Following introductory remarks by General Secretary Berkant Haydin, the two most distinguished living Austrian composers, Friedrich Cerha and Kurt Schwertsik, honored the foundation of the Society in a manner entirely worthy of Joseph Marx, the eminent figure of twentieth century Austrian music.

Friedrich Cerha, who knew Marx and spent much time with him, referred to Marx's position in recent music history and recognized Joseph Marx as a leading authority in Austrian music. He emphasized Marx's qualities as an unusually imaginative and eloquent pedagogue and critic and as a composer of many magnificent orchestral and choral works. He also related a few stories from earlier times as well: In particular, he recalled the time when, as a 30 year old, he came upon the huge conductor's score to Marx's Herbstsymphonie while in a library, and how he spent hours marveling over the extraordinary complexity of this work.

Kurt Schwertsik, who studied with Marx, described him as an internationally regarded and undisputed leader of Viennese musical life, and related a series of amusing anecdotes about Marx's lessons and other occasions.