Diegel, Reinhard

Teacher, musician

Born: 28.03.1943 in Chemnitz

died: 16.10.2012 in Wiesbaden

Diegel came to Wiesbaden in 1958 as a refugee from the GDR. After early violin and double bass lessons, he initially learned the clarinet and saxophone mainly self-taught, encouraged by his mentor Dietrich Geldern. From 1961, he was a stage musician in soul and jazz formations (Dietrich Geldern Sextet, "The Ducks" and others) and was awarded a solo prize at the Wiesbaden Jazz Festival as clarinettist of the "Jam Buckets".

He studied music and German for teaching purposes in Mainz and was a clarinettist in the Mainz Wind Quintet, with which he won an international chamber music prize in 1973. From 1973, he taught German and music at the Leibniz School in Wiesbaden and in 1977, together with music-loving pupils, founded the Leibniz School Big Band, which he led until his retirement in 2004. In 2002, the big band was awarded first prize at the Hessian state competition "Jugend jazzt".

In addition to his teaching activities, Diegel was an active musician in various jazz formations (including the "Bernd Reichow Jazz Formation" with Hanns-Dieter Hüsch and Pete Lancaster, Jürgen Streck Quintett with Bill Ramsey and Nick Benjamin), as a stage musician, composer and arranger at the Hessian State Theatre in Wiesbaden (including He also performed in the Wiesbaden folk music group "Holzäppelbäumche" and recorded film music for ZDF and SWR.

After his retirement and until his death, he continued to lead the small big band "Five Generations" with former members of the Leibnizschule big band and played with his son-in-law Olli Back in the pop jazz combo "Lounge Club" and in the jazz formation "Big Fun" under Paolo Fornara (with Jill Gaylord, Jo Flinner and others).