Matthias Hennecke 

He started his musical career as an accordionist in 1968 by a private teacher and in 1972 he registered in  the music school of Dortmund. There he was in charge of the local accordion-orchestra of the music school from 1978 to 1983. In autumn 1979 he passed the entrance examination of the Dortmund conservatory and studied as a young student - still being a pupil - accordion in the class of Prof. Georg Reidys. He emerged victoriously from a lot of competitions either as a solist or as a member of an ensemble. Stations of this orchestral career were the accordion orchestras of Dortmund, Unna, Siegerland, Bergisch-Land and finally he came to the First Cologne Accordion-Orchestra. In the beginning 80ies he started as a guest player and later on he became an active member. He also made a name for himself as an arranger and arranger. His filigree arrangements of the pieces, which are specially tailored to the instrumentation of the Cologne orchestra, lend each individual title its own character and repeatedly turn out to be a musically emotional experience.
Matthias Hennecke, Country Director at DHV-NRW, has been the musical director of the main orchestra since 1997.