Günter Wand initially studied music in Wuppertal, before moving to the Cologne Conservatory where his teachers included Philip Jarnach for composition and Paul Baumgartner for piano. In addition he received some guidance as a student conductor from Franz von Hoesslin at the Munich Conservatory, although in this field he was largely self-taught. After completing his studies Wand worked for a year on a voluntary basis as a répétiteur at Wuppertal, where he made his conducting debut with Robert Stolz’s operetta Venus in Seide (Venus in Silk). He then spent four years as a répétiteur and conductor at Allenstein in East Prussia (now Olsztyn, Poland), where he conducted over six hundred performances of opera, operetta, and ballet as well as conce...