Ernst Renner : About me

I was born in Austria and grew up near the Hungarian border in a small village called Pilgersdorf.

From an early age on I was fascinated by live music, animals that were smaller than me and my aunts camera. Looking back, there were a few people who brought drastic changes to my life and one of them was “Uncle Josef”, a retired master tailor who introduced me to music and taught me enough songs so that I could play in a band. When it was time to join the army, I auditioned and got accepted into the army band which would eventually lay the foundation for a youth orchestra in my hometown. 

Then tragedy struck as Stefan Shermann was diagnosed with cancer and passed away soon after! Because of that, I was asked to play the church organ on Sundays as Mr. Shermann did for many years before me.

Reluctantly I accepted and with the help of OSR Josef Wiesinger, a retired principal who played the organ when I was little, I’ve managed to accompany the choir as well as begin to study music with professor Stefan Kocsis.

During those years, I founded a youth orchestra which was immediately popular and celebrated it’s 20th birthday in 2005. It was exciting to see the fruits of my labour and share a few memories with old(er) friends.

1988 - Immigration to Canada

Some people like to be big fish in an small pond and others like to be small fish in an big pond.

I consider myself part of the later group and therefore left Austria to follow my dream and start a new life in Canada. 

Someone very smart once told me that

"a ship is not built for the harbour, but for the sea"

It is now 2011 and I have seen much of this magnificent country, learned a ton of new stuff and experienced unbelievable things but above all, met fascinating people who I am privileged to call friends.

Last fall, I married a wonderful lady.

Her name is Angelina.