The music teacher of his secondary school presented a clarinet to the class. Walter Seyfarth, a native of Düsseldorf, descendent of composers Albert Lortzing and Ferdinand Ries, and then twelve years old, was so enchanted by its sound that he immediately signed up for instruction. Later he studied the instrument at the Freiburg Musikhochschule with Peter Rieckhoff, then with Karl Leister in the Orchestra Academy of the Berliner Philharmoniker. Following his first engagement, in the Saar Radio Symphony Orchestra, he was appointed as Solo Eb Clarinet to the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1985. Three years later he and his colleagues Michael Hasel, Andreas Wittmann, Fergus McWilliam and Henning Trog founded the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. Walter Seyfarth is active as a teacher in the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Orchestra Academy, with international youth orchestras, and in master classes. From 2002 to 2011 he mentored the woodwinds of Venezuela's Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra and has been a regular guest soloist at the Brazilian Festival Música em Trancoso since 2012.
