Andreas Butz - Private Activities

Since moving to Munich, I can finally act out my old love for the mountains. I try to pay them regular visits in summer and winter for hiking, snowboarding or alpine tours.

More recently, I've also picked up SCUBA diving again. I had learned the basics in my youth, but never took the time to get certified, until 2008. This sport takes you to really new worlds and combines nicely with my faible for photography. It also means that I learned to deal better with pressure (up to 5 atmospheres ;-).

I always used to take a lot of photos, some of which are on my very outdated old photo page. Now, with some 100 GB of digital photos on my hard disk, I know I should finally update these pages and share a selection of pics from the last 20 years, but this will have to wait until a long free weekend with bad weather and no family comes around.. In the meantime, I managed to put at least some very recent photos online again, due to considerable social pressure from my photo group at LMU, so here's my public gallery in google photo.

I also picked up singing again and joined a jazz and gospel choir, the Olyphonics. Please, come see us at Tollwood this year! Other than sports and music, I spend my free time with my growing family. Below is a list of things I did before we moved to Munich:

I was playing the trombone at Spy vs. Spy. Our posters said, we play "Sample Soaked Secret Agent Surf Punk", but I'm not entirely convinced that this is an accurate description. In any case it's a lot of fun, so check out the spies' web page to find upcoming concerts.

On the more silent side, I was singing first tenor in the A-Capella group "Mundwerk". Our repertoire included American barbershop songs as well as German songs from the 20ies (Comedian Harmonists) and contemporary German literature (Die Prinzen).

Almost all of "Mundwerk" also participates in the "Amici Musici Fideles" project choir and project orchestra. With up to 60 voices, we met on weekends to prepare specific projects. In 2002, the choir has celebrated its 10th year of existence with a performance of Bach's christmas oratorio. Previous projects included Bach's St. John's Passion, some cantatas, and Brandenburg concerts, as well as works by Benjamin Britten and by our conductor, Helmut Werz.