Katharina Petra Wolpe (9 September 1931 – 9 February 2013) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n born British pianist. Her repertoire included Austrian and German composers but in particular Schumann, Brahms,

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

and her own father.

Life

Stefan and Ola - Katharina Wolpes parents

Wolpe was born in Grinzing within Vienna in 1931. Her parents were both Jews. They had married in 1927 but by the time Katherina was born they were living separately. Her father

Stefan Wolpe Stefan Wolpe (25 August 1902, Berlin – 4 April 1972, New York City) was a German-Jewish-American composer. He was associated with interdisciplinary modernism, with affiliations ranging from the Bauhaus, Berlin agitprop theater and the kibbutz mo ...

was a composer, and her mother Ola (née Okuniewska) was a painter born in Czechoslovakia. In 1938 she and her mother were trapped in Vienna but they managed to leave and then they walked to Serbia. Her father was long gone having left for Israel when Katherina was young. Her mother left her in Switzerland while she went to England to become an art teacher to make a living. Katherina found herself a de facto orphan in Berne during the war. By the time she arrived in London she was sixteen and a skilled pianist. She gave her first concert soon after her arrival. Her repertoire included Austrian and German composers like Haydn, Mozart, Schoenberg and Beethoven but in particular Schumann and Brahms. In 1951 her father wrote "Form for Piano" which he dedicated to his daughter. In 1991 she spent many hours recording all the music composed by

. In 1997 she recorded an her performance of works by her father including "Piece of Embittered Music" from his Zemach Suite (1939), "Studies, Part 1" (1944–51) and "Form for Piano". It was called "Thinking Twice" after a series of lectures her had given. Her mother taught but she was a lifelong artist. She was religious and modest and she never exhibited her work. The work was linked to music and the house she and her mother shared would be visited by composers. There she would teach pianists and her mother taught painters. Wolpe died in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

in 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolpe, Katharina Women classical pianists 1931 births 2013 deaths Jewish emigrants from Austria to the United Kingdom after the Anschluss Austrian pianists