Kurt Graunke (September 20, 1915 in Stettin, Germany – June 5, 2005 in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

) was a German composer and conductor. He was the founder of an eponymous orchestra that became the

Munich Symphony Orchestra The Munich Symphony Orchestra (Münchner Symphoniker) is a German orchestra based in Munich but active statewide in Bavaria. It gives subscription concerts at the Herkulessaal and the Prinzregententheater and, to a lesser degree, at the Philha ...

Life

He studied violin, becoming the second concertmaster at the age of 17 of the local orchestra. In 1934 he began studying violin with

Gustav Havemann Gustav Havemann (15 March 1882 – 2 January 1960) was a German violinist and from 1933 to 1935 head of the "Reichsmusikerschaft" in the Reichsmusikkammer. Life Born in Güstrow, Havemann first learned to play the violin from his father, the mil ...

, composition with Adolf Lessle and

Hermann Grabner Hermann Grabner (12 May 1886 – 3 July 1969) was an Austrian composer and music teacher. Career Grabner was born in Graz. He studied law at the University of Graz graduating in 1909. In parallel, he studied music with Leopold Suchsland un ...

at the

Berlin Hochschule für Musik The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universiti ...

, but had to withdraw in 1935 for financial reasons. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

he studied conducting with Wolfgang Schneiderhan in Vienna. After the war, he moved to

where he started the Symphony Orchestra Graunke, conducting it until 1989. It served as a recording orchestra for more than 500 films and television shows. The orchestra became the Munich Symphony Orchestra in 1990.Symphonie-Orchester Graunke 1945-1985, Munich He composed 9 symphonies, a

Violin Concerto A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...

, a String Quartet, and many short works for orchestra. He reworked the String Quartet of 1974 into a Symphony for Strings, which he then fully orchestrated in 1976, becoming his third symphony. These have all been issued on compact disks by Sedina.

Works

*Symphony No. 1 in E major, The Homeland (1969) *Symphony No. 2 (1972) *Symphony No. 3 (1976) (based on the String Quartet) *Symphony No. 4 (1977) *Symphony No. 5 (1981) *Symphony No. 6 (1981) *Symphony No. 7 (1983) *Symphony No. 8 (1985) *Symphony No. 9 (1996) *Violin Concerto (1959) *String Quartet (1974) *Piano Concerto (1988)

References

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Graunke, Kurt 1915 births 2005 deaths 20th-century German composers Musicians from Szczecin