The Kurt Weill Centre is a cultural site in
Dessau
Dessau is a town and former municipality in Germany at the confluence of the rivers Mulde and Elbe, in the '' Bundesland'' (Federal State) of Saxony-Anhalt. Since 1 July 2007, it has been part of the newly created municipality of Dessau-Roßlau ...
, in
Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is a museum and information centre about the life and work of the composer
Kurt Weill
Kurt Julian Weill (March 2, 1900April 3, 1950) was a German-born American composer active from the 1920s in his native country, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fru ...
(1900–1950), who was born in Dessau.
History
The museum is in the ''Meisterhaus Feininger'', built in 1925–26. It was one of the houses designed by
Walter Gropius as accommodation for the masters of the
Bauhaus; the artist
Lyonel Feininger lived here from 1926 to 1932. (Apart from its location in Dessau, it has no direct connection with the life of the composer.)
["The Kurt-Weill-Centre at the Feininger House"]
''Kurt Weill Zentrum''. Retrieved 25 April 2020. The building is included in the ''
Blaubuch
The ''Blaubuch'' ("Blue Book") is an inventory of "cultural lighthouses": culturally important sites in the eastern ''Länder'' of Germany.
It was first published in 2001, as an evaluation study proposed by the then Secretary of Culture of the Ger ...
'' (Blue Book) of the Federal Government, as an important cultural site.
["Blaubuch (Blue Book)"]
''Kurt Weill Zentrum''. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
In the 1990s the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, in New York, and the cultural office of Dessau, founded the , an annual festival in Dessau about the composer. The Kurt Weill Centre was opened as the European centre for the composer's work, and a base for organizing the festival. It was accommodated initially in the nearby ''Meisterhaus Schlemmer'' in 1993, and relocated in the present building in December 1994 when renovation was complete.
''Kurt Weill Zentrum''. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
Exhibition and library
There is a permanent exhibition about the composer; a special exhibition is shown at the time of the Kurt Weill Festival.
[
The library, open to interested visitors on request, contains sheet music, mainly by Kurt Weill, literature relating to classic modernism, CDs and DVDs.]
''Kurt Weill Zentrum''. Retrieved 25 April 2020.
See also
* List of music museums
References
{{authority control
Biographical museums in Germany
Music museums in Germany
Museums in Saxony-Anhalt
Walter Gropius buildings