August Heinrich Bruinier (7 May 1897 – 24 April 1970) was a German

violinist The following lists of violinists are available: * List of classical violinists, notable violinists from the baroque era onwards * List of contemporary classical violinists, notable contemporary classical violinists * List of violinist/compose ...

and

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

teacher. He was born into a musical family of Dutch provenance.Horst Bergmeier, Rainer Lotz: Die Familie Bruinier. In: Fox auf 78, Heft 12, Sommer 1993, ISSN 0948-0412

Life

August Heinrich Bruinier was born in

Zweibrücken Zweibrücken (; french: Deux-Ponts, ; Palatinate German: ''Zweebrigge'', ; literally translated as "Two Bridges") is a town in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, on the Schwarzbach river. Name The name ''Zweibrücken'' means 'two bridges'; olde ...

, close to the French frontier. His father, Jan Berend Hendrik Bruinier (1863–1934) had been born in Amsterdam, but lived in Germany where he worked as the chief executive officer (''Geschäftsführer'') of a manufacturing company in the heavy industrial sector. His mother, born Sophie Christiane Henriette Wagner, came from a German family. The family was an unusually musical one: of the parents' six recorded children, three grew up to become professional musicians. Between 1904 and 1907 he attended the "Realgymnasium" (secondary school) in Biebrich, near

Wiesbaden Wiesbaden () is a city in central western Germany and the capital of the state of Hesse. , it had 290,955 inhabitants, plus approximately 21,000 United States citizens (mostly associated with the United States Army). The Wiesbaden urban area ...

before moving to the rapidly expanding Berlin conurbation where from 1907 till 1913 he attended an "Oberrealschule" (senior secondary school) in Steglitz. Bruinier started his formal musical training as a pupil of the violinist between 1912 and 1914. He studied at the Berlin Music Academy from 1914 till 1917, and was then able to get away from the

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

playing as a member of the

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

Concertgebouw Orchestra The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra ( nl, Koninklĳk Concertgebouworkest, ) is a Dutch symphony orchestra, based at the Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw (concert hall). Considered one of the world's leading orchestras, Queen Beatrix conferred the "R ...

between 1917 and 1918. Between 1918 and 1920 he progressed his studies at the Berlin Music Academy, now studying with Karl Klingler. He continued to take lessons privately in 1920/1921 with Willy Hess and

Gabriele Wietrowetz Gabriele Wietrowetz (or Wietrowitz; 13 January 1866 – 6 April 1937) was an Austrian concert violinist and academic. She appeared in many countries in Europe, and led a string quartet in England. Life Wietrowetz was born in Ljubljana, daughter of ...

(1866–1937). He was Concert Master with the Berlin Academic Orchestra (''"Akademische Orchester Berlin"'') from 1923 till 1925, and was also at this stage already giving violin lessons.Karla Höcker: Hauskonzerte in Berlin. Rembrandt, Berlin 1970, P. 71, 98 & 107 In the "Society for Modern Musical presentation in Berlin", which

Othmar Steinbauer Othmar Steinbauer (6 November 1895 – 5 September 1962) was an Austrian composer and music theorist. He progressed developments in twelve-tone composition ('). His own teachers included Joseph Marx, Anton von Webern, Arnold Schönberg and Josef ...

and

Max Deutsch Max Deutsch (17 November 1892 – 22 November 1982) was an Austrian-French composer, conductor, and academic teacher. He studied with Arnold Schönberg and was his assistant. Teaching at the Sorbonne and the École Normale de Musique de Paris, he ...

had created (based on the example of Schoenberg's

Society for Private Musical Performances The Society for Private Musical Performances (in German, the ) was an organization founded in Vienna in the Autumn of 1918 by Arnold Schoenberg with the intention of making carefully rehearsed and comprehensible performances of newly composed mus ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

), Bruinier was the leader of the "House quartet". He was also a member, with , of the "Old German Chamber Quartet" (''"Altdeutsche Kammerquartett"''). Between 1928 and 1937 Bruinier worked as concert master for the

Tobis Film Tobis Film was a German film production and film distribution company. Founded in the late 1920s as a merger of several companies involved in the switch from silent to sound films, the organisation emerged as a leading German sound studio. Tob ...

company: from 1937 he was employed in the same position at Berlin's Nollendorf Square Theatre (as it was then known). Between 1943 and 1963 he taught the violin at the Braunschweig District Music Academy. Along with this, between 1951 and 1961 he held summer chamber music courses in the hills south of

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg ...

, for JMI at Schloss Weikersheim.

Chamber music ensembles

*''Brothers Bruiner'': August Heinrich Bruinier performed as a duo together with his brother, pianist

Franz Servatius Bruinier Franz Servatius Bruinier (13 May 1905 – 31 July 1928) was a pianist and composer. He was the first professional composer to collaborate with Bertolt Brecht. On account of his early death from tuberculosis, and because the results of his wo ...

. *''Bruinier-Trio'': August Heinrich Bruinier performing a piano trio together with his brothers Franz und Julius Ansco Bruinier at the Vox broadcasting house at Potsdamer Strasse in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. *''Bruinier-Quartett'': in 1922 Bruinier formed the ''Bruinier-Quartett''. Members were, apart from him playing the 1st violin, Marg. Schmidt-Laipa and later Fritz Wehmeyer (1906–1973) (2nd violin), from 1927 to 1937 Karla Höcker, followed by Karl Reitz (viola) and Hans Chemin-Petit, Paul Blumenfeld (1901–2001) (1929 bis 1932) and Karl Dechert (* 1906 † ?) (cello). Due to

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 ...

and Reitz' sudden death in 1943 the quartett was dissolved in 1944.

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruinier, August Heinrich German classical violinists German male classical violinists 20th-century classical violinists German music educators 1897 births 1970 deaths 20th-century German male musicians