Karl Zumpe (20 May 1924 – 15 November 2001) was a German musician and long-time director of the

Gewandhaus Gewandhaus () is a concert hall in Leipzig, the home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. History The first Gewandhaus (''Altes Gewandhaus'') The ...

Leipzig.

Life

Zumpe was born in

Zwickau Zwickau (; ) is the fourth-largest city of Saxony, Germany, after Leipzig, Dresden and Chemnitz, with around 88,000 inhabitants,. The West Saxon city is situated in the valley of the Zwickau Mulde (German: ''Zwickauer Mulde''; progression: ), ...

. After passing the Not

abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

, Zumpe was drafted into military service at the age of eighteen. After serving on both the

East East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that ea ...

and the West Front, he was a prisoner of war until 1948. After a period as a warehouse worker, he was employed as a librarian at Wismut in

Johanngeorgenstadt Johanngeorgenstadt (, ) is a mining town in Saxony’s Ore Mountains, 17 km south of Aue, and 27 km northwest of Karlovy Vary. It lies in the district of Erzgebirgskreis, on the border with the Czech Republic, is a state-recognized hea ...

. Equipped only with his experiences as a child in the choir of the in Zwickau, he took over as choir director in the cultural ensemble of Wismut. It was here that Rudolf Fischer of the Leipzig Musikhochschule discovered him at a choir competition and brought him to Leipzig to study. After studying music from 1951 to 1956, he obtained a position at the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1958 as head of the Gewandhaus office. This position was changed to that of Gewandhaus director in 1960. While the Gewandhauskapellmeister was responsible for artistic and state direction, the Gewandhausdirektor was responsible for organisation and administration. He was able to dispel initial reservations of the orchestra - Zumpe had joined the SED during his studies - through good performance and commitment to the orchestra. After Vaclav Neumann's departure from the Gewandhaus Orchestra in 1968, the function of an

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

equal to the ''

Kapellmeister ( , , ), from German (chapel) and (master), literally "master of the chapel choir", designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term has evolved considerably in i ...

'' was introduced, and Zumpe became "commissioner for the new building of the Gewandhaus". In the early 1970s, however, the Gewandhaus Kapellmeister

Kurt Masur Kurt Masur (; 18 July 192719 December 2015) was a German Conducting, conductor. Called "one of the last old-style maestros", he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewand ...

restored the old conditions. Under Zumpe's tenure, the various concert series and forms, some of which still exist today, were introduced, as were the annual visitor debates before each new season. He summarised the history of the Gewandhaus and its activities in his two-volume dissertation, on the basis of which he was awarded a doctorate in 1981. In 1984, Zumpe received the

Kunstpreis der Stadt Leipzig From 1959 to 1989, the city of Leipzig awarded the Kunstpreis der Stadt Leipzig, which was given for outstanding merits in the artistic field to persons who promoted the reputation of the city beyond the region: architects, visual artists, compos ...

. In 1989, he had to resign as director of the Gewandhaus for health reasons. In his tenure over a period of 41 years, Zumpe exercised his office under the conductors Konwitschny, Neumann and Masur. Kempe died in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

aged 77.

Publications

* ''Die Geschichte des Gewandhausorchesters und die Probleme bei der Entwicklung des Klangkörpers zu einem führenden sozialistischen Musikinstitut der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik''. Dissertationsschrift 1981 * ''Res severa est verum gaudium. Gewandhaus zu Leipzig. Gewandhausanekdoten.''''Res severa est verum gaudium. Gewandhaus zu Leipzig. Gewandhausanekdoten.''
on WorldCat Leipzig. VOB Buch- und Offsetdruck, 1987. * ''Kurt Masur – Gewandhauskapellmeister Leipzig''. Ullstein, Frankfurt, Berlin, 1990

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zumpe, Karl German opera directors 1924 births 2001 deaths People from Zwickau

Life

Publications

References

Further reading

External links