Klaus Bernbacher (25 January 1931 – 3 December 2023) was a German conductor, music event manager, broadcasting manager and academic teacher. He co-founded the ''Tage der Neuen Musik Hannover'', a festival for
contemporary music Contemporary music is whatever music is produced at the current time. Specifically, it could refer to:
Genres or audiences
* Adult contemporary music
* British contemporary R&B
* Christian adult contemporary
* Christian contemporary hit radio
* Con ...
, in 1958. He was manager for the broadcaster
Radio Bremen
Radio Bremen (), shortened to RB () is Germany's smallest Public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster and the legally mandated broadcaster for the city-state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (which includes Bremerha ...
from 1962. In Bremen, he was also a cultural politician, a member of the
Bremische Bürgerschaft, and an honorary professor at the
Hochschule für Künste Bremen.
Life
Family, education and musical career
Born in
Hanover
Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...
, Bernbacher was the son of a violinist who worked as a chamber musician and in the orchestra of the
Staatsoper Hannover. He came into early contact with music through piano lessons and concert visits, listening to music conducted by
Wilhelm Furtwängler
Gustav Heinrich Ernst Martin Wilhelm Furtwängler ( , ; ; 25 January 188630 November 1954) was a German conductor and composer. He is regarded as one of the greatest Symphony, symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. He was a majo ...
,
Herbert von Karajan,
Hans Knappertsbusch
Hans Knappertsbusch (12 March 1888 – 25 October 1965) was a German conductor, best known for his performances of the music of Wagner, Bruckner and Richard Strauss.
Knappertsbusch followed the traditional route for an aspiring conductor in Ger ...
,
Clemens Krauss
Clemens Heinrich Krauss (31 March 189316 May 1954) was an Austrian conducting, conductor and opera impresario, particularly associated with the music of Richard Strauss, Johann Strauss and Richard Wagner. He founded the Vienna New Year's Concert ...
,
Hermann Scherchen,
Johannes Schüler and
Richard Strauss
Richard Georg Strauss (; ; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer and conductor best known for his Tone poems (Strauss), tone poems and List of operas by Richard Strauss, operas. Considered a leading composer of the late Roman ...
in rehearsals and performances. He studied music at the
Musikhochschule Hannover to become a conductor. During his studies, he was involved in establishing the
Jeunesses Musicales Internationalles festival from 1951,
and the music centre at
Schloss Weikersheim. In 1958, he and founded a studio for
contemporary music Contemporary music is whatever music is produced at the current time. Specifically, it could refer to:
Genres or audiences
* Adult contemporary music
* British contemporary R&B
* Christian adult contemporary
* Christian contemporary hit radio
* Con ...
(''Neue Musik''). It was developed to the ''Tage der Neuen Musik Hannover'', a festival held from 1958 to 1998 in collaboration with broadcasters
NDR and
Radio Bremen
Radio Bremen (), shortened to RB () is Germany's smallest Public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster and the legally mandated broadcaster for the city-state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (which includes Bremerha ...
, the Musikhochschule and the Staatsoper.
The festival featured music by
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze (1 July 1926 – 27 October 2012) was a German composer. His large List of compositions by Hans Werner Henze, oeuvre is extremely varied in style, having been influenced by serialism, atonality, Igor Stravinsky, Stravinsky, Mu ...
,
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...
,
Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Raúl Kagel (; 24 December 1931 – 18 September 2008) was an Argentine-German composer and academic teacher.
Life and career Early life and education
Mauricio Raúl Kagel was born on 24 December 1931 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, into an ...
,
Hans Otte Hans Günther Franz Otte (3 December 1926 – 25 December 2007) was a German composer, pianist, radio promoter, and author of many pieces of musical theatre, sound installations, poems, drawings, and art videos. From 1959 to 1984 he served as music ...
,
Josef Anton Riedl,
Werner Heider,
Hans-Joachim Hespos,
Hans Ulrich Engelmann,
Helmut Lachenmann
Helmut Friedrich Lachenmann (; born 27 November 1935) is a German composer of contemporary classical music and pianist. Associated with the "instrumental musique concrète" style, Lachenmann is alongside Wolfgang Rihm as among the leading Germa ...
,
Isang Yun
Isang Yun, or Yun I-sang (; 17 September 1917 – 3 November 1995), was a Korean-born composer who made his later career in West Germany.
Early life and education
Yun was born in Sancheong (Sansei), Korea under Japanese rule, Korea in 1917, ...
,
Peter Ruzicka and
Detlef Heusinger, among others.
In 1962, he became conductor at Radio Bremen and department head at the broadcaster around 1969,
especially promoting ''Neue Musik''.
He was responsible for around 600 radio productions and concerts over around 40 years, including with the orchestras
Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie
The Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie (North West German Philharmonic) is a German symphony orchestra based in Herford. Founded in 1950, the orchestra is one of the ''Landesorchester'' of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, along with the ''Philhar ...
and the
Bremer Philharmoniker.
Performances included Schönberg's ''
Gurre-Lieder
' (''Songs of Gurre Castle, Gurre'') is a tripartite oratorio followed by a Melodrama, melodramatic epilogue for five vocal soloists, narrator, three choruses, and grand orchestra. The work, which is based on an early song cycle for soprano, te ...
'' in the original version and Mahler's
Second Symphony at the
Bremen Cathedral.
He has been an honorary professor at the
Hochschule für Künste Bremen.
Bernbacher was married to , who became a politician of the
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice.
Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...
, from 1957 until her death in 2013.
He met her in 1947 during school days. The couple had four children, two of them adopted.
Bernbacher died on 3 December 2023, at the age of 92.
Landesmusikrat Bremen trauert um Klaus Bernbacher
Politics
Bernbacher was a member of the SPD from the 1950s until 1994, influenced by Kurt Schumacher. In 1995 he joined a (voters group) Arbeit für Bremen und Bremerhaven (AfB) as a candidate, a group of both dissatisfied SPD members and committed citizens who had not belonged to any party, led by the former savings bank director . The AfB immediately achieved 10.7% of the votes and 12 seats in parliament for the , including Bernbacher. He helped to ensure that culture was included in the constitution as a state objective. The AfB had no seat from 1999.
Other memberships
* Bremen
* Collaboration, together with Peter Schulze, at the citizens' initiative for the preservation of the famous for its acoustics.
* Landesmusikrat Bremen
* Chairman of the support association "Musicon Bremen", which supports the construction of a concert hall on the Bürgerweide according to plans by Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind (born May 12, 1946) is a Polish–American architect, artist, professor and set designer. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect.
He is known for the design a ...
.
Work
* Klaus Bernbacher, Detlef Müller-Hennig (ed.): ''Dokumentation 20 Jahre Konzert des Deutschen Musikrates''. Bonn 2000.
Awards
In 2011, Bernbacher was awarded the Bremische Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft (Bremen Medal for Art and Science) for his decades of influential work for the music scene in Germany.
References
Further reading
* Norbert Korfmacher: ''Mitgliederverzeichnis der Bremischen Bürgerschaft 1946 bis 1996'' (''Kommunalpolitik.'' Vol. 1). LIT, Münster 1997, .
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External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bernbacher, Klaus
1931 births
2023 deaths
Musicians from Hanover
Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover alumni
Academic staff of the University of the Arts Bremen
German conductors (music)
Radio Bremen people
Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians