Elmendorff, Karl (Eduard Maria)
Elmendorff, Karl (Eduard Maria)
Elmendorff, Karl (Eduard Maria), eminent German conductor; b. Diisseldorf, Oct. 25, 1891; d. Hofheim am Taunus, Oct. 21, 1962. He was a student of Steinbach and Abendroth at the Cologne Hochschule fur Musik. After conducting opera in Diisseldorf, Mainz, Hagen, and Aachen, he held the post of first conductor at the Berlin State Opera and the Bavarian State Opera in Munich (from 1925). He won distinction as a conductor at the Bayreuth Festivals (1927–42); he also was Generalmusikdirektor in Kassel and Wies-baden (1932–35), and then conducted in Mannheim (1935–42), at the Berlin State Opera (1937–45), and at the Dresden State Opera (1942–45); he subsequently was Generalmusikdirektor in Kassel (1948–51) and Wies-baden (1951–56). Elmendorff was greatly esteemed as a Wagnerian.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire