Kowalski, Max

views updated

Kowalski, Max

Kowalski, Max, Polish-born German composer; b. Kowal, Aug. 10, 1882; d. London, June 4, 1956. He was taken to Frankfurt am Main as an infant, and received his primary education there. He also studied voice with Heinemann in Berlin and composition with Sekles in Frankfurt am Main, and obtained a law degree from the Univ. of Marburg. He wrote a song cycle to Guiraud’s Pierrot Lunaire (1912), and during the following 20 years composed a number of lieder, which found favor in Germany. After the Nazis came to power (1933), he was sent to the Buchenwald concentration camp; after his release (1939), he settled in London and eked out a living as a teacher, synagogal cantor, and piano tuner.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire

More From encyclopedia.com