Wangenheim, Volker
Wangenheim, Volker
Wangenheim, Volker, German conductor, teacher, and composer; b. Berlin, July 1, 1928. He studied piano, oboe, violin, composition, and conducting at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. He began his career as an oboist with several Berlin ensembles. He was founder-principal conductor of the Berlin Mozart Orch. (1950-59); also conducted at the Mecklenburg State Theater in Schwerin (1951-52) and with the Berlin Academic Orch. (1954-57). He was music director (1957-63) and then Generalmusikdirektor (1963-78) in Bonn, where he served as principal conductor of the Beethovenhalle Orch., the Phil. Choir, and the Bonn Beethoven Festivals; also was co-founder and artistic director of the German National Youth Orch. (1969-84). He appeared as a guest conductor in Germany and abroad from 1954. In 1972 he became a prof, at the Cologne Hochschule für Musik.
Works
orch: Sinfometta concertante (1963); Concerto for Strings (1964); Sinfonia notturna (1965); Symphony 1966 (1968); Klangspiel 1 for Strings (1971) and II for Chamber Ensemble (1973). VOCAL: Psalm 123 for Chorus (1973); Nico-demus lesum node visitât: Canticum secundum Ioannem for Chorus (1980); various folksongs for chorus.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire