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Born: March 31, 1890 - Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany
Died: October 9, 1976 |
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The German bass singer, singing teacher and music journalist, Kurt Wichmann, initially became a businessman because his father could not finance his studies. He studied musicology with Max Schneider at the Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg.
From the 1920's Kurt Wichmann worked as a Lieder and oratorio singer. He performed with the Dresdner Kreuzchor under Rudolf Mauersberger in J.S. Bach's Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) at the Kreuzkirche and in Johannes Brahms' Ein deutsches Requiem at the Auferstehungskirche in Dresden. In 1929 he was involved in the 7th Deutschen Brahms-Fest in Jena under Wilhelm Furtwängler. Together with the pianist Werner Tell, he went on concert tours to the Ukraine in 1942. On February 11 & 12, 1944, he sang in occupied Warsaw J.S. Bach's Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) (for Germans only, of course).
After World War II, Kurt Wichmann worked as a singing teacher. At the beginning of 1948 he became a lecturer in singing and voice training and, in the summer semester of 1948, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Music at the Staatlichen Hochschule für Theater und Musik. He then taught at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt Weimar. His students included Günter Benndorf, Ursula Brömme, Kurt Hübenthal and Johannes Künzel.
In 1961, Kurt Wichmann was with the music pedagogue Fritz Reuter at the pedagogical faculty of the Humboldt-Universität in Berlin with the dissertation on Vortrag des Recitativs und seiner Erscheinungsformen. Ein Beitrag zur Gesangspädagogik (presentation of the recitative and its manifestations. A contribution to vocal pedagogy) for Dr. paed. PhD. He worked as a lecturer for singing at the Institut für Musikerziehung an der Humboldt-Universität in Berlin. In 1966 he was the editor of Pier Francesco Tosi's Gesangsschule Anleitung zur Singkunst, which was translated into German by Johann Friedrich Agricola in the 18th century. In addition, he published articles on singing methodology and early music.
Kurt Wichmann was a member of the Zentralvorstand der Gewerkschaft Wissenschaft (Central Executive Committee of the Science Union) and was awarded the Bronze Patriotic Order of Merit in 1986. His second son is the composer Thomas Buchholz, born in 1961. |
