Aloys Kontarsky

Aloys Kontarsky (born May 14, 1931 in Iserlohn ; † August 22, 2017 ) was a German pianist and university professor. Together with his brother Alfons , he played in the internationally recognized Kontarsky Duo and was responsible for numerous world premieres. Most recently he was a professor at the Cologne University of Music .

Life

Aloys Kontarsky came from Iserlohn in Westphalia . He received his first piano lessons at the age of five, was supported by the music director Franz Hanemann and played the organ in the church. Together with his brother Alfons (1932-2010) he had his first duo performance in 1949. From 1952 to 1955 he studied piano with Else Schmitz-Gohr and chamber music with Maurits Frank at the State University of Music in Cologne and from 1955 to 1957 with Eduard Erdmann at the Hamburg University of Music . As early as 1950 he was a participant in the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt. In 1955 he and his brother Alfons received first prize for piano duo at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. In 1957, Aloys Kontarsky received the North Rhine-Westphalia sponsorship award for young artists .

Grave in Cologne's Melaten Central Cemetery

Aloys Kontarsky appeared as a soloist and chamber musician a. a. he played with Siegfried Palm , Karlheinz Zöller and Severino Gazzelloni . As a pianist, he was particularly committed to Karlheinz Stockhausen . Since 1957 he and his brother soon went on concert tours around the world. They premiered numerous works. Together with their younger brother Bernhard (* 1937) they occasionally performed as a piano trio.

In 1960 he began teaching at the Darmstadt Summer Courses. A year later he was a founding member of the Kranichstein Chamber Ensemble. He was also active on the program advisory board for vacation courses. In 1962 he became a professor at the Darmstadt Academy of Music . From 1969 he was a professor at the Cologne University of Music . His students included u. a. Paulo Álvares , David Arden , James Clapperton , Christoph Delz , Herbert Henck , Marcus Kretzer , Michael Obst , Cristian Petrescu , Steffen Schleiermacher and Kevin Volans . He was an honorary member of the German Music Council and the Bernd Alois Zimmermann Society.

In 1983 he fell seriously ill and had to quit his concert career. Aloys Kontarsky died in Cologne in 2017 at the age of 86 and was buried in the Melaten central cemetery there (corridor 101 no.118).

Fonts

• Creative interpreter and teacher: on the 10th anniversary of Eduard Erdmann's death , in: Musik im Studium Vol. 59 (1968), pp. 252-254 (with Alfons Kontarsky)
• "Mock finals with variations": Mauricio Kagel's paths around the pianoforte , in: Werner Klüppelholz (ed.): Kagel… / 1991, DuMont, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-7701-2813-3 , p. 231 ff.
• New Music Notation: [Summary of what was dealt with and discussed at the "New Music Notation" congress within the 19th International Summer Courses for New Music in 1964] (= Darmstadt Contributions to New Music ; 9). Schott, Mainz [a. a.] 1995, ISBN 3-7957-1566-0 , pp. 92-109.

literature

• Peter Fuhrmann:  Kontarsky, Aloys. In: Ludwig Finscher (Hrsg.): The music in past and present . Second edition, personal section, volume 10 (Kemp - Lert). Bärenreiter / Metzler, Kassel et al. 2003, ISBN 3-7618-1120-9  ( online edition , subscription required for full access)
• Ingo Harden : Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky . In: Ingo Harden, Gregor Willmes: Pianist profiles: 600 performers: their biography, their style, their recordings . Bärenreiter, Kassel 2008, ISBN 978-3-7618-1616-5 , p. 391 ff.
• Rudolf Lück / Ateş Orga:  Kontarsky, Aloys. In: Grove Music Online (English; subscription required).

Web links

Commons : Aloys Kontarsky  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Works by and about Aloys Kontarsky in the catalog of the German National Library
• Aloys Kontarsky at Discogs (English)
• Aloys Kontarsky on his 60th birthday ( May 14, 1991 ) , on kölnklavier.de from May 14, 1991

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary notice Aloys Kontarsky passed away. (No longer available online.) FAZ, August 28, 2017, formerly in the original ; accessed on August 28, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
2. ^ Pianist Aloys Kontarsky has passed away. NDR, August 24, 2017, accessed August 24, 2017 . 
3. ^ Mourning for DMR honorary member Aloys Kontarsky , nmz.de, August 30, 2017.
4. ↑ Aloys Kontarsky. Appreciation by Andreas von Imhof , bernd-alois-zimmermann-gesellschaft.org, accessed on February 3, 2018.