Barbara Heller

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Barbara Heller (born November 6, 1936 in Ludwigshafen am Rhein ) is a German composer and pianist . She lives in Darmstadt , in the Odenwald and temporarily on the Canary Island of La Gomera .

Life

Her father Eugen Heller was a restorer of church art. After their parents' apartment was bombed out, the family moved to Hammelbach , Bergstrasse district in 1943 . In 1948 she returned to Ludwigshafen, in 1949 she moved to Mannheim , and later Barbara Heller moved to Cologne and Darmstadt.

Barbara Heller studied music in Mannheim and Munich . From 1958 to 1962 she was a piano teacher at the University of Music and Performing Arts Mannheim . Composition studies with Hans Vogt , Harald Genzmer and a short scholarship for film music in Siena as well as several scholarships for the international summer courses for new music in Darmstadt followed.

Important professional positions continued to be the administration of the estate of the Darmstadt composer Hermann Heiss and from 1986 membership in the board of the Darmstadt Institute for New Music and Music Education. Until 1990, Heller always actively disseminated works by female composers as a pianist. She is also the editor of the series “Women composing” for the publication of historical and new music by women composers. Her compositions are published by Schott and Furore. In 2019 she received the Darmstadt Music Prize .

Career

In 1949 she made her first autodidactic attempts at composition. She studied music with Helmut Vogel at the University of Mannheim. She was also taught by Leni Neuenschwander (vocals), Karin Schmidt-Eisener (flute) and Hans Vogt (composition). She completed her studies in 1957. She taught piano for four years, from 1958 to 1962 at the University of Mannheim. In 1962/63 she studied with Harald Genzmer in Munich. When setting up the International Working Group on Women and Music e. V. she made a significant contribution and was a member of the board until 1981. She also founded the Archive for Women and Music . Heller organized the first major festivals on the subject of women and music in Bonn / Cologne, together with the founder of the Archive of Women and Music and conductor Elke Mascha Blankenburg . In 1986 she was a board member of the Institute for New Music and Music Education Darmstadt. She ended her public appearances as a pianist in 1989.

literature

  • Ulla Levens (Ed.): Encounters with Barbara Heller. Wolke Verlag, Hofheim 2006, ISBN 3-936000-39-5 (with accompanying CD: contains a cross-section of the composer's work).
  • Rainer Mohrs: A piano piece is created. Barbara Heller's piano cycle “Klangspuren” as an inspiration for your own improvisations. In: practicing & making music. Vol. 32, issue 4, August / September 2015, ISSN  0174-6065 , pp. 32–37.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. http://www.klassik-heute.de/4daction/www_aktuelles_meldung?id=22591