Ernst Everts

Ernst Everts (born December 21, 1868 in Solingen ; † May 19, 1952 in Trier ) was a German composer and singer with a bass-baritone voice .

Life path

Ernst Everts came from a poor background; he was the third of six children in a grinder's family . His teacher noticed his musical talent, but Everts was not allowed to finish school and had to start working from home as a grinder when he was twelve. He sang in the choir and taught himself to make music on various instruments. When he got a job as a grinder at the twin factory , he made enough money to take music lessons. As a result he became a choir director himself and gave music lessons.

In 1899, Everts was 31 years old and had saved enough money to attend the Conservatory in Cologne . There he studied piano , violin , singing and composition . In 1903 he passed his exams and married Wilhelmine Salowsky, who had studied piano with him. In the following years there followed lively concert activities as a singer, especially with oratorios by Haydn , Mendelssohn and Bruch . He sang works by Johann Sebastian Bach at church concerts and at song recitals, accompanied on the piano by his wife. After the First World War he formed the Rhenish Vocal Quartet with the soprano Henny Wolff , the contralto Kuhl-Dahlmann and the tenor Arnold Schilbach .

Everts wrote numerous compositions, especially for choirs; so he set psalms to music, but also wrote songs and instrumental works. In 1931 he became director of the Barmer Conservatory, which he led until it was destroyed by a bombing in 1943. Everts performed as a singer well into old age; In the year before his death, a recital was planned, which he then had to cancel due to illness.

Ernst Everts and his wife Wilhelmine had four children, three sons and a daughter. A son drowned while bathing in the Rhine at the age of 18. Everts spent his old age with his eldest son in Trier.

literature

• Klaus Günther: On the wings of song. Paths and stations Solingen vocal soloists from two centuries. Solingen 2002. Published by the Bergisches Geschichtsverein . ISBN 3925626212 , pp. 25-27