Ernst Widmer

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Ernst Widmer (born April 25, 1927 in Aarau ; † January 3, 1990 ibid) was a Swiss-Brazilian composer .

biography

From 1947 to 1950, Widmer studied composition and counterpoint with Willy Burkhard , piano with Walter Frey , conducting with Paul Müller-Zurich , school singing with Ernst Hörler and analysis with Rudolf Wittelsbach at the Zurich Conservatory . During this time, Opus 1 was composed of five songs in the old style (1949). He then worked as a choir director and piano teacher in Aarau.

In 1955 he married the Brazilian singer Sonja Born and emigrated to Brazil in 1956 . In Salvador da Bahia he got a job from Hans-Joachim Koellreutter as a teacher for music theory, choir conducting and piano at the Seminarios livres da Música , which later became part of the Universidade Federal da Bahia as a music academy . He went on concert tours with the madrigal choir of the music college and made recordings.

In 1963 he followed Koellreutter as a composition teacher at the Musikhochschule, of which he was director from 1963 to 1965, from 1967 to 1969 and from 1976 to 1980. From 1969 to 1973 he was artistic director of the Festival for New Music Bahia, then until 1982 of the Festival de Arte Bahia .

In 1987 he withdrew from teaching to work on his unfinished Ópera da Libertade , an attempt at a modern Brazilian national opera. In 1988 he became a member of the Academia Brasileira da Música . On his last trip to Switzerland he was commissioned to write the festival music to celebrate 700 years of the Swiss Confederation .

In 1988 the Ernst Widmer Society (EWG) was founded in Aarau, which is in possession of his estate and is dedicated to the maintenance and administration of Widmer's work and, within the framework of the Inspiration Brasil project, to the cultural and political exchange between Brazil and Switzerland.

Widmer left 173 works with an opus number , as well as a further 108 compositions without an opus number. These include numerous church music works (choral works, cantatas, six masses, a requiem, organ works), chamber music (eight string quartets, three string trios, wind quartets and quintets), four symphonies, instrumental concerts and sonatas.

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personal data
SURNAME Widmer, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss-Brazilian composer
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Aarau
DATE OF DEATH January 3, 1990
Place of death Aarau