Franz-Josef Kupczyk

Kupczyk with Paul Hindemith in Bremen in 1960

Kupczyk with Rudolf Kempe in Bremen in 1960

Osaka 1967

Kupczyk private archive 2015

Franz-Josef Kupczyk (born July 7, 1928 in Westerholt ; † January 5, 2012 in Bremen ) was a German violinist and soloist. Since 1957 he was first concertmaster of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Bremen and the Bremen Theater am Goetheplatz.

Life

Kupczyk began taking violin lessons at the age of nine and from 1942 to 1945 attended the boarding school in Braunschweig for musical talents. After the end of the war he went to the Folkwanghochschule Essen, Cologne and Detmold and studied with Fritz Peter, Hermann Zitzmann and Tibor Vaga and Max Strub . In 1957 he was hired by the then General Music Director Heinz Wallberg as 1st concertmaster in Bremen. In Bremen he then gave concerts as first concertmaster of the Philharmonic State Orchestra under renowned conductors such as Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, Lorin Maarzel, Peter Schneider, Sergiu Celibidache and Paul Hindemith, Hans Knappertsbusch and Rudolf Kempe. So he led in particular z. B. as a soloist under Rudolf Kempe on the Brahms Double Concerto with Peter Schwarze, the Schumann Violin Concerto and the Shostakowitsch Concerto under Uri Segal, the Igor Stravinski Violin Concerto under Waldemar Nelsson, the Karl Amadeus Hartmann Violin Concerto under Reinhard Petersen, Bach and Mozart under Herrmann Michael.

In 1962 he was appointed first concertmaster to Bayreuth by Rudolf Kempe, where he played under Karl Böhm and Hans Knappertsbusch and under the direction of Wieland Wagner.

In 1967 he was given a visiting professorship at the Tokyo Conservatory for one year, where he continued to promote young Japanese violinists until he retired in Bremen in 1996. He also performed as a soloist throughout Japan in the 1960s. In 1984 he was appointed professor for violin at the University of the Arts in Bremen .

He was also involved in theater work in Bremen. He was actively involved in productions by Kurt Hübner and Peter Zadek and traveled, for example. B. also with the ensemble of Reinhild Hoffmann through Japan.

During his time as concertmaster, numerous radio recordings were made for films, especially with the Northwest German Philharmonic at Radio Bremen under the direction of Klaus Bernbacher , with whom he recorded modern works by Stravinsky, Holterdorf and Shostakovich, as well as the great classical concerts: u. a. Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Brahms. In the 80s he also made a concert tour as a soloist through Poland, where he performed the Schumann concert with the Polish Philharmonic z. B. performed in Danzig with Klaus Bernbacher. There were also many concerts in the Bremen Cathedral, i. H. in the spiritual context, u. a. with Hans Heinze, Wolfgang Helbich.

The Kupczyk Quartet

The so-called "Kupczyk Quartet", which consisted of members of the Bremen Philharmonic State Orchestra and which was also active internationally, has also existed since 1960: u. a. in Yugoslavia as the only German quartet invited to the Orchid Festival. It also played in Athens, Danzig and Warsaw at the invitation of the Warsaw Chopin Society.

Kupczyk was married to Veronika, a violin and piano teacher, and has a daughter, Nina Kupczyk, who is an opera director and author.

Awards

In 1963 he received the Richard Wagner Medal from Wieland Wagner .

Web links

• "For me there is a melody in every word"
• "The Kupczyk Quartet / Event Bremer Glocke"
• "Program Radio Bremen, page 3. 20.05 Classic: Historical recordings"