Gerd Schönfelder (Artistic Director)

Gerd Schönfelder in the Rossendorfer Club in Dresden in 1976

Max Gerd Schönfelder (born April 27, 1936 in Köttewitz ; † October 12, 2000 in Dresden ) was a German musicologist and artistic director .

Life

Schönfelder came from the Eastern Ore Mountains and attended schools in Dohna and Pirna . From 1954 he studied conducting and composition at the Dresden Conservatory , composition with Rudolf Wagner-Régeny and piano with Grete Herwig at the German University of Music Berlin and Musicology and standard Chinese at the Humboldt University in Berlin . From 1958 to 1961 he completed additional studies in music history at Beijing University in China.

After his return to the GDR, he was senior assistant at the universities in Berlin and Leipzig. In 1969 he received his doctorate with a thesis on the Peking Opera "Yue mu ci zi" and its rhythmic and structural shape at the Cultural Studies and German Studies section of the Karl Marx University in Leipzig . In 1972 he received his doctorate B (subject: Investigations into the concept of the new in contemporary music: a contribution to the determination of specific content-related manifestations of non-word-bound music in socialist realism ) at the Philosophical Faculty of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg .

He then moved to the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden as Vice Rector for Teaching and Research, where he became a lecturer and professor. From 1980 to 1984 he was the successor of Siegfried Köhler Rector there . From 1984 to 1990 he was director of the Dresden State Opera . During his tenure, the Semperoper reopened in 1985 . In addition, until his resignation in 1989 he was a member of the executive committee of the Association of Composers and Musicologists of the GDR .

After the fall of the Wall, Schönfelder was exposed as IM "Hans Mai" of the Ministry for State Security . His recruitment took place in 1983.

Awards

1979: Banner of Labor Stage III

Publications (selection)

The music of the Peking Opera . German publishing house for music, Leipzig 1972.
On the theory and practice of music criticism . New Music Publishing House, Berlin 1982.
My years with the Semperoper: secrets about Elektra. Anecdotes and stories . Edited by Elke Therese Schönfelder and Otto Werner Förster , Taurus-Verlag, Leipzig 2002, ISBN 3-9807753-1-3 .

Web links

Literature by and about Gerd Schönfelder in the catalog of the German National Library
Estate of Gerd Schönfelder in the Saxon State Library - State and University Library Dresden
Gerd Schönfelder at Discogs (English)
Gerd Schönfelder , in Internationales Biographisches Archiv 03/1990 of January 8, 1990, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Individual evidence

↑ In memoriam Gerd Schönfelder . In: Joachim Krüger (ed.): Contributions to the history of the relations between the GDR and the PR China: memories and investigations (= Berlin China Studies . 41). Lit, Münster u. a. 2002, ISBN 3-8258-6149-X , pp. 253-257, here: S 253.
↑ Elise Catrain: State affair opera premiere - the reopening of the Semperoper under Stasi control . In: Peter Boeger, Elise Catrain (ed.): Stasi in Dresden. The secret police in the GDR district . The Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the Former German Democratic Republic, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-946572-02-2 , pp. 39–42, here: pp. 41 f.

personal data
SURNAME	Schönfelder, Gerd
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Schönfelder, Max Gerd (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German musicologist and artistic director
DATE OF BIRTH	April 27, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH	Köttewitz
DATE OF DEATH	October 12, 2000
Place of death	Dresden

[1] In memoriam Gerd Schönfelder . In: Joachim Krüger (ed.): Contributions to the history of the relations between the GDR and the PR China: memories and investigations (= Berlin China Studies . 41). Lit, Münster u. a. 2002, ISBN 3-8258-6149-X , pp. 253-257, here: S 253.

[2] Elise Catrain: State affair opera premiere - the reopening of the Semperoper under Stasi control . In: Peter Boeger, Elise Catrain (ed.): Stasi in Dresden. The secret police in the GDR district . The Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the Former German Democratic Republic, Berlin 2016, ISBN 978-3-946572-02-2 , pp. 39–42, here: pp. 41 f.