Composer
Bigography:
Stefan Wolpe is undoubtedly one of the most interesting figures in the history of music of our time. His music can hardly be assigned to a specific school or direction, it is full of contradictions. The most diverse influences and tendencies can be heard, from jazz to the most complex series techniques.
Born in Berlin in 1902, he studied briefly with Paul Juon and Franz Schreker. Much more important are the impulses he receives from Ferruccio Busoni; Above all, however, he was inspired by visual artists at the Bauhaus in Weimar, where the young Wolpe attended courses with Johannes Itten and Paul Klee, among others, by Dadaists such as Kurt Schwitters or as a member of the November Group, a radical Berlin artists' association, for the Wolpe concerts organizes and performs as a pianist.
In 1933 Wolpe had to leave Berlin to escape from the Nazis. He first exiled to Jerusalem, where he worked from 1934 to 1938 as a teacher at the conservatory and at the same time as a “musical instructor” on the kibbutz. Important meetings with Anton Webern and Hermann Scherchen also took place during the first years of exile, with whom Wolpe conducted short but intensive studies in Vienna and Brussels.
In 1938 he finally emigrated to America, lived in New York and taught at various institutes. He establishes contact with artists from a wide variety of camps, such as the abstract expressionists (such as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko), but also with jazz musicians and colleagues such as Edgard Varèse and John Cage.
The time at Black Mountain College, a progressive art school in the mountains of North Carolina, was artistically particularly fruitful, where he taught from 1952 to 1956 and composed important works. Several trips to Europe followed between 1956 and 1963, with regular visits as a lecturer at the Darmstadt Summer Courses.
The last few years were overshadowed by Parkinson's disease, which was diagnosed in 1963 and caused Wolpe to die in 1972.
Albums:
