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(b Meissen, Nov 29, 1892; d Berlin, Feb 24, 1968). German tenor . He studied in Dresden, where he made his début in 1918. Engagements in Dortmund, Brunswick and Leipzig followed; from 1925 to 1931 he was a member of the Staatsoper in Munich, and from 1931 to 1934...

(b Duisburg, Feb 27, 1965). German violinist . He studied at the Folkwang Hochschule, Essen, with Valery Gradov, the Staatliche Hochschule in Berlin with Saschko Gawrillof, and from 1980 with Hermann Krebbers in Amsterdam. He made his début in 1975 playing Mozart's G major Concerto k216, and in 1976 he won the Jugend Musiziert competition. Zimmermann subsequently appeared as a soloist throughout Europe and made his US début in 1984 with the Pittsburgh SO. He has since followed an international solo career, performing with the world's leading orchestras and conductors, and has often played in major festivals. Notable among his many recordings are Tchaikovsky's Concerto and Prokofiev's First Concerto with the Berlin PO conducted by Maazel, Mozart sonatas with Alexander Lonquich and Paganini's 24 Caprices (1985). He plays the ‘Hilton’ Stradivarius of 1691, strung with gut strings, on which he produces a beautiful, pure tone.

(b Freiburg, Aug 11, 1930). German composer. He first received composition tuition from J. Weismann, then studied with Fortner in Heidelberg (1950–54). After taking examinations to teach composition in Freiburg he became lecturer and Fortner's successor at the Kirchenmusikalisches Institut Heidelberg. Zimmermann's proximity to one of the most important Protestant theological faculties, together with the cultivation of church music in Heidelberg, directed his attention to biblical texts, above all psalms, and he began to examine the legacy of the movement to renew church music. In 1963 he was appointed director of the Berliner Kirchenmusikschule in Spandau. His awards include a scholarship for the Villa Massimo, Rome (1965–6). In 1967 he received an honorary doctorate from Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio. He taught in the USA, from 1967, and at New College, Oxford (1969). From 1975 to 1996 he taught composition in Frankfurt at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst....

(b Hamburg, c1742; d Brunswick, 1792). German stage designer. He studied painting and architecture in Italy and was in Rome in 1785. After working in Hamburg as a set designer, he served the Duke of Brunswick from 1788 until his death. The few extant designs in his hand are in the Berlin Kunstbibliothek. One, typical of an ...

(b Sternberg, Sept 22, 1851; d Berlin, April 25, 1922). German music publisher and woodwind and brass instrument manufacturer . He had factories in St Petersburg (1876), Moscow (1882) and Riga (1903). The headquarters of the publishing firm was established in Leipzig in 1886, with the actual printing being carried out by Breitkopf & Härtel. Zimmermann became friendly with Balakirev in 1899 and thereafter published all the works of that composer. It may be that it was Zimmermann’s exhortations that encouraged the prolificness of the final decade of Balakirev’s life. He also published the majority of the compositions of Balakirev’s protégé Sergey Lyapunov. Other composers’ music published by him include Medtner, Josef Hofmann, Tausig, A.S. Taneyev and Reinecke. He suffered financial hardship during World War I, but, although he resumed the publication of music by Russian composers in 1919, he was unable to reopen his former Russian factories and shops. In ...

(b Buenos Aires, Aug 1942). Argentine mezzo-soprano. She studied in Buenos Aires, making her début in 1977 at the Teatro Colón as Gluck’s Orpheus, then singing Carmen and Ulrica at the Landestheater, Salzburg. She made her American début at Miami in 1979 as Delilah and her Covent Garden début in 1980 as Cherubino, and sang Rosina at San Francisco (1982). She has sung in Brussels, Naples, Madrid, Bologna, Venice, Geneva, Rome, Lyons and Paris. Her repertory includes Juno (Cavalli’s Ercole amante), Purcell’s Dido, Handel’s Agrippina and Julius Caesar, Dorabella, Idamantes, Zerlina, Sextus, Rosina (Haydn’s La vera costanza), Andromache (Ermione), Fricka and Lola. She created the title role of Piazzolla’s Maria di Buenos Aires (1987, Turcoing). Her beautiful, warm-toned voice, not large but well-projected, is particularly effective in French music: Berlioz’s Marguerite and Dido, and Massenet’s Charlotte, Dulcinée and Thérèse are among her finest roles, while she sang the Old Prioress (...

(b Berne, Aug 7, 1927). Swiss composer and teacher. She studied the piano and music theory in Berne, Lausanne and Paris. Her first composition teacher was Arthur Honegger; she later studied composition and conducting at the Milan Conservatory. She has received many commissions and several works have been recorded for radio and on disc. In 1987 she won second prize at the first international competition for women composers at Unna in Germany. Zimmermann describes her style as ‘atonal, but traditional’, though in her search for new timbres she often employs techniques such as cluster glissandos and quarter-tones that are more commonly associated with a progressive aesthetic.

(selective list)

(b Paris, ?March 19, 1785; d Paris, Oct 29, 1853). French pianist, teacher and composer. The son of a Paris piano maker, he entered the Conservatoire in 1798 to study piano with Boieldieu and harmony with J.-B. Rey and then Catel. In 1800 he won a premier prix for piano (over Kalkbrenner) and in 1802 a premier prix in harmony; later he studied composition with Cherubini. From 1811 he assisted in teaching the piano at the Conservatoire and in 1816 was appointed professor. In 1821 he was selected to succeed A.-F. Eler as professor of counterpoint and fugue, but decided to teach the piano only and the vacant post went to Fétis. He was one of the most influential French keyboard teachers of his time; his pupils included Franck, Alkan, Louis Lacombe, Ambroise Thomas, Bizet and A.-F. Marmontel (who succeeded him in 1848). He also taught Gounod (who became his son-in-law). He retired early from public performance in order to devote himself to teaching and composition. His ...

(b Lahr, Oct 8, 1966). German viola player. Encouraged by her elder siblings, who wanted to play trios, she started playing a small viola at three and at five began learning the piano. From 1979 she studied with Ulrich Koch at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg and from 1986 with Sándor Végh at the Salzburg Mozarteum. She was a prizewinner at international competitions at Geneva in 1982, Paris in 1983 – where she was awarded a new Etienne Vatelot viola – and Budapest in 1984. She then began an outstanding career which has taken her all over the world. Her US début was made in 1993 and in 1995 she gave her first recital in Carnegie Hall, New York. Zimmermann is among today's finest viola virtuosos, with a superb technique and an ample, supple tone; but she is also an artist of rare profundity. She is often heard in concert with the pianist Hartmut Höll or the conductor David Shallon, and other close colleagues are the oboist Heinz Holliger, and violinists Gidon Kremer, Thomas Zehetmair and Frank Peter Zimmermann (not related to her). She gave the first performances of Volker David Kirchner's ...

(b Dresden, Oct 6, 1943). German composer. A member of the Dresden Kreuzchor as a boy, he then attended the Dresden Hochschule für Musik (1962–8), where he studied composition with Thilman, in addition to conducting and singing. His studies were completed by attending Kochan’s masterclasses at the German Academy of Arts in East Berlin (1968–70). Between 1966 and 1968 he received the GDR’s Mendelssohn Scholarship three times, and in 1972 he was awarded the Hanns Eisler Prize of Radio DDR. In 1974 he became founder and director of the Studio Neue Musik of the Dresden Staatsoper and Radio DDR. He became professor of composition at the Dresden Hochschule für Musik in 1982, and directed the Werkstattbühne für Zeitgenössisches Musiktheater in Bonn from 1985 to 1990. In 1986 he was appointed director of the Dresden Centre for Contemporary Music, and in 1988 artistic director of the Musica-Viva-Ensemble, Dresden....

(b Schwabach, Franconia, April 15, 1949). German composer. He studied with Heider in Nuremberg (1968–70) and performed as a pianist in the ars-nova-ensemble. In 1970 he went to Cologne, where he attended courses on new music given by Kagel. Largely self-taught as a composer, he later studied at the Institute of Sonology, Utrecht (1970–73) with Otto Laske, at the Jaap-Kunst ethnological centre, Amsterdam, and at the Alexander Hamilton Institute, USA (1974), where he took a computer studies course. In 1977 he founded the Beginner-Studio in Cologne, where he organized concerts for a number of years. He has lectured at the Darmstadt summer courses (1982–4) and taught at the Royal Conservatory, The Hague, the Karlsruhe Musikhochschule and the Essen Folkwang-schule. In 1993 he was appointed professor of composition at the Berlin Hochschule der Künste. His honours include the Förderpreis of the city of Cologne (...

(b Husum, Holstein, bap. March 8, 1743; d Ludwigslust, June 23, 1801). German instrumentalist and composer , brother of Hardenack Otto Conrad Zinck. His father, also named Bendix Friedrich Zinck, was a town musician in Husum, then cathedral organist in Schleswig (c1783), who wrote Kleine Duette für verschiedene Instrumente and other pieces for wind instruments (according to GerberL). Zinck studied the violin, harpsichord and organ with his father. About 1764 he visited Norway and stayed for a time in Christiania (now Oslo), and in 1767 he became a violinist at the Ludwigslust Hofkapelle of the Duke of Schwerin, where he served until his death. From Ludwigslust he made several concert tours to Dresden, Hamburg (where he studied composition with C.P.E. Bach), Berlin, London and elsewhere, becoming known as a violinist and keyboard player. In 1781 he married the court singer Charlotte Nussbaum (1760–1817)....

(b Husum, Holstein, July 2, 1746; d Copenhagen, Feb 15, 1832). German composer and instrumentalist, brother of Bendix Friedrich Zinck. Like his brother, he was taught several musical instruments and harmony by his father. He continued his studies in Hamburg for ten years and performed in both amateur and public concerts there; he also had the special esteem of his teacher, C.P.E. Bach, under whose direction he performed as a singer in 1768. In 1777 he was recruited as first flautist and chamber musician in the Ludwigslust Hofkapelle of the Duke of Schwerin, where he dedicated himself increasingly to composition, learning from imitation of Classical models and from C.P.E. Bach’s Versuch, Kirnberger’s Kunst des reinen Satzes and Marpurg’s theoretical writings (preface to his Sechs Clavier-Sonaten, 1783). In August 1786 he visited Copenhagen, where he gave a highly successful concert, appearing as a flautist, keyboard player and composer. A year later he was offered the post of ...

(b Konstanz, c1570; d Augsburg, Feb 1622). German composer and instrumentalist. He matriculated at Freiburg University in 1589. For 11 years he was a musician in the service of Cardinal Andreas of Austria at Konstanz. He then moved to Augsburg and worked as a cornettist, organist and composer in the service of the town, the cathedral and the influential Fugger family, Maximilian Fugger being a particular patron of his. In 1614 he applied for the post of Kapellmeister at Augsburg Cathedral, in succession to Bernhard Klingenstein, but Georg Mezler was preferred to him. He was a talented instrumentalist and received a special subsidy for training younger cornett players. He was also highly esteemed at the Munich court, where he frequently performed as a cornettist; he received five payments for compositions, the last being in 1619. He was also connected with the court at Innsbruck, being personally acquainted with Archduke Leopold, a keen patron of music....

(‘The Gypsy Girl’)

Intermezzo in two acts by Rinaldo di Capua ; Paris, Opéra, 19 June 1753.

Nisa (soprano), a gypsy girl, with the connivance of her brother Tagliaborsi (tenor), tricks the old miser Calcante (bass) into parting with his purse and finally into marrying her. Tagliaborsi appears in disguise first as a bear and then as a devil. Calcante has a mute servant, Taddeo, and there is a chorus of gypsies in the finale.

Rinaldo’s lively intermezzo played nearly as large a role in the Querelle des Bouffons as Pergolesi’s La serva padrona. It shows a remarkable variety of resources for a comic opera of this date, including both comic and serious arias, accompanied recitatives and a concluding trio with chorus. Its history is complicated. Six of the arias were taken from Rinaldo’s Il cavalier Mignatta (1751), which employs similar stock characters. The first Paris production and a revision given at Pesaro in ...

(b Naples, April 4, 1752; d Torre del Greco, nr Naples, May 5, 1837). Italian composer and teacher. Left fatherless at the age of seven, Zingarelli was enrolled in the Conservatorio di S Maria di Loreto, where his father had taught singing, and studied with Fenaroli, Speranza, Anfossi and Sacchini. After his graduation in 1772 he became organist and violin teacher at Torre Annunziata. When his first patron the Duchess of Castelpagano gave him her support, however, he began his career as an opera composer, in the theatres of northern Italy, Florence and Rome. His first cantata was performed in 1778 and his first opera, Montezuma, in 1781. Although Haydn did not praise this work as highly as once was supposed, he nevertheless produced it (and later Alsinda) at Eszterháza. Between 1785 and 1803 Zingarelli was principally known as an opera composer.

In 1790 he visited Paris, where his opera ...

[Corujo de Magalhàes Alves, Carlos ]

(b Lisbon, Dec 15, 1948). Portuguese violinist. He studied classical music at a conservatory in Lisbon (c1953–1965) and learned organ at a school of sacred music (1967–8). During the 1960s he was a member of a chamber orchestra at Lisbon University, and in 1967 he founded the group Plexus, which explored a fusion of rock, contemporary classical music, and improvisation. Following a period in the Portuguese Army, in 1975 he studied graphic art and stage design at a theater school in Lisbon, and from 1974 to 1980 he served as the music director for a theater company, Comicos; later he founded an art gallery of the same name in which he displayed his own works. He also wrote for the theater, and in 1988 he collaborated on an Italian production of a trilogy by Franz Kafka.

Zingaro performed free jazz and improvised music throughout Europe with Daunik Lazro (from ...

(b Frankfurt an der Oder, Nov 21, 1904; d Cologne, Nov 16, 1978). German harpist and musicologist . He was the son of Rudolf Ewald Zingel (1876–1944), an organist, choral conductor and composer in Greifswald. From 1923 to 1927 he studied at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Berlin with harp (under Max Saal) as his main subject. He then studied musicology under Max Schneider, with German literature and aesthetics as secondary subjects, at the universities of Berlin, Breslau (1927–8) and Halle (1928–30). He took the doctorate in Halle in 1930 with a dissertation on harp playing from the 16th century to the 18th. Harpist in the Städtische Orchester of Lübeck from 1932, he joined the Städtische Orchester of Halle in 1934 and the Gürzenich Orchestra in Cologne in 1938, where he remained until his retirement in 1969; he also played in the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra (...