Volkmar Andreae

Volkmar Andreae (5 July 1879 – 18 June 1962) was a Swiss conductor and composer.

Andreae was born in Bern. He received piano instruction as a child and his first lessons in composition with Karl Munzinger. From 1897 to 1900, he studied at the Cologne Conservatory and was a student of Fritz Brun, Franz Wüllner, Isidor Seiss and Friedrich Wilhelm Franke. In 1900 he was a soloist tutor at the Munich Hofoper. In 1902 he took over the leadership of the Mixed Choir of Zurich (Gemischten Chores Zürich), where he remained until 1949, also leading the Stadtsängerverein Winterthur from 1902 to 1914 and the Männerchores Zürich from 1904 to 1914.

From 1906 to 1949 he led the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and from 1914 to 1939 the Conservatory of Zurich. (He was offered the opportunity of succeeding Gustav Mahler as conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1911, but he declined.) Later he worked as freelance composer in Vienna and worked internationally as a conductor (especially with the works of Anton Bruckner). He composed opera, symphony and chamber music, piano, violin, and oboe concertos, piano music, as well as choir music and songs. He died in Zurich.

He is mentioned in Chapter XXI of Thomas Mann's novel Doctor Faustus, where he is cited as conducting the Thirteen Brentano Lieder by the fictional composer Adrian Leverkühn. This fictional concert is said to have taken place in 1922 in the Tonhalle in Zurich.

His grandson is the conductor Marc Andreae, who recorded various of his grandfather's works for the Guild label.

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