Walther Gruner

Walther Gruner (born Grünbaum or Grunebaum) b.1905 Frankfurt am Main of Jewish parents, d.1979 London was a singing teacher and baritone singer who taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He arrived in England in the mid to late 1930s having left Germany because the Nazis were in power. He became a naturalised British citizen in 1946 [Source: London Gazette 26 Nov 1946].

His students included baritones Geraint Evans and Benjamin Luxon, and sopranos Jill Gomez and Patricia Rozario.

After his death, an annual song prize was founded in his name - The Walther Gruner Lieder Prize. The first winner was Olaf Bär. This competition is no longer held.

His cousin was English-born soprano Nora Gruhn. Her father, pianist and conductor Hermann Grunebaum, had been Chorus Master at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden from 1907 to 1933.

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