Wilhelm Keilmann

Wilhelm Martin Keilmann (4 August 1908 – 14 November 1989) was a German pianist, Kapellmeister and composer.

He composed 74 works, founded a chamber orchestra and was lecturer at the Richard-Strauss-Konservatorium München.

Born in Würzburg, Keilmann received his first instructions in violin and piano playing from his father, Ferdinand Keilmann, a music teacher.

He first studied at the Musikschule Aschaffenburg with director Hermann Kundigraber, Heinz Knettel and Valentin Härtl.

After one semester at the Musikhochschule München he changed to the Konservatorium Würzburg, where he studied piano under Professor Heinz Knettel, violin and viola under Willy Schaller and conducting as well as composing under privy councillor Hermann Zilcher.

After a year as Kapellmeister at the Mainz City Theatre he married the violinist Hertha Bulle (10 August 1916) and moved with her in 1939 at the outbreak of war as a music teacher couple to a rural boarding school in Schondorf am Ammersee.

There they both also worked as concert artists and gave private lessons in their instrumental subjects.

Keilmann built up choirs and knew how to inspire the pupils for music.

During this time he composed, among other things, the "Würzburger Bilder" for piano and a series of songs, often with a humorous background.

Wilhelm Keilmann passed the Staatsexamen with distinction in all four subjects on July 13, 1937, and his commissioned work "Hymne an die Schönheit" after Christian Morgenstern for soprano, choir and orchestra (op. 4) was premiered by Tilla Briem and the Munich Philharmonic on July 15, 1937, in Bad Kissingen.

In 1942, the director of the German philharmonic choir, Doctor Bruno Kittel, engaged him in Berlin as choir director and répétiteur.

In 1943 Keilmann gave concerts in German military hospitals with recitals of songs and duets with Tilla Briem (soprano) and Fred Drissen (bass baritone).

In the last year of the war, Keilmann was drafted and ended up being captured by the Americans.

After the war, he first established an important piano class in Aschaffenburg, which was to make a name for itself for a long time.

The "Sonnengesang" for soprano and String orchestra op. 45, the "Elegie et Allegro giocoso" for alto saxophone, the String Quartet op. 61, the "Vollmondnächte" op. 62, "Mainau-Insel im Blütenzauber" op. 63 and the 2nd Cello Sonata op. 65 as well as the Piano Quartet in F sharp minor op. 60.

Later, he followed a call to the Richard Strauss Conservatory (formerly Trapp's Conservatory) in Munich where he taught piano and composition from 1959 to 1975.

As an accomplished piano accompanist, he developed the subject "Prima-Vista", a methodical and stimulating instruction for playing the sheet music, which was translated into English and Japanese by Edition Peters under no. 8065 in Henry Litollf's Verlag / C.F. Peters (Frankfurt, London, New York) and published in two volumes in 1970.

In 1975 Keilmann ended his active teaching activities in Munich and, from his "Haus Harmonie" in Bad Kohlgrub, devoted himself above all to the "Murnauer Kammerorchester", which he founded in 1966 and which has given master concerts every year since 1951 with his wife Hertha Keilmann in the concert hall Haus Harmonie, the church choir Bad Kohlgrub and the composition.

His versatility as a pianist, conductor and composer has been exceptionally appreciated by world-famous personalities such as Elly Ney, Ludwig Hoelscher, Wilhelm Stross, Kieth Engen, Detlef Kraus, Fred Drissen, Oscar C. Yatco, Josef Märkl, Rudolf Metzmacher, Tilla Briem, Lore Fischer, Pamela Coburn and many others.

Many of his most important works were created between 1975 and 1989.

On 14 November 1989 Keilmann died in Brixen aged 85 due to heart failure during a holiday in South Tyrol.

He was laid to rest at the Rochus cemetery in Bad Kohlgrub.