Wolf-Dieter Hauschild

Wolf-Dieter Hauschild (6 September 1937 – 18 May 2023) was a German conductor, Choirmaster, artistic director, composer, harpsichordist and university lecturer.

Hauschild was born in 1937 as son of the journalist and dramaturge Franz Hauschild (1907–1996) in Greiz.

His father was co-founder of the "Greizer Musikwochen" and the "Stavenhagen-Wettbewerb".

At the age of five, Hauschild received his first piano lessons, later he took up theatre.

Looking back he remembered Käthe Reichel, Reimar Johannes Baur and Dieter Franke with whom he had played in Greiz.

Early he began composing, among others he wrote a Kinderoper.

From the age of fifteen he composed incidental musics for the theatre of his home town.

As a high school student he also received musical composition lessons from Ottmar Gerster in Leipzig.

Until 1956 he was influenced above all by his teacher Hermann Abendroth, whose "overall personality and authority" he greatly appreciated.

The latter let him work independently in Weimar with the Hochschulorchester and lay choir.

Furthermore, for Hauschild the conductor and cultural politician Helmut Koch was "an artistic and human father figure.

After his studies Hauschild began his artistic career as répétiteur at the Deutsches Nationaltheater and Staatskapelle Weimar.

Also here he composed incidental music for plays.

Soon he was allowed to conduct and rehearse contemporary works.

After two years he was Kapellmeister.

At the age of seventeen he began studying music at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, Weimar, which he completed in 1959 with three Staatsexamen: Musical composition (Ottmar Gerster), conducting (first with Hermann Abendroth, then Gerhard Pflüger) and piano.

For his final thesis he designed a stage version of Mozart's Singspiel Bastien und Bastienne, which was performed at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.

He completed his training in master classes with Hermann Scherchen and Sergiu Celibidache.

In 1963 in Weimar he brought Chodscha Nasreddin's opera Der fröhliche Sünder of his teacher, Ottmar Gerster, for the world premiere.

From 1963 to 1970 Hauschild was musical director at the Kleist Theater and permanent conductor of the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt.

His tasks there extended accordingly to both the Musiktheater and the concert series.

His repertoire included among others Verdi, Mozart and Bizet.

In 1966 he conducted the Kurt Hübenthal's production of Georg Friedrich Handel's opera Serse.

He was also responsible for the world premiere of the symphonic work Schwedter Impulse by Nikolai Badinski as well as the GDR premiere of the opera Der zerbrochene Krug by Zbynik Vostrak and The Rake's Progress by Stravinsky.

Because of its proximity to Berlin, as Hauschild explained, renowned singers such as Reiner Süß could be won for roles.

With the politician Erich Mückenberger, Hauschild at the time advocated a new venue, the future Konzerthalle Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Frankfurt (Oder).

After working for the Berliner Rundfunk from 1971, he was principal conductor of the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Rundfunkchor Leipzig from 1978 to 1985.

In 1971 Hauschild was engaged at the Berliner Rundfunk, where he first conducted the Rundfunkchor Berlin.

From 1973 to 1976 he was representative of Heinz Rögner at the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin.

On the radio he met Helmut Koch again, a "fateful acquaintance", as he would later remember.

So he represented him at the world premiere of Fritz Geißler's Oratorium Schöpfer Mensch.

Further premieres at the MaerzMusik in Berlin were to follow, among others in 1975 Jürgen Wilbrandt's Mein Haus hat Erde und Meer (speaker Horst Westphal) and Ruth Zechlin's Klavierkonzert (with Eva Ander), 1976 Wolfgang Strauß' ''4.

In 1984 he was still awarded the National Prize of the German Democratic Republic, but in 1985 he came to terms with the GDR authorities and moved to the FRG.

In Stuttgart, he was appointed General Music Director and helped the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra there to national recognition.

In 1991 he went to Essen, where he was also opera director of the Aalto Theater from 1992 to 1997.

In the 2000s he returned to the new states of Germany and conducted the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Halle and the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock.

The latter appointed him its honorary conductor in 2004.

Especially with the Berlin and Leipzig radio sound institutions, he brought numerous contemporary works to the world premieres.

He also recorded the complete choral works of Johannes Brahms.

In Essen he could realize the complete Ring by Wagner.