Artist
Hermann Scherchen
Hermann Scherchen (Berlin, 21 June 1891 – Florence, 12 June 1966) was a German conductor and music educator.
Scherchen received violin lessons as a young boy. From 1907 to 1910 he was a violist in the Blüthner orchestra in Berlin. He laid the foundation for his later career as a conductor largely as a self-taught musician. In 1911 he met Arnold Schönberg, with whom he would collaborate on the premiere of his Pierrot lunaire. It became a formative collaboration for him and together they embarked on a concert tour in 1912.
He went to Riga and was conductor there from 1914 to 1916. In 1917 he experienced the Russian October Revolution as a civilian prisoner of war in a camp in the Urals (he had been captured by the Russians as an enemy alien during a concert in Latvia at the beginning of World War I). The idea of socialism as a blessing for humanity never left Scherchen. In 1918 he translated the workers' song Смело, товарищи, в ногу! (Smelo, towarischtschi, w nogu) into German: Brüder, zur Sonne Brüder, zur Freiheit. After returning to Berlin, in 1923 he founded the Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) and established the music magazine Melos. In the circle of the IGNM he also became acquainted with Karl Amadeus Hartmann. He became the mentor of this young composer. In 1926 he conducted the ensemble for the first time at the Donaueschinger Musiktage, a forum for the promotion of contemporary music.
Scherchen received violin lessons as a young boy. From 1907 to 1910 he was a violist in the Blüthner orchestra in Berlin. He laid the foundation for his later career as a conductor largely as a self-taught musician. In 1911 he met Arnold Schönberg, with whom he would collaborate on the premiere of his Pierrot lunaire. It became a formative collaboration for him and together they embarked on a concert tour in 1912.
He went to Riga and was conductor there from 1914 to 1916. In 1917 he experienced the Russian October Revolution as a civilian prisoner of war in a camp in the Urals (he had been captured by the Russians as an enemy alien during a concert in Latvia at the beginning of World War I). The idea of socialism as a blessing for humanity never left Scherchen. In 1918 he translated the workers' song Смело, товарищи, в ногу! (Smelo, towarischtschi, w nogu) into German: Brüder, zur Sonne Brüder, zur Freiheit. After returning to Berlin, in 1923 he founded the Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) and established the music magazine Melos. In the circle of the IGNM he also became acquainted with Karl Amadeus Hartmann. He became the mentor of this young composer. In 1926 he conducted the ensemble for the first time at the Donaueschinger Musiktage, a forum for the promotion of contemporary music.
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