Heinz Werner Zimmermann

Heinz Werner Zimmermann studied at Hochschule für Musik Freiburg. The recorded working language is German. Places of work recorded in the authority are Oberursel. Employment is recorded with Hochschule für Kirchenmusik Heidelberg. Distinctions recorded are Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and Rome Prize of the German Academy Villa Massimo.

• Name — Heinz Werner Zimmermann • Born — 11 August 1930 • Birthplace — Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden, Germany • Died — 25 January 2022 • Place of death — Oberursel, Hesse, Germany • Education — * Kirchenmusikalisches Institut Heidelberg • Freiburg Conservatory • Occupation — * Composer • Academic teacher • Organizations — * Kirchenmusikalisches Institut Heidelberg • Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule • Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts • Awards — * Villa Massimo • Honorary doctorate from the Wittenberg University in Springfield

Zimmermann was born in Freiburg im Breisgau and had his first composition instruction from 1946 to 1948 with Julius Weismann. He studied from 1950 to 1954 at the Kirchenmusikalisches Institut Heidelberg (Institute for Church Music) in Heidelberg, with Wolfgang Fortner. After passing his examinations at the Freiburg Conservatory, supervised by Harald Genzmer, he became Fortner's successor in Heidelberg immediately. Here he maintained close contacts with the musicologist Thrasybulos Georgiades, whose rhythm and language studies influenced him the most, along with his occupation with American spirituals and jazz. • Illustration — Memorial plaque for the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule From 1963 to 1976, Zimmermann was director of the Spandauer Kirchenmusikschule (Spandau school of church music) in Spandau, and then from 1975 to 1996 as successor to Kurt Hessenberg as composition teacher at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.

Zimmermann was married to the organist Renate Zimmermann. They lived in Oberursel, where he died on 25 January 2022, at the age of 91.

Zimmermann's best-known works are his sacred motets with plucked double bass, his organ psalms, and his "Prosalieder". One of his chief works is the Missa profana which he created over 15 years, set for a vocal quartet, choir, dixieland jazz band, tape, and large orchestra. Completed in 1980, it was premiered in Minneapolis in 1981. Others are the sacred oratorio The Bible of Spirituals, Te Deum, and Symphonia sacra. His Don-Giovanni-Variationen for orchestra premiered in Frankfurt in 2020.

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