Kurt Graunke
Kurt Graunke (September 20, 1915 in Stettin, Germany – June 5, 2005 in Munich) was a German composer and a conductor. He was the founder of an eponymous orchestra that became the Munich Symphony Orchestra. Music critic Dave Hurwitz labelled Graunke "the worst symphonist ever", though he acknowledged that he was exaggerating.
Kurt Graunke
- Born
- 1915 · Szczecin.
- Died
- 2005 · Munich.
- Nationality
- Germany
- Occupation
- conductor · composer
- Honours
- Bavarian Order of Merit · Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany · Bayerischer Poetentaler
- Languages
- German
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Kurt Graunke (September 20, 1915 in Stettin, Germany – June 5, 2005 in Munich) was a German composer and a conductor. He was the founder of an eponymous orchestra that became the Munich Symphony Orchestra. Music critic Dave Hurwitz labelled Graunke "the worst symphonist ever", though he acknowledged that he was exaggerating.
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wikidata · Q108848 · wikipedia · Kurt Graunke
In this article
Life
Life
He studied violin, becoming the second concertmaster at the age of 17 of the local orchestra. In 1934 he began studying violin with Gustav Havemann, composition with Adolf Lessle and Hermann Grabner at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik, but had to withdraw in 1935 for financial reasons. During World War II he studied conducting with Wolfgang Schneiderhan in Vienna. After the war, he moved to Munich where he started the Symphony Orchestra Graunke, conducting it until 1989. It served as a recording orchestra for more than 500 films and television shows. The orchestra became the Munich Symphony Orchestra in 1990. He composed 9 symphonies, a Violin Concerto, a String Quartet, and many short works for orchestra. He reworked the String Quartet of 1974 into a Symphony for Strings, which he then fully orchestrated in 1976, becoming his third symphony. These have all been issued on compact disks by Sedina.
Works
Works
• Symphony No. 1 in E major, The Homeland (1969) • Symphony No. 2 (1972) • Symphony No. 3 (1976) (based on the String Quartet) • Symphony No. 4 (1977) • Symphony No. 5 (1981) • Symphony No. 6 (1981) • Symphony No. 7 (1983) • Symphony No. 8 (1985) • Symphony No. 9 (1996) • Violin Concerto (1959) • String Quartet (1974) • Piano Concerto (1988)
Places
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Places
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Szczecin.
Birth place
Munich.
Death place
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Graunke, Kurt, auf kulturstiftung.org, abgerufen am 4. Dezember 2025
- 2.Arte-Dokumentation: Klang der Erinnerung – Orchesterspuren von München bis Tel Aviv (mit NS-Dokumentationszentrum München vom 23. November 2025)
- 3.Stiftungsbeirat.
- 4.Knaurs Prominentenlexikon 1980. München/Zürich 1979.
- 5.Kurt Graunke gestorben. merkur.de. 2005-06-07.
- 6.Kurt Graunke, auf stadtgeschichte-muenchen.de, abgerufen am 4. Dezember 2025
References
Citations
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reference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 20 August 2026.
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