Wolfgang Fortner

Wolfgang Fortner (1907-1987) was a German composer, conductor and teacher, born in Leipzig. After 1946 he belonged to the Darmstadt new music circle, and he taught composition to a generation of postwar German composers, including Hans Werner Henze, Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Wolfgang Rihm. Fortner studied organ with Karl Straube and composition at the Leipzig Conservatory. He taught at the Institute of Church Music in Heidelberg from 1931, joined the Darmstadt summer courses in 1946, then held professorships in Detmold (from 1954) and Freiburg (1957-1973).