Klaus Pringsheim (1883-1972).

  • Profession: Conductor, critic, composer.
  • Residences: Vienna, Tokyo.
  • Relation to Mahler: Assistent Hofopera Vienna.
  • Correspondence with Mahler:
  • Born: 27-07-1883 Munich, Germany.
  • Died: 07-12-1972 Tokyo, Japan. Aged 89.
  • Buried: Kamakura Cemetery in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

Klaus Pringsheim Sr.  was a German-born composer, conductor, music-educator, and the twin brother of Katharina “Katia” Pringsheim, who married Thomas Mann in 1905. Pringsheim was the son of mathematician and artist Alfred Pringsheim and his wife Hedwig Dohm Pringsheim, who was an actress in Berlin before her marriage. His son, Klaus Pringsheim, Jr., attended Bunce Court School, a German-Jewish refugee school in Kent, England during World War II

Klaus Pringsheim, conductor, teacher, music critic and composer, was born in Munich. His father was Alfred Israel Pringsheim (b. 1850). Klaus Pringsheim studied music under Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) in Vienna. In 1931 he left Germany for Japan where he became a professor at the Ueno Academy of Music. From 1941-1946 he directed the Tokyo Chamber Symphony Orchestra. After a brief period in the United States, he returned to Japan in 1951. He was appointed director of the Musashino Academy of Music. He composed an opera as well as music for the piano and chamber music. Pringsheim was the brother-in-law of Thomas Mann (1875-1955) and his fonds contains some letters written by Mann. He died in Tokyo. One of Klaus Pringsheim’s sons, Klaus H. Pringsheim, has published a memoir, Man of the World: Memoirs of Europe, Asia & North America (1930s to 1980s) (1995).

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