“Ursula Mamlok, a German-born composer who fled the Nazis and went on to establish an esteemed career in New York, died on Wednesday in Berlin,” writes Margalit Fox in Friday’s (5/6) New York Times. “Her death was announced by Bridge Records, which has released five albums of her work. Ms. Mamlok, who moved back to Berlin 10 years ago, was for decades a fixture of the New York contemporary music scene. A longtime faculty member of the Manhattan School of Music, she was known in particular for her chamber music, piano works and vocal pieces. Her compositions have been performed by … the oboist Heinz Holliger, the pianist Garrick Ohlsson, the San Francisco Symphony, the Daedalus Quartet and the Da Capo Chamber Players…. Her style defied ready categorization…. Critics praised its deliberate, economical spareness; its light, almost pointillist aspect…. In 1940, at 17, Ursula traveled alone to New York to begin her studies” at the Mannes School of Music. “She studied composition with the distinguished conductor George Szell, himself a recent refugee from Hungary.” Mamlok later studied with Ernst Krenek, Stefan Wolpe, Roger Sessions, Ralph Shapey, and Vittorio Giannini. “Ms. Mamlok’s husband [Dwight Mamlok], whom she married in 1947, died in 2005. No immediate family members survive.”
Posted May 9, 2016
