Читать книгу The Seventh Cellist - Monika Borth - Страница 3

Rudolf Weinsheimer, born in 1931 in Wiesbaden, received his artistic education during World War II at the School of Fine Arts in Frankfurt (Main) and, starting in 1948, at the Folkwang School in Essen-Werden. By 1954, he had already become a solo cellist at the Northwest-German Philharmonic Orchestra before he became a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1956, a position he held for 40 years. In 1972 he founded the soon to be renowned Ensemble “The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra”, which he led from 1978-1984.

Of particular interest to him has always been to establish and expand the relationship with Waseda University of Tokyo. It was with great enthusiasm that he prepared and organised 15 Waseda Orchestra Tours in Europe and the United States. In 1986 he became Honorary President of the Tokyo Orchestra.

This close relationship has lasted even after his official retirement in 1996, since when he has organised unique cello concerts of more than 1000 cellists in Japan. In 2005, the biggest ever World Cello Congress was held in Kobe with the participation of world-famous solo cellists. Today, Rudolf Weinsheimer lives in Berlin-Zehlendorf, together with his wife, Friedel.

Monika Born is a freelance writer and lives in Berlin. She was born in 1948 near Lake Constance, where her family finally settled after escaping from East Prussia. She grew up in Ravensburg. Having finished her studies in German and English literature and linguistics at the Free University of Berlin she taught at the Berlin-Kolleg for many years. As a lecturer in Creative Writing she put special emphasis on producing short films and theatre projects with her students. She has written poems and short stories for literary magazines. In her novel “Ich geh mit dir auf den Federball”, published in 2018, she draws an emotionally complex portrait of a family during the years after the war and a moving description of young women just shortly before the women’s movement started in the 1970s and 1980s.