Felicitas Kukuck facts for kids
Felicitas Kukuck (born November 2, 1914 – died June 4, 2001) was a talented German music teacher and composer. She wrote many different kinds of music, including operas and songs.
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Her Early Life
Felicitas Kukuck was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1914. Her parents really encouraged her artistic side from a young age. They made sure she went to excellent music schools. Some of her teachers were Eduard Zuckmayer for music, Edith Weiss-Mann for piano, and Robert Müller-Hartmann for harmony. Until 1933, she attended the Lichtwark school, which was based on the ideas of Maria Montessori.
A big change happened in her life in 1933 when a difficult political group took power in Germany. Felicitas learned that she had ancestors who were Jewish. This was a time when many people with Jewish heritage faced unfair treatment. She then moved to the "Schule am Meer" (School by the Sea) on Juist Island, which was run by Martin Luserke. She finished her studies there in 1935 at the Odenwald School.
After school, Felicitas studied piano and flute at the Berlin Musikhochschule. In 1937, she passed an exam to become a private music teacher. She also studied composing with Paul Hindemith until he left Germany. Felicitas Kukuck finished her music studies in 1939.
Family and Later Life
Felicitas Kukuck was born with the last name Cohnheim. However, her father changed it to Kestner in 1916. Her parents moved to England, but Felicitas stayed in Germany. In 1939, she married Dietrich Kukuck. A helpful government official protected her real name on her marriage certificate. This allowed her to continue living in Germany during a very difficult time.
In 1945, her home was destroyed during the war. Felicitas Kukuck and her son moved to Hamburg as refugees. Her husband later joined them there. In 1948, she moved with her family to Hamburg-Blankenese. She lived and worked in this area until she passed away in 2001.
Felicitas was a member of several artist groups. These included GEDOK, the Community Work Group of the Association Ecumenical Lyricists and Composers, and the Working Group Music of the Protestant Youth Association (now called STROKE).
Her Musical Works
In 1969, Felicitas Kukuck started a small singing group called the Kammerchor Blankenese. This choir helped perform many of her new musical pieces for the very first time. Some of these works included the church opera The Man Moses (1986) and Ecce Homo (1991). She also wrote cantatas like "De Profundis" (1989), "Burning coals sung on" (1990), and "And it was: Hiroshima." Other cantatas were "Who was Nicholas of Myra?" and "Swords into plowshares" (1995).
Her motets (a type of choral music) included "Death Fugue," "Psalm," "Oh, the crying children night," and "O the Chimneys" (1994). She also composed "It is you, O man," "The Beatitudes," and "Everything has its time" (1995), along with "Ten songs against the war" (1996).
The cantata "And there was Hiroshima: A collage of the beginning and end of creation" was first performed on August 11, 1995. This happened during a peace week in Hamburg. Another cantata, "Who was Nicholas of Myra, how a bishop of his city saved them from famine and war," also premiered in 1995. This was for the 800th anniversary of the Hamburg Church of St. Nikolai. In 1996, she created "Seven Songs" for a female voice and piano. These songs used poems by Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger, a young girl who sadly died in a concentration camp at age eighteen.
Awards and Recognition
In 1989, Felicitas Kukuck received the Biermann Ratjen Medal. This award honored her important contributions to art and culture in Hamburg. In 1994, she was given the Johannes Brahms Medal. This recognized her great work in Hamburg's music scene.
In 2006, a singing group called "Singkreis Felicitas Kukuck" was formed. This group, led by Christoph Leis-Bendorff, focuses on performing Felicitas Kukuck's vocal music.
Even as she grew older, Kukuck continued to compose music almost every day. Her two most famous pieces are the melody for the hymn "Manchmal kennen wir Gottes Willen" (Sometimes We Know God's Will) and the song "Es führt über den Main" (It Goes Over the Main).
Other Important Works
- "Sonata for Flute and Piano," first performed in 1941 in Berlin
- "Annunciation," first performed in 1951
- "The coming kingdom," first performed in 1953 in Hamburg
- "The Servant," first performed in 1959 in Hamburg and Berlin
- "Missa Sancti Archangeli Gabrieli," first performed in 1968 in Hamburg
- "Where are you comfort," first performed in 1974 in Hannover
- "The Conference of the Animals," first performed in 1982 in Hamburg
- "Lamentations of Jeremiah," first performed in 1984 in Hamburg
- "Herod the game," first performed in 1988 in Stockholm and Copenhagen
- "From Mercy," first performed in Hamburg in 1997
