Karel Mengelberg

Karel Mengelberg ( born July 18, 1902 in Utrecht, † July 11, 1984 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch composer, conductor and writer on music.

Mengelberg came from an old family of artists. His uncle was the conductor Willem Mengelberg. His first composition teachers were Berthe Geuer and Pijper. 1923 to 1927 he studied at the Berlin State Academic College of Music with Julius Prüwer Conducting at Leo and Emil Nikolaus von Reznicek Schrattenholz composition and choral conducting with Siegfried Ochs. He also studied with Hermann Scherchen and graduated from the Berlin Institute of Technology 1929-1932 an acoustic study with Karl Willy Wagner.

Besides his studies Mengelberg worked in Berlin as a spectacle musician and choral conductor and created among others for the Universal Edition piano scores. From 1927 to 1930 he was first engagements in Greifswald and Königsberg. Until 1933 he was a consultant to the Reichs- Rundfunk -Gesellschaft and sound engineer at stations in Germany Berlin operates. In 1933 he left for political reasons, Berlin, Barcelona and worked in Kiev, until he returned to the Netherlands in 1938 and settled in Amsterdam. There he worked primarily as a teacher at various conservatories and as a freelance conductor. 1947-1956 he headed the Toonkunstmuziekschool in Amersfoort. In addition, he worked from 1945 to 1972 as a music critic for the daily newspaper Het Vrije people and various journals. From 1938-1962, he was first secretary of the Dutch Society of Composers. Among the orchestras he conducted, included, among other things, the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam and the Utrecht Symphony Orchestra.

Mengelberg has created works for orchestra, chamber music, and various vocal works, as well as drama film and radio music. He won twice (1950 and 1954), the Grand Prize for composition of the city of Amsterdam in 1951 and the Prix Italia for his radio play music.

Mengelberg is the father of the Dutch composer and pianist Misha Mengelberg.