Siemens Music Prize

Having celebrated his 80th birthday less than a month ago, Peter Gülke looks back on a career in music spanning more than five decades.

Born in Weimar on April 29, 1934, Gülke has always overcome boundaries. His biography alone is a testament to that fact. After earning a doctorate in musicology, he worked as a principal conductor and Kapellmeister in East German cities including Rudolstadt, Potsdam, Stralsund, Dresden and Weimar. In 1983, he left the Communist state and moved to West Germany, seamlessly continuing his career as municipal music director in Wuppertal and professor at music academies in Darmstadt and Freiburg.

Scholar and conductor

For Gülke, getting to the bottom of a piece of music has always meant exploring it both from scholarly and practical perspectives. As a conductor, he worked through the classics of the repertoire as well as music that people would normally never hear in concert halls because it was considered fragmentary. For example, he was among the first to put Franz Schubert's uncompleted orchestral works on programs.

Gülke also devoted attention to composers beyond the mainstream, conducting in works by Franz Benda, Carl Eberwein and Johann Friedrich Reichardt. Along the way, he authored numerous books, including tomes on medieval music, Mozart's final symphonies, Franz Schubert and Robert Schumann.

Focus on teaching

Passing on musicological and practical knowledge to future generations remains Peter Gülke's central concern. During his time as orchestral director in Dresden's Staatsoper before the collapse of East Germany, he taught at the local music academy and headed a student orchestra. After crossing the border to the West, he worked with musicologist Carl Dahlhaus on his post-doctoral lecturing qualification. He served as a professor of conducting in Freiburg and of musicology in Basel. As a conductor, Gülke has passed on his knowledge in countless holiday courses and workshops.

At the Beethovenfest Bonn, he has repeatedly offered inspiration and support to young musicians from around the country and the world as part of the annual Orchestral Campus initiated by Deutsche Welle. His knowledge, experience and charm have helped Gülke achieve a harmonious working environment among artists from divergent cultures.

Lifelong achievement

Munich's Ernst von Siemens Foundation first conferred its music prize 40 years ago. Now the most significant honor of its kind in Germany, its list of winners reads like a "who's who" of classical music, ranging from composer Benjamin Britten to violinists Yehudi Menuhin and Anne-Sophie Mutter to conductors Herbert von Karajan and Daniel Barenboim.