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The Austrian pianist and a celebrated professor for piano, Bruno Seidlhofer, studied the organ, cembalo, piano, violoncello and composition with Franz Schmidt in Vienna, but he was also closely associated with the “Wiener Schule” around Arnold Schoenberg, especially with Alban Berg.
In 1938 Bruno Seidlhofer arranged J.S. Bach’s Kunst der Fuge (BWV 1080) for piano à quatre mains. From that year on, until 1980 (more than four decades), he taught the piano (and early on the organ) at the Wiener Musikakademie (now: Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Wien, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna). During part of this period, he also taught at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. In 1943 he was appointed Professor. From 1939 to 1951 he was the leader of the cembalo class there as well. Among his pupils were: Luna Alcalay, Martha Argerich, Raffi Armenian, Sorina Aust-Ioan, Paul Badura-Skoda, Augusto Borromeo, Geir Henning Braaten, Rudolf Buchbinder, Arnaldo Cohen, Jacqueline Divenyi, Cynthia Floyd, Nelson Freire, Hans Graf, Carmen Graf-Adnet, Walter Groppenberger, Friedrich Gulda, Anton Heiller, Claudia Hoca, Alexander Jenner, Jaques Klein, Karin Merle, Hans Petermandl, Verena Pfenninger, Daniel Pollack, Gerhard Rühm, Alphonse Sauer, Maria-Regina Seidlhofer, Lars Sellergren, Oliver Sörensen, Michael Studer, Dieter Weber, Eva Wollmann, and many others.
Bruno Seidlhofer was invited to give master-classes at universities all around the world, e.g. in Brazil, Japan, Scandinavia, Italy. He acted as a jury member of the most important competitions, e.g. in Moscow, Geneva, Vienna and Warsaw.
On his retirement, Bruno Seidlhofer went to live in Anger, a small town in Steiermark. He was married to Maria-Regina Seidlhofer, who acted as assistant in many of his master-classes. At his death, many of his former pupils commemorated his life and work by subscribing to a fund for a new organ in the parish church of Anger, near which he is buried. In 2002 this organ was officially named the "Bruno Seidlhofer-Orgel". |
