Güttler, Ludwig
Güttler, Ludwig
Güttler, Ludwig, noted German trumpeter, conductor, and pedagogue; b. Sosa, June 13, 1943. He commenced music studies when he was 5, and began playing the trumpet at 14. After obtaining a degree in architecture, he studied trumpet with Armin Mennel at the Leipzig Hochschule für Musik (1961-65). From 1965 he was solo trumpeter of the Handel Festival Orch. in Halle, and later, of the Dresden Phil. (1969-81). In 1976 he founded the Leipziger Bach-Collegium, in 1978 the Blechblaserensemble Ludwig Guttler, and in 1985 the Virtuosi Saxoniae; made many tours with these groups, appearing as a trumpeter and conductor. In 1972 he joined the faculty of the Dresden Hochschule fur Musik, taking charge of its master classes in wind instruments in 1982; also served as a guest teacher at the Weimar International Music Seminar (from 1977) and in Austria, Japan, and the U.S. Guttler discovered many scores for his instrument in various German archives, libraries, and castles, and made a special effort to bring them before the public. He won renown for his performances of Baroque and Classical works on period instruments. In 1978 he won the National Prize of the German Democratic Republic and in 1989 was awarded the Music Prize of the City of Frankfurt am Main.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire