Palm, Siegfried
Palm, Siegfried
Palm, Siegfried, noted German cellist, pedagogue, and operatic administrator; b. Barmen, April 25, 1927. He studied cello with his father, a member of the City Orch. in Wuppertal. After playing in the City Orch. in Lübeck (1945–47), he joined the North German Radio Sym. Orch. in Hamburg (1947). He served as a member of the Cologne Radio Sym. Orch. (1962–67); in 1962, joined the faculty of the Cologne Hochschule für Musik; was appointed its director in 1972. From 1977 to 1981 he was Intendant of the Deutsche Opera in West Berlin, while continuing his career as a cellist. From 1981 to 1988 he was president of the ISCM. He traveled widely in Africa and Asia with the purpose of studying native music. He commissioned several modern composers, among them Blacher, Kagel, Keleman, Ligeti, Pen-derecki, Xenakis, and Zimmermann, to write special works which he premiered. He also contributed scholarly treatises on the new techniques of string instruments.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire