Clemens Schmalstich

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Clemens Carl Otto Schmalstich (8 October 1880, Posen – 15 July 1960, Berlin) was a German composer and conductor. Born on 8 October 1880 in Posen, Clemens Carl-Otto Schmalstich was originally a student attending the Posen Friedrich-Wilhelm Gymnasium on the wishes of his father (who would not hear of his having a serious course of musical education), and then had four semesters in Philosophy at Bonn. In 1902 the young student was able to attend the Königliche Hochschule (Royal High school) for Music at Berlin. There he 'learnt' piano with Professor Ernst Rudorff, but then two years later he transferred as a student of composition to the master-class of Engelbert Humperdinck (best known as the creator of the opera Hänsel and Gretel), who became a fatherly friend to him and arranged for him to obtain a position as conductor at the New Theatre in Berlin, where, among other works, he conducted Humperdinck's music for Shakespeare's The Tempest. Soon after this Schmalstich won a whole range of Academy awards. In 1910 his friend Leo Blech summoned him to the Royal Opera in Berlin, where Schmalstich worked as Kapellmeister (orchestral conductor) until 1919 alongside Blech, Richard Strauss and Karl Muck. After some years of freelance activity on numerous foreign tours, in 1927 he took on the artistic directorship of the Electrola Company in Berlin, and in 1931 was able to follow the call to become a teacher at the State High School Academy. In the same year he joined the Nazi party (

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