Alois Kottmann


Alois Kottmann is a German violinist, music pedagogue, university professor and patron.

Background

Alois Kottmann was raised as one of three children of a silversmith. His mother was very much interested in music so she made every possible effort for a musical education of her children. His highschool music teacher stimulated him to play the violin so he started with private violin courses. His teacher was Marie-Louise Graef-Mönch, the assistant of Alma Moodie, who taught him in the tradition of Carl Flesch. After graduation he still got these courses and also some in the home of the Hölscher family where he befriended with Gert Hölscher who especially cultivated his musical efforts. There he met the pianist Günter Ludwig. At Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts he studied with Marie-Louise Graef-Mönch, his former private violin teacher.
During a university competition in Hamburg, Kottmann was awarded. After his concerto exam he initially was employed as violin teacher at Odenwaldschule. From 1958 Kottmann was professor at renowned Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. Later he was also employed as violin teacher at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts, at Goethe University Frankfurt, and at the University of Mainz. From 1977 to 1979 he was acting director of Hoch Conservatory Frankfurt.
His dedication to substantial music and its repetition is significantly based on university teachers he met during his own education as of Walther Davisson, Kurt Hessenberg, Gustav Lenzewski, August Leopolder, and Helmut Walcha as well as encounters with members of the Bethmann family, Anton Biersack, Reinhold Finkbeiner, Erich Flinsch, Karl Freitag, Karlheinz Ludwig Funk, Ludwig Hölscher, Richard Rudolf Klein, Dieter Lindemann, Otmar Mácha, Thomas Magyar, Yehudi Menuhin, Ginette Neveu, Elly Ney, Váša Příhoda, Max Rostal, Gerhard Taschner, Rüdiger Volhard, Bruno Vondenhoff, Karl Weiß, and Friedrich Zipp.
"Music is no aid for self-portrayal but instead a medium of communication among people."
– Prof. h. c. Alois Kottmann

Kottman formed artistic partnerships with Albert Mangelsdorff, Karl Freitag, Agnes Giebel, Peter-Lukas Graf, Ingo Goritzki, Rainer Hoffmann, Alois Ickstadt, Maria Jäger-Jung, Marietta Krutisch, Günter Ludwig, Gisela Sott, and Heinz Teuchert.
Alois Kottmann was especially committed to fight for the continuity of Hoch Conservatory which was under discussion to amalgamate several times. He is still involved in regional support of musical culture in the Rhine-Main area, of international young talents, of composers from Frankfurt, and the Frankfurt-based violin tradition of Carl Flesch. He is strictly dedicated to humanity and a brisk artistic and social exchange on international basis. His dedication to these topics and human qualities is still active.

Lectureship

With Hessischer Rundfunk and Norddeutscher Rundfunk has been formed a long-term cooperation through concerted archive recordings of a multiplicity of violin solo works. Recordings were also produced with Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor, Radio Diffusion Paris, Schweizer Radio DRS, and the British Broadcasting Corporation, as well as takeovers for Czechoslovakian Broadcasting Corporation.
In cooperation with Figuralchor Frankfurt directed by Alois Ickstadt, several radio broadcasts for ARD were created where Collegium Instrumentale Alois Kottmann and Alois Kottmann as soloist participated. In 1985 Kottmann was involved in a TV production of ZDF named Passion und Leidenschaft, also starring Adalbert Kraus and Ernst Gerold Schramm.

Overseas tour

Alois Kottmann gave guest performances with his string ensemble Collegium Instrumentale Alois Kottmann in United Kingdom, the United States, and in Mexico.

Honours