Life

Kaminski was born in Tiengen

Waldshut-Tiengen

Waldshut-Tiengen is a city in southwestern Baden-Württemberg right at the Swiss border. It is the district seat and at the same time the biggest city in Waldshut district and a "middle centre" in the area of the "high centre" Lörrach/Weil am Rhein to whose middle area most towns and communities in...

 in the Schwarzwald, the son of an Old Catholic priest of Jewish parentage. After a short period working in a bank in Offenbach, he moved to Heidelberg

Heidelberg

-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...

, originally to study politics. However, a chance meeting with Martha Warburg changed his mind: she recognised his musical gift and became his patroness. In 1909 he went to Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and began studying music at the Stern Conservatoire, piano with Severin Eisenberger

Severin Eisenberger

Severin Eisenberger |Galicia]] - 1945, New York) was a Polish-born concert pianist and teacher.Eisenberger was a student of Heinrich Ehrlich in Berlin and Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna. He made his debut at the age of 10 in Krakow in a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto no.2 in B-flat...

.

In 1914 he began work as a piano teacher in Benediktbeuern

Benediktbeuern

Benediktbeuern is a municipality in the district of Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen in Bavaria, Germany. The distance between Bichl and Benediktbeuern is only 2 kilometers, or 1.25 miles. The village has about 3,500 residents as of 2004....

. His friends and contemporaries at this time included the painter Emil Nolde

Emil Nolde

Emil Nolde was a German painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and is considered to be one of the great oil painting and watercolour painters of the 20th century. He is known for his vigorous brushwork and expressive choice of colors...

 and also Franz Marc

Franz Marc

Franz Marc was a German painter and printmaker, one of the key figures of the German Expressionist movement...

, whose wife was among his piano students.

During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 Kaminski was also active as a choirmaster and teacher of composition. Later he received a professorship at the Prussian Academy of Arts

Prussian Academy of Arts

The Prussian Academy of Arts was an art school set up in Berlin, Brandenburg, in 1694/1696 by prince-elector Frederick III, in personal union Duke Frederick I of Prussia, and later king in Prussia. It had a decisive influence on art and its development in the German-speaking world throughout its...

 in Berlin, where he became director of a master class in composition (thus treading in the footsteps of Hans Pfitzner

Hans Pfitzner

Hans Erich Pfitzner was a German composer and self-described anti-modernist. His best known work is the post-Romantic opera Palestrina, loosely based on the life of the great sixteenth-century composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina.-Biography:Pfitzner was born in Moscow, Russia, where his...

). His most significant pupils were Carl Orff

Carl Orff

Carl Orff was a 20th-century German composer, best known for his cantata Carmina Burana . In addition to his career as a composer, Orff developed an influential method of music education for children.-Early life:...

, Heinz Schubert und Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling

Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling

Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling was a German composer.The son of a chemical manufacturer, Schwarz-Schilling embarked upon his musical studies in 1922, first in Munich and later in Cologne, with several extended breaks in Italy. From 1927 to 1929, he studied under Heinrich Kaminski, who also taught Carl...

.

His contract was terminated in 1933 with no renewal on the grounds of his "political opinions" and he returned to Benediktbeuern. Various attempts to re-establish his career came to nothing for the same reason. A check of his ancestry - he had been categorised in 1938 as a "half-Jew", and in 1941 declared a "quarter-Jew" - led to an ongoing ban on the performance of his works. He found himself obliged to flee, to France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 among other places.

Between 1939 and 1945 he lost three children, and died himself in 1946 at Ried, Bavaria

Ried, Bavaria

Ried is a municipality in the district of Aichach-Friedberg in Bavaria in Germany....

.

Works

His works includes chorales, concertos, songs, choral sonatas, motets and other choral works, as well as operas.

• Operas:
  • Das Spiel vom König Aphelius ("The Game of King Aphelius")

• Choral sonatas:
  • Psalm 130
  • Der Tag ist hin ("The Day Is Ended")

• Concerto grosso

External links