Wolfram Heicking

Wolfram Heicking was born and grew up in Leipzig. His higher-level studies began in 1946 in the newly liberated city at the University of Music and Theatre (die "Staatliche Hochschule für Musik – Mendelssohn-Akademie", as it was renamed on 1 October 1946). Leipzig had ended up administered as part of the Soviet occupation zone, relaunched in October 1949 as the Soviet-sponsored German Democratic Republic (East Germany) and it was in East Germany that Heicking made his professional career. At the Mendelssohn Academy, he studied piano with Hugo Steurer, music theory with Paul Schenk and composition with Wilhelm Weismann. He remained as a student at the academy till 1951, while undertaking parallel studies in musicology with Walter Serauky at the University of Leipzig. == Career ==

Heicking's professional career began in 1951 with an appointment as an academic assistant at the Institute for Music Education at Berlin University. == Later life and death ==

Heicking later lived as a freelance composer in Kleinmachnow on the southern edge of Berlin. A supportive newspaper report of his 90th birthday noted that he remained in place as the popular chairman of the Berlin Composers' Association, a post in which comrades continued to appreciate his open, thoughtful and undogmatic approach to current problems (genoss er auch... allseits Sympathien wegen seiner offenen, besonnenen, undogmatischen Herangehensweise an bestehende Probleme"). == Evaluation ==

As a university teacher Wolfram Heicking has taught many who later achieved success in their own right as musicians and composers. These include Arnold Fritzsch, Günther Fischer, Barbara Thalheim, Lutz Glandien, Jürgen Ecke and Ralf Petersen. His efforts to build bridges between "serious" and "light" music has, in particular, influenced a younger generation of artists. His song, "Wenn du schläfst, mein Kind" ("If you sleep, my child"), sung by Manfred Krug and accompanied by Günther Fischer, has become an "evergreen" and continues to exemplify Heicking's success in blending different musical approaches. == Film scores (selection) ==

== Awards and honours (selection) ==