Gerhard Maasz
Gerhard Maasz was born on 9 February 1906 in Hamburg (Germany). His father was the professional violinist Max Maasz and so Gerhard Maasz learned to play the violin from the age of three. Later he also learned autodidactically to play piano. Gerhard Maasz then studied music at the Bernuth Conservatory in Hamburg under Robert Müller-Hartmann and finished his studies at the conservatory in Leipzig under Stephan Krehl and Paul Graener.
After his studies Gerhard Maasz worked as repetiteur and conductor at orchestras in Osnabrück and Braunschweig. From 1929 to 1936 he was music editor for the NORAG, the institution's predecessor of the now Northern German Broadcasting. He also conducted the in-house broadcasting orchestra and in this position premiered the first transmission of Hindemith's "Mathis der Maler". From 1936 to 1938 Gerhard Maasz was editor for the music department of the Reichsjugendführung of the Nazi regime. In 1938 he became principal conductor of the Württemberg State Orchestra, a position he held until 1944.
After World War II Gerhard Maasz was banned from his musical profession for a few years as a Lesser Offender of the Nazi regime. In 1950 he became again music editor and conductor at the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk, now producing the first operas for television. He quit this position in 1967 and moved to Ronco sopra Ascona in Switzerland. There he focused on the local musical scene, conducting amateur orchestras and choirs and organizing concert events.
In 1983 he founded the Gerhard Maasz Award, a composition award that is granted every two years and still running by the German performance rights institution GEMA.
Gerhard Maasz died on 27 April 1984 in Ronco sopra Ascona (Switzerland).
Kleines Stück für Cello und Klavier
In my possession is the autograph manuscript of the composition "Kleines Stück für Cello und Klavier" (Small piece for cello and piano) by Gerhard Maasz. The manuscript has an inscription that this work was a present for the 70th birthday of Eduard Lassally. I could not find any information about this person nor when the work was composed as the manuscript is undated.
