ROMANTICISM: Explore the late George Colerick's fascinating series of articles encroaching on the subjects of melody, romanticism, operetta and humour in music.
VIDEO PODCAST: New Recordings - Find out about Adrian Williams, Andriy Lehki, African Pianism, Heinrich Schütz and Walter Arlen, and meet Stephen Sutton of Divine Art Recordings, conductor Kenneth Woods, composer Graham Williams and others.
VIDEO PODCAST: Women Composers - Our special hour-long illustrated feature on women composers includes contributions from Diana Ambache, Gail Wein, Hilary Tann, Natalie Artemas-Polak and Victoria Bond.
German composer and conductor Gerd Joachim Natschinski was born in Chemnitz on 23 August 1928 and grew up in Dresden, where he studied at the Musikhochschule and privately. He studied with Hanns Eisler and worked for the East German state-controlled Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft, producing more than forty film and TV scores. He was also chief conductor of the Unterhaltungsorchesters des Berliner Rundfunks.
In 1978 he became artistic director of Berlin's Metropol Theatre, but gave up the position after three years to devote his time to composing.
He wrote many musical theatre works and orchestral compositions. His operetta Messeschlager Gisela, his musical Mein Freund Bunbury and his ballet Hoffmanns Erzählungen were all very successful.
Gerd Natschinski lived in Berlin until his death on 4 August 2015, aged eighty-six, in a Berlin hospital.