Hans Winterberg

Hans (in Czech known as Hanuš) Winterberg (23 March 1901 — 10 March 1991) was a Czech-German composer. Born in Prague, Winterberg began music lessons at the age of nine with the concert pianist Therèse Wallerstein. He went on to study at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Prague (Composition with Fidelio F. Finke, and conducting with Alexander Zemlinsky) and at the Prague Conservatory, where he studied with Alois Hába. Gideon Klein was a fellow pupil during the terms of 1939/1940. Hans Winterberg composed and worked for some time as vocal coach and repetiteur in Brno as well as for a number of other opera houses and ensembles. He married Maria Maschat, a Roman Catholic, on 3 May 1930. The couple were divorced on 2 December 1944 in accordance with the stipulations of the Third Reich Marriage Laws. Owing to his classification as a Jew, he was interned in Theresienstadt Ghetto on 26 January 1945. On 8. May 1945, he was freed and initially returned to Prague.