Katharina Wolpe

Katharina Petra Wolpe (9 September 1931 – 9 February 2013) was an Austria n born British pianist. Her repertoire included Austrian and German composers, in particular Schumann, Brahms, Arnold Schoenberg and Stefan Wolpe (her father).

Life
Wolpe was born in Grinzing, Vienna in 1931. Her parents were both Jews. They had married in 1927 but by the time Katherina was born they were living separately. Her father Stefan Wolpe was a composer and her mother Ola (née Okuniewska) was a painter born in Czechoslovakia.

With the Anschluss in 1938, she and her mother escaped to Serbia. Her father was long gone having left for Palestine when Katherina was young. Her mother left her in Switzerland while she went to England to become an art teacher to make a living. Katherina found herself a de facto orphan in Berne during the war. By the time she arrived in London she was sixteen and a skilled pianist. She gave her first concert soon after her arrival.

Her repertoire included Austrian and German composers like Haydn, Mozart, Schoenberg and Beethoven but in particular Schumann and Brahms. In 1951 her father wrote "Form for Piano" which he dedicated to his daughter.

In 1991 she spent many hours recording all the music composed by Arnold Schoenberg. In 1997 she recorded an her performance of works by her father including "Piece of Embittered Music" from his Zemach Suite (1939), "Studies, Part 1" (1944–51) and "Form for Piano". It was called "Thinking Twice" after a series of lectures her had given.

Her mother taught but she was a lifelong artist. She was religious and modest and she never exhibited her work. The work was linked to music and the house she and her mother shared would be visited by composers. There she would teach pianists and her mother taught painters.

Wolpe died in Hampstead in 2013.