Kurt Thomas

Kurt Georg Hugo Thomas (25 May 1904 – 31 March 1973) was a German composer, conductor and music educator.

Life Thomas was born in Tönning. The family lived from 1910 in Lennep where he attended the from 1913 to 1922. Completing with the Abitur on 21 April 1922, he studied law and music at the Leipzig University. He completed his studies in 1925 and worked as a lecturer of music theory at the Landeskonservatorium der Musik zu Leipzig. He composed a Mass in A minor as his Op. 1, which earned him the Beethoven Prize of the Preußische Akademie der Künste in 1927. Initiated by Karl Straube, he was appointed a teacher of composition and leader of the Kantorei (chorale) of the (Institute of church music). The choir was named "Kurt-Thomas-Kantorei" and toured in Germany. He became a member of the NSDAP in 1940, number 7.463.935.