Wolfram Heicking

Wolfram Heicking (19 May 1927 – 19 August 2023) was a German composer, musicologist and professor at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy in Berlin. He was renowned for his extensive body of work that blended classical music with jazz and pop elements and for his influential role in music education in East Germany.

Early life and education Wolfram Heicking was born and grew up in Leipzig.

Later life and death Heicking later lived as a freelance composer in Kleinmachnow on the southern edge of Berlin. A supportive newspaper report of his 90th birthday noted that he remained in place as the popular chairman of the Berlin Composers' Association, a post in which comrades continued to appreciate his open, thoughtful and undogmatic approach to current problems (genoss er auch... allseits Sympathien wegen seiner offenen, besonnenen, undogmatischen Herangehensweise an bestehende Probleme").

Evaluation As a university teacher Wolfram Heicking has taught many who later achieved success in their own right as musicians and composers. These include Arnold Fritzsch, Günther Fischer, Barbara Thalheim, Lutz Glandien, Jürgen Ecke and Ralf Petersen. His efforts to build bridges between "serious" and "light" music has, in particular, influenced a younger generation of artists. His song, "Wenn du schläfst, mein Kind" ("If you sleep, my child"), sung by Manfred Krug and accompanied by Günther Fischer, has become an "evergreen" and continues to exemplify Heicking's success in blending different musical approaches.

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