Jean Kurt Forest

Jean Kurt Forest (2 April 19093 March 1975) was a German violinist and violist, Kapellmeister and composer. He began his career as concertmaster in film orchestras conducted by Paul Dessau, then played principal viola in Frankfurt and Hamburg. Drafted to the Wehrmacht in 1942, he defected to the Red Army in 1945 and remained a prisoner of war until 1948. Back in East Berlin, he shaped musical life in the GDR in several positions, before he focused on composition from 1954, composing political songs and operas raising social awareness. Life Born Jean Kurt Forst Further reading * “Forest, Jean Kurt”. In Minister of Intra-German Relations (ed.): SBZ-Biographie. Ein biographisches Nachschlagebuch über die sowjetische Besatzungszone, collated by . Deutscher Bundes-Verlag, Bonn 1964, . * Hans-Joachim Kynaß: Jean Kurt Forest / Kurzbiographie und ausgewählte Werke, in association with the Music Council of the GDR. Association of German Composers and Musicologists, Musikinformationszentrum, Berlin 1967. External links * * Georg Plathe: Interview (interview, in German) in: Siegfried Trzoß: Schlagergeschichte(n) des Ostens, vol. 1. 1945–1965, Berlin 2007 * Jean-Kurt-Forest-Archiv Archives of