Max von Schillings

Max von Schillings (April 19, 1868 – July 24, 1933) was a German conductor, composer and theatre director. He was the chief conductor at the Berlin State Opera from 1919 to 1925. Schillings’ opera Mona Lisa (1915) was internationally successful and was performed at the Metropolitan Opera. The composer married Barbara Kemp, the soprano who sang the title role. Before Mona Lisa, Schillings had already written three operas: Ingwelde (1894), Der Pfeifertag (1899) and Der Moloch (1906). Biography Born in Düren, Max von Schillings was brother to the photographer Carl Georg Schillings. He received his first musical training in violin, piano and theory at the same time as his formal education in Bonn. His teachers were Caspar Joseph Brambach and Otto von Königslow. Schillings later studied jurisprudence, philosophy, literature and art history at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. On October 1, 1892, he married his cousin Caroline Josefa Peill in Römlinghoven. They were divorced in 1923, and on June 11, 1923, he married the opera singer Barbara Kemp in Berlin-Charlottenburg. Max Schillings was given a professorship by the Royal Bavarian Ministry of the Interior (Königliches Bayeris