Hans Gál was born in Brunn am Gebirge near Vienna in 1890 and died in Edinburgh in 1987. The Austrian-British composer studied musicology with Guido Adler at the University of Vienna and won early recognition, not least with the Austrian State Prize for Composition. From 1929 to 1933 he directed the Mainz Conservatory; after the National Socialist seizure of power he was forced out of his post and emigrated to Britain in 1938. In Edinburgh, Gál taught at the university and created an extensive body of work with operas, symphonies, chamber, piano and choral music that carries the Austro-German tradition forward in an idiom of his own.
Hans Gál
Composer / Musicologist
