Mirko Dorner

Mirko Dorner was born in Budapest on 7 March 1921, grew up in Belgrade and died in Essen on 2 May 2004. His training took him from the Belgrade Conservatory to the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome and to Enrico Mainardi, with whom he took his diploma in 1942. After competition successes in Geneva and Vercelli he became principal cellist of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1954 and took up professorships in Berlin and, from 1965, at the Folkwang-Hochschule in Essen. As a composer he also worked for dance theatre; his music for Pina Bausch’s *Im Wind der Zeit* is documented in 1969. He also developed the dismountable travelling cello „Practicello“, joining artistic, pedagogical and instrument-making work.