Würtzler, Aristid von
Würtzler, Aristid von
Würtzler, Aristid von, Hungarian-born American harpist and composer; b. Budapest, Sept. 20, 1930. He attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest (1951-56), where he studied harp with Miklós Rékai and composition with Kodály. He left Hungary during the 1956 uprising and emigrated to the U.S., where he was 1st harpist with the Detroit Sym. Orch. (1957) and the N.Y. Phil. (1958-62). He subsequently served as head of the harp dept. of the Hartt Coll. of Music in Hartford, Conn. (1963-70). In 1970 he accepted teaching positions at N.Y.U. and Hofstra Univ. He founded the N.Y. Harp Ensemble, for which he commissioned works from contemporary composers, including Ligeti, Stockhausen, Hovhaness, Bernstein, Serly, Saygun, and Takemitsu. In 1981 he gave master classes in China, the first of their kind.
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn /Dennis McIntire