Conductor, Composer, Violinist. He is probably best remembered for his brief tenure on the podium of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. The child of a manufacturer, he studied both violin and composition at the Leipzig Conservatory from an early age, then continued training in Berlin after 1901. Bohnke taught at Berlin's Stern Conservatory for two years and first came to note as violinist of the Bandler and Busch String Quartets. From 1923 until 1926 he served as music director of the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra, then held the same position with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, where he succeeded Oskar Fried, from 1926 until his death in a motor vehicle accident at Pasewalk. Bohnke left behind a number of compositions, mostly chamber works but also including one each of piano and violin concertos. Probably his most significant creation was a "Symphony" finished in 1927 which received a posthumous 1928 premiere by the Berlin State Opera Orchestra under the baton of Erich Kleiber. His body of work was suppressed during the Nazi era due to his wife having been Jewish, then largely forgotten; his son Robert-Alexander Bohnke (1927-2004) was eventually to record the pieces written for piano.
Conductor, Composer, Violinist. He is probably best remembered for his brief tenure on the podium of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra. The child of a manufacturer, he studied both violin and composition at the Leipzig Conservatory from an early age, then continued training in Berlin after 1901. Bohnke taught at Berlin's Stern Conservatory for two years and first came to note as violinist of the Bandler and Busch String Quartets. From 1923 until 1926 he served as music director of the Leipzig Symphony Orchestra, then held the same position with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, where he succeeded Oskar Fried, from 1926 until his death in a motor vehicle accident at Pasewalk. Bohnke left behind a number of compositions, mostly chamber works but also including one each of piano and violin concertos. Probably his most significant creation was a "Symphony" finished in 1927 which received a posthumous 1928 premiere by the Berlin State Opera Orchestra under the baton of Erich Kleiber. His body of work was suppressed during the Nazi era due to his wife having been Jewish, then largely forgotten; his son Robert-Alexander Bohnke (1927-2004) was eventually to record the pieces written for piano.
Bio by: Bob Hufford
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