Theo Mackeben

[1] From 1916 to 1920 Mackeben studied violin and piano at the Hochschule für Musik Köln, as well as taking lessons from Jules de Westheim.

[2] In the 1930s he composed music for stage plays and over 50 films, including some directed by Max Ophüls, Gustaf Gründgens, and Willy Forst.

After the war, he wrote a piano concerto and a Sinfonische Ballade for cello and orchestra, while also being conductor at the Metropol-Theater.

[1] As a conductor, Mackeben's recordings from the late 1920s through the 1930s include extracts from Dreigroschenoper and Die Dubarry, Scassola's Laendische Suite, Mendelssohn's 'Spring Song', and fantasies from Smetana's Bartered Bride, Zeller's Der Vogelhändler, Verdi's La Traviata, Weill's Mahagonny, and Suppé's Die schöne Galathee, on labels such as Telefunken and Berlin.

[3] A selection of Mackeben's music was recorded by the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne conducted by Emmerich Smola and published in 1995 by Capriccio.