Karl Ottomar Treibmann

After receiving the Facultas docendi [de] for the Department of Musicology and Music Education in September 1975, he became university lecturer for music theory and composition at the Department of Musicology and Museum of Musical Instruments of Leipzig University in February 1976. In 1981 he was appointed professor with artistic teaching responsibilities for music theory and composition. From 1981 his professorship was at the Department of Art and Cultural Studies and from 1991 at the Department of Musicology and Musical Instruments Museum of the Faculty of Art, Linguistics and Education. In 1993 he became university lecturer for music education at the Institute for Music Education. He retired from the university service in 2001 when he reached the age limit. His teaching and research areas were music theory, composition, musical analysis and composition in the 20th century.

During his time as a teacher, he was a county music advisor at the department of popular education of the council of the district of Delitzsch. Until 1974 he was a member of the expert commission for music education of the Ministerium für Volksbildung (DDR) [de] and the Ministry for the Higher and Technical Education of the GDR. From 1985 to 1989 he was district chairman of the Verband der Komponisten und Musikwissenschaftler der DDR [de] and from 1990 regional chairman of this body.

Until the end of his life, Treibmann was actively involved in composition. Most of his works were published by Leipzig publishing houses such as Breitkopf & Härtel/Deutscher Verlag für Musik, Ebert Musik Verlag, Hofmeister and Edition Peters. His oeuvre comprises three operas (Der Idiot, Der Preis and Scherz, Satire, Ironie) and seven symphonies as well as chamber music and choral pieces, but also song cycle and instrumental musics. His international breakthrough came in 1973 with the Warsaw Autumn with the 3rd Symphonic Essay. His 5th Symphony was premiered in November 1989 at the Gewandhaus (Leipzig) by the Gewandhausorchester under Kurt Masur. From 1992 to 1994 he wrote motets for the Thomanerchor.

From 1967 to 1970 he studied instrumentation with Fritz Geißler and Carlernst Ortwein at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig and additionally musical composition. During this time, Treibmann realized that his true vocation was to compose. His compositional career took him to Paul Dessau in Berlin in 1974/75, where he began Meisterschüler [de] studies at the Academy of Arts, Berlin.

Treibmann wrote his doctoral dissertation in 1966 (in addition to his then teaching activities) at the Philological Faculty about the composer and music educator Helmut Bräutigam. (1914–1942). The reviewers of the work were Paul Willert and Richard Petzoldt. In 1966 he became scientific assistant in the Artistic Practice Department of the Institute of Musicology of the University of Leipzig [de] and in 1969 he became a lecturer for music theory. From 1971 to 1974 he was head of the Artistic Practice Department within the framework of academic self-administration.

Afterwards he studied music education (with Richard Petzoldt and Hellmuth Christian Wolff) and German literature (with Theodor Frings [de], Hermann August Korff [de] and Hans Mayer) at the Philosophical Faculty of the Karl-Marx-Universität Leipzig from 1954 to 1959. In 1959 he passed the Staatsexamen for the teaching profession at the 12-class secondary school. In 1959/60 Treibmann worked as a music teacher at the Polytechnic Secondary School in Zschortau [de] and from 1960 to 1966 at the Friedensoberschule in Delitzsch.

Karl Ottomar Treibmann (14 January 1936 – 13 February 2017) was a German composer and music educator. From 1981 until his retirement in 2001, he was professor of music theory and Tonsatz [de] at the Leipzig University. He was one of the representatives of modernity in the German Democratic Republic, whose great major works can be found in the areas of opera, symphony and chamber music.

Treibmann, was born in 1936 as the son of an elementary school teacher and a housewife in Raun [de] (Vogtland). He belonged to that generation of composers who experienced the outcome of the Second World War as children. Treibmann lived in his native town (1942–1947) and in Oelsnitz, Vogtland (1947–1954), and in addition to his (grandfather's) lessons, received important impulses from the Oelsnitz cantor and Straube's student Paul Leo.