Michael Thomas Mann (April 21, 1919 – January 1, 1977) was a German-born musician and professor of German literature.
Born in Munich, Michael Mann was the youngest and sixth child of writer Thomas Mann and Katia Mann. [1] His older siblings were Erika, Klaus, Golo, Monika and Elisabeth. He was of Jewish descent from his mother's side. [2] Due to his being the grandson of Júlia da Silva Bruhns, he was also of Portuguese-Indigenous Brazilian partial descent. [3]
He studied viola and violin in Zürich, Paris and New York City.[ citation needed]
He was a viola player in the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra from 1942 to 1947 as well as being a solo viola player. [1] [4] Accompanied by pianist Yaltah Menuhin, he made a concert tour in 1951 and recorded the 1948 Viola Sonata by Ernst Krenek. [5] He was forced to give up professional music due to a neuropathy.[ citation needed]
Mann gained a master's degree in musicology from Duquesne University and a PhD in German literature from Harvard before joining the German faculty at the University of California, Berkeley in 1961. [1] [4]
Mann published a number of books on musicology, short stories, an opera libretto and journal articles. Subjects of his publications included Goethe, Heinrich Heine, Schiller, Schubart and his father's works. [1] [4]
He was married to Gret and they had two sons, Fridolin "Frido" Mann (born 1940) and Toni as well as an adopted daughter, Rhau. [1] [6]
He died in Orinda, California on 1 January 1977. [4] There is a stone with his name on it on his parents' grave in Kilchberg, Switzerland.
Deutsche Grammophon. Recorded in Hanover, Germany
Reissue: Johanna Martzy/Michael Mann: Complete Deutsche Grammophon recordings. Deutsche Grammophon/eloquence 484 3299 (2021)