Karl Giesskann

Karl Giesskann was born on 2 July 1901 in Austria. He studied music at the Academy of Music in Vienna, where his principal instrument was the violoncello. Although he eventually pursued a professional career in dentistry, completing his medical studies in Vienna in 1926, he remained active as a musician and composer throughout his life.
During the early 1930s Giesskann composed a number of popular songs and dance pieces. Among his published compositions were the tango "Immer kann man nicht treu sein", the foxtrots "Mein Muckili, mein Schnuckili", "Deine Augen sind wie Saphire", "Wenn ein Kadett ein kleines Mädel liebt", credited to Ludwig and Karl Giesskann, and the tango "Eine Nacht hab ich mit dir im Traum verbracht". Several of these compositions appeared in Austrian radio programmes. Giesskann was also registered as a composer with the Austrian collecting society AKM. In 1937 he received first prize at an Austrian amateur film competition for his educational film "Zahnpflege im Kindesalter".
Following the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, Giesskann fled to Great Britain, where he resumed his dental career while continuing his musical activities. In December 1939 he appeared as a cellist in a performance of a piano trio by Dvořák, together with violinist Hans Geiger and pianist Paul Lichtenstern, all three being refugees from Vienna. Giesskann eventually established a successful dental practice in London and became a naturalised British citizen in September 1947.
By the late 1940s Giesskann had also attracted attention as a composer of orchestral music. His Symphonic Variations in D were performed on 20 November 1948 by the London Symphony Orchestra under Walter Goehr at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Contemporary newspapers reported that the composer received an ovation.
In 1951 Giesskann was credited with the music for a London production of Leo Ferrero's comedy Angelica, presented by the International Theatre Group at the New Lindsey Theatre. This is the latest documented musical activity discovered so far. Little is currently known about his subsequent life. His death is reported as having occurred in 1995, although the exact date and place remain to be confirmed.