Farewell to former rector
University of Music mourns the loss of Prof. Dr. Diethelm Müller-Nilsson
The University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar mourns the loss of its former rector, Prof. Dr. Diethelm Müller-Nilsson. According to his family, the pianist and honorary senator of the university passed away on January 15 at the age of 96. He served as rector of the Weimar Music University from 1980 to 1990.
Under Müller-Nilsson's leadership, the university gained increasing prominence throughout the 1980s. Events such as “Ars omnis” and the New Music Evenings in the Saal Am Palais were recognized far beyond Weimar. He organized the International Music Seminars (now known as the “Weimar Master Classes”) as vibrant, cross-border music festivals.
During his tenure, the Department of Church Music was reopened in March 1990 and the Department of Musicology was reestablished in June 1990. Both departments had been closed in 1955. Equally groundbreaking was the founding of the Studio for New Music. In an interview with the university magazine “Liszt” years ago, Müller-Nilsson said: “The fundamental necessity is to understand that musical art consists of two parts: art and science. And those who do not understand this have only grasped half of it.”
Born in 1929, the artist came to Weimar from Berlin, where he had studied piano and subsequently taught as a lecturer. From 1964, he served as vice-rector and head of the piano department at the Hanns Eisler University of Music. In 1973, the Berlin Music University awarded him a professorship. In the meantime, the pianist had earned a doctorate from Humboldt University in Berlin on the “category of basic motor forms in piano playing.”
[23 January 2026]