Harald Genzmer was born in Blumenthal near Bremen on 9 February 1909. In 1928 he began to study at the Berlin Hochschule für Music with Paul Hindemith (composition, until 1934), Rudolf Schmidt (piano), Alfred Richter (clarinet) and Curt Sachs (musicology). From 1934 to 1937 he worked as a repetiteur, later as assistant conductor at the Breslau Opera House. In 1938 he began to teach at the Volksmusikschule Berlin-Neukölln, where also Hindemith had been teaching before. In the 1940’s, he experimented with electronic instruments and devoted himself particularly to the "Trautonium" (an electronic instrument invented by Friedrich Trautwein). Harald Genzmer died on 16 December 2007 in Munich.