Bertold Hummel studied cello with Atis Teichmanis at the Freiburg University of Music from the winter semester of 1947/48 up to and including the summer semester of 1955. The renowned Latvian cellist also supported Hummel as a composer. He performs the world premiere of his Sonata in F for cello and piano op. 2 in London. For his birthday in 1951, Hummel composed 2 paraphrases on Latvian folk songs for 5 violoncellos op. 59e for his honoured teacher. In 1955, Hummel was on a concert tour in South Africa and wrote to Teichmanis asking for advice about his future. Teichmanis replies:

Biography

Atis Teichmanis was the son of a carpenter. From 1920, he studied at Gabriel Vīker's music school in Liepāja and played in the Brenner Café and in Liepāja's cinemas to earn money. In the years 1925-1930 he was a student at the Latvian Conservatory in Rīga (Alfred Ozoliņš's cello class). He later perfected his skills in Paris with Gérard Hekking and Maurice Eisenberg and in Salzburg with Ludwig Hölscher.

From 1927 to 1928 he was cello concertmaster in the Liepāja Philharmonic Orchestra, which was then conducted by T. Reiter. From 1928, Teichmanis performed in Latvian Radio concerts and was concertmaster of the cellos in the Latvian Radio Orchestra from 1932 to 1944. At the same time, from 1933 he performed together with the pianist Jānis Kepītis and the violinist Voldemārs Rušēvics as a member of the so-called Professor Vītols Trio. The three musicians were graduates of the conservatory and were supervised by its director Jāzep Vītols. From 1940 he was an associate professor at the Latvian Conservatory and played in the Latvian String Quartet.

At the end of 1944, before the Soviet offensive, he fled to Germany. In 1945, together with other musicians who had fled - Arvids Noritis, V. Ruševics and Eduards Vīnerts - he refounded the Latvian String Quartet, with which he performed in various European countries until 1947. He then lived and worked in Freiburg, where he was professor of cello at the Freiburg University of Music. Bertold Hummel was one of his students. As a member of Carl Seemann's piano trio, he toured Italy, Greece, Turkey and India in the early 1940s and 1950s. Two portraits of Teichmanis were painted by Arnolds Mazitis.

His wife Edīte Teichmane (née Vīdzirkste; 21.05.1926 Daugavpilī - 08.06.2016 Freiburg) was the sister of the painter Sigurd Vīdzirkste; she modelled for the paintings "Edīte" (1947) and "Kurzemes Meitene" by Valdemāras Tones. She had five children with Atis Teichmanis: Atis Sigurds (1950-2016), Gunna, Anda, Maruta (*1963) and Juris (*1966), who also became a cellist.

According to the Russian Wikipedia page and www.lmic.lv/lv/muziki/atis-teihmanis-1694 retrieved: 11.09.2023

Literature tip Maruta Lietiņa: Visiting Teichmanns