Editing Kurt Weill (section)

== Family and childhood ==
Weill was born on March 2, 1900,<ref name="NYCcyclopedia">{{Cite enc-nyc|page=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780300055368/page/1252 1252]}}</ref> the third of four children to Albert Weill (1867–1950) and Emma Weill (née Ackermann; 1872–1955). He grew up in a religious [[Jewish]] family in the "Sandvorstadt", the Jewish quarter in [[Dessau]] in [[Province of Saxony|Saxony]], where his father was a [[Hazzan|cantor]].<ref name="nytimesobit">{{cite news|title=Kurt Weill Dead; Composer, Was 50|url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0D1EFD385F177A93C6A9178FD85F448585F9|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|page=28|date=April 4, 1950|access-date=November 5, 2020}}</ref> At the age of twelve, Weill started taking piano lessons and made his first attempts at writing music; his earliest preserved composition was written in 1913 and is titled "''Mi Addir'': Jewish Wedding Song".{{sfn|Hinton|Schebera|2000|p=540}}

In 1915, Weill started taking private lessons with Albert Bing, [[kapellmeister]] at the "Herzogliches Hoftheater zu Dessau", who taught him piano, composition, music theory, and conducting. Weill performed publicly on piano for the first time in 1915, both as an accompanist and soloist. The following years he composed numerous [[lieder]] to the lyrics of poets such as [[Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff|Joseph von Eichendorff]], [[Arno Holz]], and [[Anna Ritter]], as well as a cycle of five songs titled ''Ofrahs Lieder'' to a German translation of a text by [[Yehuda Halevi]].{{sfn|Hinton|Schebera|2000|pp=540–541}}

Weill graduated with an [[Abitur]] from the ''Oberrealschule'' of Dessau in 1918, and enrolled at the [[Berlin University of the Arts|Berliner Hochschule für Musik]] at the age of 18, where he studied composition with [[Engelbert Humperdinck (composer)|Engelbert Humperdinck]],<ref name="nytimesobit" /> [[conducting]] with [[Rudolf Krasselt]], and [[counterpoint]] with [[Friedrich E. Koch]], and also attended philosophy lectures by [[Max Dessoir]] and [[Ernst Cassirer]]. The same year, he wrote his first [[string quartet]] (in B minor).{{sfn|Hinton|Schebera|2000|pp=541}}