For his merits in Telemann research, music historian Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hirschmann has been awarded this year’s Telemann Prize of the City of Magdeburg. The prize was presented by the Lord Mayor Simone Borris at a ceremony on March 2, 2025 in the Gesellschaftshaus Magdeburg. The prizewinner was then allowed to sign the Golden Book of the City of Magdeburg. In their speeches, the Lord Mayor, the Minister of Culture of Saxony-Anhalt, Rainer Robra, and the laudator, the Hamburg Germanist Prof. Dr. Bernhard Jahn, paid tribute to Hirschmann’s long-standing research on the genius loci, which contributed significantly to the fact that Telemann’s work is generally recognized today in its cultural and music-historical significance. In addition, as an editor and through numerous CD booklet texts, he has acted as a communicator of Telemann’s oeuvre to a broad public.
Wolfgang Hirschmann has been Professor of Historical Musicology at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg and Editorial Director of the Hallische Händel-Ausgabe since 2007 and President of the International Georg Friedrich Händel Society since 2009. Moreover, he is active in many ways for the Mitteldeutsche Kulturlandschaft, for example as president of the Mitteldeutsche Barockmusik e. V., as spokesman for the Fachbeirat der Stiftung Händel-Haus and as a member of the Presidium of the International Telemann Society e. V. In 2022, he was awarded the Handel Prize of the City of Halle.