Hans Ferdinand Redlich (11 February 1903 – 27 November 1968) was an Austrian musicologist, writer, conductor and composer who, due to political disruption by the Nazi Party, lived and worked in Britain from 1939 until his death nearly thirty years later. Redlich's continental years Redlich was born in Vienna, the son of Josef Redlich (1869-1936), then Professor of History at the University of Vienna. He studied piano privately with Paul Weingarten and harmony and counterpoint with Hugo Kauder. He was a student of Carl Orff in Munich after 1921. He was a university student in both cities and studied German literature and musicology. Redlich served as répétiteur for the Berlin-Charlottenburg city opera in 1924–1925 and as opera conductor for the Stadttheater Mainz from 1925 to 1929. From 1929 until 1931, Redlich studied musicology at Frankfurt University where he completed a dissertation on stylistic changes in Claudio Monteverdi's madrigals. From then until 1937, Redlich resided in Mannheim as a composer and writer. His interest in Monteverdi led to his preparation of a performing edition of the 1610 Vespers, based on Gian Francesco Malipiero's pioneering collected edition of Monteverdi's works, published in 1932. Redlich's edition of the Vespers was used for the first full modern performance revival at Zurich in February 1935, and for subsequent performances in New York (1937), Switzerland (mid-1940s), Brussels (1946) and London (on 14 May 1946 at Westminster Central Hall). Due to the political situation he was forced to move back to Vienna in 1937 and, two years later, emigrated to Britain, taking up British nationality in 1947. Life in Britain The 30 years Redlich spent in Britain were perhaps the most fruitful of all. He was involved in the Morley College concerts during and after the war. On 21 May 1948 the first London performance of Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea, was given by the Morley College choir and orchestra in a concert performance, using an edition prepared by Redlich, who played harpsichord accompaniment, directed by Michael Tippett. He lived for many years in Letchworth, and in 1941 founded the Letchworth Choral and Orchestral Society, which he led until 1955; at the same time he gave lectures for the Workers' Educational Association from 1941 to 1943 as well as for the Extra Mural Departments of the Universities of Cambridge and Birmingham from 1942 to 1955. One of his pupils while at Letchworth was the Greek composer Jani Christou.