Gunild Keetman

The German educator Gunild Keetman (5 June 1904, Elberfeld – 14 December 1990, Breitbrunn) was the primary originator of the approach to teaching music known as Orff Schulwerk.^[1] Keetman was responsible for most of the actual teaching that was done in the early stages of the movement, perhaps most prominently as the teacher for the radio and television broadcasts that popularized the Schulwerk throughout Germany in the 1950s.

As a young woman, Keetman was unsure of herself and of her calling in life.^[2] In her twenties, however, she came under the ideals and music instruction of Dorothee Günther and Carl Orff at the Güntherschule in Munich, Germany.^[3] This event helped Keetman to truly find herself, and she flourished in this environment. She began to teach at the Güntherschule after being a pupil for many years; however, the school was destroyed by a bombing in Munich when Keetman was in her early 40s. At that point, she and Carl Orff began the development of the Orff Schulwerk approach, for which she is best known today.