Composer Hans Werner Henze dies

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DRESDEN, Germany, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- German composer Hans Werner Henze died Saturday in Dresden, Germany, his publisher, Schott Music, announced. He was 86.

"Hans Werner Henze, one of the most versatile and influential composers of our time has died," the company said in a statement on its website.

The cause of Henze's death was not reported.

Henze wrote 10 symphonies and was particularly known for his music theater work, the BBC reported. He wrote operas and ballets and was committed to political art.

The musician was a schoolboy during the Nazi party's ascent to power in 1933. Though he dutifully studied official curriculum in school, he also frequently performed chamber music for a partly Jewish family, the BBC reported.

Henze was conscripted into the army in 1944. He was captured and held in a British prisoner-of-war camp until the end of World War II.

His father was killed on the Eastern Front.

Those experiences left him with a hatred of fascism, the BBC reported.