I will have the pleasure of presenting a paper at this year’s European Music Analysis Conference, taking place during next week, 7–10 September, at Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona. My presentation is titled »Dots, Ovals, and Planes: Harmonic Strategies in Caroline Shaw’s Music for Strings and Vocal Ensembles«, and is scheduled for Wednesday, 9 September, 7 pm. In it, I will be examining pieces such as Entr’acte, Punctum, and Partita for Eight Voices with regard to characteristic chord progressions, sequential structures, and harmonic schemata. The music of the US-American performer and composer has been fascinating me since several years, and I am looking forward to the opportunity of speaking about it in front of an international expert audience. I will present the paper again in German language at the annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie at Halle (Saale) in October.
Candidacy at Landesmusikrat Berlin
Next week I will be running for a board membership in the executive committee of Landesmusikrat Berlin. In this position, I intend to advocate for the interests of freelance musicians, corresponding to my activities in cultural politics and my work at Tonkünstlerverband Berlin. Focal topics will be:
- Self-employed teaching at public and private music schools: fair payment, fee guidelines, legal security, perspectives in the aftermath of a 2022 court decision of the Bundessozialgericht
- Structural aspects of music-educational university studies: questions of qualification, employability, starting and sustaining a career, professional perspectives
Since people from the freelance music business are underrepresented so far on the Landesmusikrat board, I would be pleased if you decided to support my candidacy, given that you are eligible to vote for a member organisation!
Statement of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie
With my colleagues Georg Thoma, Holger Müller-Hartmann, and Hans Aerts from the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie, I authored a statement on occupations and job profiles in the academic teaching of music theory and ear training. The paper ties in with a former GMTH memorandum of 2021, updates the claim for a maximum of 20 % adjunct lecturers compared to 80 % permanent positions, and adds some considerations on staffing policy at music universities in Germany. In particular, a significant increase in long-term employments will be needed in order to meet the current legal situation which will impede the secure assignment of teaching duties to freelancers as of 2028. Accordingly, the share of adjuncts should be reduced at many institutions, and the GMTH calls on the relevant administrations to provide the financial resources needed to implement a sustainable structural change in academic faculties.
» Read the statement here (in German language)
Three First Performances
CANCELLED – Couldn’t be more excited to announce a concert of first performances of my compositions, scheduled for Saturday, June 27, 15:45 pm, as part of the Ensemble! festival taking place at Partika-Saal of Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf. For the premieres of two duo works from the last years, I will be joined by flutist Zhijun Xu and cellist Inés Bueno López, who will perform the pieces Capriccio spirituoso and Begebenheit, and I will also present my recently composed SonaTine for solo piano. There will also be a special treat: my colleague Hubertus Dreyer will conduct an on-stage interview as a framework for the concert. Thanks go also to Tobias Koch for his profound work in organising the festival.
If you happen to be around, I’d be glad to welcome you in the audience. The other parts of the festival will also be worth a visit, of course. See you soon in Düsseldorf!
Seminars on Dora Pejačević and Sonata Theories
The summer term at Robert Schumann Hochschule Düsseldorf has begun, and I am looking forward to my upcoming classes. In addition to the regular undergraduate music theory programme, I will be teaching two seminars that explore intersections between musicology, music analysis, and the study of historical treatises.
The first one focuses on the chamber music of Croatian composer Dora Pejačević in collaboration with pianist Kyra Steckeweh, the violin studio of my colleague Andrej Bielow and other RSH faculty appearing in a lecture series that will also see me presenting on Dora’s piano trio, opus 29. The other one traces back the development of sonata analysis and theories of sonata form throughout the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, starting from Heinrich Christoph Koch‘s rhetorical conception, and ending up delineating contemporary Anglo-American approaches to sonata theory. Both seminars will be held remotely every other werk, which means guest participation is easily possible—let me know in case you would like to join in.