Yesterday I participated in a fascinating conference of that title, hosted by the Open Music Academy and Hochschule für Musik und Theater München at Saal X, Gasteig München. The event featured a stunning line-up of artists, lecturers, and legal experts, and I thoroughly enjoyed the exchange of thoughts with colleagues from all over Germany. There were papers by Frédéric Döhl, Friederike von Franqué, and Fabian Rack, as well as an intriguing panel discussion with contributions from Matthias Hornschuh, Ulrich Kaiser, Renate Schmid, and others. I myself had the pleasure of leading a workshop on the possibilities of the platform Open Music Academy and its potential for teaching music theory. Many thanks to all the organizers, in particular Ilka Mestemacher and Shinta Walker from the OMA team!
New Fee Guidelines by TKV Berlin
My association of musicians, Tonkünstlerverband Berlin, has issued a new edition of their fee guidelines for freelance gigs, rehearsals, and teaching without public funding. The recommended fees have been moderately adjusted due to inflation in comparison to the first edition of 2023. Even though these standards might not be attainable immediately or in the near future, they can serve as a point of reference for the value of the work of professionally trained musicians and as a basis for fee negotiations. Freelancers in music and their customers need to be made aware of how fair payment and sufficient remuneration should look like to be able to make a living in the music business. Please feel free to pass on the guidelines and inform your friends and colleagues!
Prevention of abuse of power in German musicology
During the last 15 months I have been involved in a working group for the prevention of abuse of power in German-language musicology. At this year’s conference of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung, we presented a preliminary report of our activities, including a large survey on the relevance of the topic in German music studies that clearly showed the need to take measures of prevention and intervention. My deepest respect and gratitude goes to Ina Knoth, who meticulously compiled most of the report, and to my dear colleagues Cornelia Bartsch, Beate Kraus, and Paolina Aquilino from our highly engaged team. If interested, please find the report and evaluation of the survey here.
Also, we succeeded in recruiting and electing a group of ombudspersons that will appear as trustful representatives of the GfM for potential cases of all kinds of abuse of power. I am glad that Christoph Flamm, Manuel Gervink, Ariane Jeßulat, Sabine Meine, and Josephine Pritz have agreed to take this responsible task. Thanks go also to the GfM board who have carefully accompanied and supported this endeavour.
Upcoming Activities
The winter term at my university in Düsseldorf is about to commence, and I am looking forward to be teaching again after the summer break. Furthermore, there will be some additional activities and travels during the following weeks that promise to be intriguing and mind-broadening: the annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung in Weimar, the annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie in Lübeck, and the final symposium of the Open Music Academy in Munich. I am particularly excited to be involved in actions of gender equality, support of minorities, and an initiative against abuse of power in the music academia, of which I hopefully will be able to share more news and insights soon.
Music by Cosima
Immensely proud of my daughter Cosima who composed an accomplished solo harp piece at the beginning of the year, named Dreaming Willow (Träumende Weide), which was awarded a first prize in the Berlin Jugend musiziert composition competition. Luckily, it is also playable on the piano with a few decent alterations. I now took the opportunity to record the piece and uploaded it to my SoundCloud page. Hope you have at least as much fun listening as I had while learning and performing the music, and if so, please share and leave an appreciative comment.