Since summer semester 2024, Prof. Dr. Miriam Akkermann holds the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Professorship for New Music at the Department of Musicology at Freie Universität Berlin. The endowed professorship was awarded by the Music Foundation on the occasion of its 50th anniversary and will be funded for five years with a total of 1.25 million euros. The aim of the professorship is to anchor New Music from the 20th century to the present more firmly in academic discourse, to promote the research on New Music at Freie Universität and to encourage research-based teaching.

The Ernst-von-Siemens Musikstiftungsprofessur

In her combination of musicological, technical and artistic skills and perspectives, Miriam Akkermann represents a highly innovative approach within music research that corresponds to the profile of the endowed professorship. The aims over the next five years are to build bridges between musicology and musical practice, to develop teaching and research projects on key works of new music, to collaborate closely with the ensembles of Berlin's new music scene, and to curate a collaborative and interactive platform on performance traditions of new music and artist residencies at the Department of Musicology.

"The aim is to work at the intersection between research and teaching on new music, and those currently active in musical practice," says Miriam Akkermann. "This is one of my central interests. I am therefore very much looking forward to being able to develop and implement exciting projects in this interdisciplinary environment as part of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Professorship at the Department of Musicology at Freie Universität Berlin."

"This professorship is a huge luck for the newly established Department of Musicology at Freie Universität and for our new Master's degree program in Music, Sound, Performance, which will start this winter semester 2023/2024 in cooperation with Humboldt Universität zu Berlin," says musicologist Prof. Dr. Camilla Bork. "It will allow us to go beyond our existing research focuses and raise our profile even further in the field of sound art and musical performance and offer students a highly attractive program on current debates and practices in the field of new music.

Contact:

•  Freie Universität Berlin, Institut für Theaterwissenschaft, Seminar für Musikwissenschaft, Prof. Dr. Camilla Bork, Tel.:   +49 30 838 62056, E-Mail: camilla.bork@fu-berlin.de
•  Musikwissenschaftliches Seminar
•  Prof. Dr. Miriam Akkermann, E-Mail: miriam.akkermann@fu-berlin.de

 

More infos on the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung you can find here.

Biografie Miriam Akkermann

Miriam Akkermann is a musicologist and sound artist. She is a recognized specialist in the field of new music and technology and researches the history and analysis of new music and sound art with a special focus on the integration of electronic and digital elements (computer music, mixed music, digital musical instruments, music technology) in music as well as the development of musical performance practices under technological conditions and the archiving of music in the change of digital storage media. She is also the research coordinator of the MSCA DN Lullabyte, where she leads a project investigating the effect of music on sleep, with a focus on music. 

Akkermann studied flute and music and new technologies in Bolzano/Italy as well as audio communication and composition in Berlin. She completed her doctorate in musicology at the Berlin University of the Arts in 2014 and habilitated at the University of Bayreuth in 2023. 

Her artistic activities take place in the fields of sound art, contemporary improvisation and composition, her sound installations, electroacoustic music works and electronic live performances have been shown at international festivals.