Degrees: PhD (National University of Singapore): Southeast Asian Music MA (Passau Universoty): Music Pedagogy, Theology, Psychology LAss / Staatsexamen I Lehramt an Hauptschulen (Teachers' Degree of the Bavarian Ministry of Education): Theology, Music, Didactics of English and German Language and Literature
Additional Professional Certifications: International Baccalaureate Teachers' Training CAT 1-3, EE, MLI International Baccalaureate External Examiner International Schoolleaders' Training Myofascial Release Teachers' Certificate
Current Positions: Lecturer, Athanor Academy for Acting, Passau/Germany: Voice Director and Voice Teacher, Artyfakt SingShui Voice Studio, Singapore / Germany Director and Ethnomusicologist, Center for Traditional Music and Studio für Musikethnologie, Singapore / Germany Supervisor and External Examiner, Raffles College of Music, Singapore
Former Positions: Head of Music, School of the Arts Singapore Adjunct Lecturer, Singapore School of the Arts: Voice and Worldmusic Lecturer (pt), Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music: Music in Global Context Lecturer (pt/online), Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts: German Phonetic PhD Supervisor (external supervisor for Asian music & vocal music), Griffith University, Brisbane PT Lecturer, voice technique for musical theatre, LaSalle College of the Arts, Singapore Director and Lecturer, Center for Worldmusic and Performing Arts Singapore Lecturer (pt), Raffles College of Music: German Phonetic Lecturer (pt), National Institute of Education: Indonesian Music Lecturer (pt), National University of Singapore: Southeast Asian Music President, 'operastudio' chamber opera group, Singapore
Memberships: International Counsil of Traditional Music Bayerischer Landesverein für Heimatpflege
Artist write-up
I studied Opera, Oratorio and Lied at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich and in Vienna with Hanno Blaschke and Helena Laszarska, and privately and in masterclasses with Sabine Schütz, Donald George, Martin Hummel and Paul Esswood. My interest for early liturgical music led me to monasteries in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Spain for courses in Gregorian chant, and Renaissance and Baroque singing. Beside voice performance, I concentrated on vocal therapy and vocal education as well as ethnomusicology. I obtained a teaching degree from the Bavarian Ministry of Education for music, religious sciences and German and English language, a Master of Arts in music (vocal) education with vocal instruction by George Price Brown, psychology and theology from Passau University as well as a PhD in Southeast Asian Music from the National University of Singapore. As music teacher in the International Baccalaureate System, I have obtained all the professional development levels, including a certificate for leadership in international schools. In 2019, I expanded further into vocal health and attended teachers' training and was awarded a certificate by the International Yoga Association in myofascial release. After my studies, I have been a private vocal coach and lecturer for ethnomusicology, Gamelan, and German Vocal music at all five major institutes of music education in Singapore. I taught masterclasses for voice and German song in Singapore, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, and Bangkok. At the Singapore School of the Arts,I was adjunct voice teacher from its founding semester on, I then joined in 2013 as full-time music faculty supervising the voice program and world music and became the Head of Department in 2015 and finished my term in 2018. My performances include solo parts as bass, later alto, in numerous sacred music concerts, e.g.Händel's Messiah, Charpentier´s Te Deum, Buxtehude´s Membra Jesu Nostri, and Vivaldi's Magnificat. I sang Colas in Mozart's Bastien and Bastienne in Germany and Purcell's Fairy Queen under Charles Brett in Spain. As recitalist, I ventured more and more to the extreme ends of music history with medieval chants and German contemporary song. In 2008, I sang a joint recital with Baritone Ralph McDonald with repertoire spanning from 12th century English songs over Caldara Cantatas to songs by Weil&Brecht. In 2013, I performed as one of the two singers in the Asian first performance of Steve Reich's "Drumming" for 10 percussionists and 2 voices, and in 2015, I was singer and celempung player in the new composition project by Dirk Stromberg and Robert Casteel at the Arts Science Museum Singapore. In 2017, I sang with the opera company L'Arietta 'The Bass' in an Asian premiere of Tom Johnson's "The Four Note Opera". My appearances as Gamelan player include the opening of Esplanade in Singapore and regular performances at the Asian Civilisations Museum, and various Sacred Music and Worldmusic festivals in the region with the NUS Singha Nglaras Gamelan group and the NAFA Gamelan Ensemble, which I directed 2005 - 2013. As researcher, I am member of the International Counsil of Traditional Music and the Bayerischer Landesverein für Heimatpflege (Bavaria's Association for curating local culture) and joined conferences and festivals in Europe and Asia reading papers and as panelist, like 2008 in Prague on Malay Music in Singapore, or 2018 in Phetchaburi/Thailand for Creativity in Performing Arts in Southeast Asia. The International Voice Pedagogy conference at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music in Singapore invited me as one of their speakers in 2019. With my recent paper on Worldmusic Education in school curriculum, I appeared at the 45th world conference of the International Council for Traditional Music at Chulalongkorn University in July 2019. It is my honor to be regular adjudicator for the Singapore Showchoir Festival, voice exams at the Conservatory, as well as for the Singapore Youth Festival Cathegory Gamelan by the Ministry of Education. For three years consecutively, I was member of National Arts Council's committee for the selection of the Cultural Medallion winner. I was co-founder and president of the chamberopera group "operastudio", and have been the director of the Center for World Music, which I have taken on as sole director in 2018 under the new name "Center for Traditional Music" and started in the same year "Artyfakt SingShui und Studio für Musikethnologie" in Tüssling, Germany. Already in 2005, I had founded and registered my own voice studio, Artyfakt SingShui, in Singapore, providing voice lessons, vocal coaching, and German Phonetic tuition locally and students internationally via e-learning. From 2018 on, I have been focussing on my voice studio Artyfakt SingShui and Center for Traditional Music, and teaching voice at LaSalle College of the Arts and Singapore School of the Arts, and German vocal music at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. In September 2019, I followed an engagement by the Athanor Academy for Acting in Passau, Germany, where I am lecturer for breathing and singing techniques for actors. Simultaneously, I am also building my private voice studio in Tüssling / Germany, while - due to Covid - I have been running my studio in Singapore online. Since 2022, I am able to spend - beside my lecturer positioning Germany - a third of the year in Asia for workshops, conferences, to teach my private students in Singapore and follow my position as examiner and supervisor for research projects at the Raffles College of Music. Attending lessons and workshops myself and furthering my research activity, I am trying to update my skills and knowledge continuously in Southeast Asian Music and Culture, breathing and voice techniques, and education.