Round Tables
On the education of music mediators and musicians
Lydia Grün
Lydia Grün is President of the Munich University of Music and Performing Arts. Previously, she taught as a professor of music mediation at the Detmold University of Music and was also the deputy equal opportunity commissioner there. She studied musicology and journalism at Leipzig University, the Humboldt University of Berlin and the Freie Universität Berlin. As an author and publisher her activities have focused on topics of culture mainly for public service broadcasting authorities. From 2000 to 2006 she was a consultant at INIT AG Berlin in the division of political communication for federal authorities, organizations and foundations. From 2007 to 2008 she was a research associate at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg for the chair in music and media, Prof. Susanne Binas-Preisendörfer. From September 2008 to June 2012 she was a consultant for music and Deputy Head of Division for the Ministry for Science and Culture in Lower Saxony and, in addition, from February 2011 managing director of Musikland Niedersachsen. In June 2012, Musikland Niedersachsen was incorporated as a limited non-profit company (gGmbH) by the Foundation Lower Saxony (Stiftung Niedersachsen), and she was full-time manager of the company from that point. As a representative for job-related practice she is member in accreditationcommittees and holds lectures and workshops on the subject of music politics and cultural management at several universities. From 2013 until 2019, she has been managing director of the netzwerk junge ohren (network young ears) in Berlin, Germany. From 2017 to 2021, she served as an expert on the Council for Arts Education.
Sean Gregory
Sean Gregory is a Vice-Principal and Director of Innovation & Engagement at Guildhall School of Music & Drama. He is responsible for developing and delivering a range of innovation, research & knowledge exchange and wider lifelong learning programmes across Guildhall School, and in partnership with the Barbican Centre. Alongside working as a composer, performer and creative producer, he has led collaborative arts projects for all ages and abilities in association with many British and international orchestras, opera companies, theatres, galleries and arts education organisations. Sean has held a number of roles at the Barbican and Guildhall School of Music & Drama, including Director of Creative Learning, Head of the Centre for Creative and Professional Practice and Head of Professional Development. He set up and ran the Guildhall Connect programme which won the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2005 for its pioneering music leadership and creative ensemble activity with young people in East London.
Ulrike Sych
Singer and vocal pedagogue Mag.a art. Ulrike Sych has served as rector of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna since October 2015.
Ulrike Sych studied music education with majors in voice and piano at Salzburg’s Mozarteum University, after which she continued her own vocal training in New York and Italy. She began working at the mdw as a teacher in 1990. In 2007, she broadened her university-level activities by accepting an invitation to also teach at the Anton Bruckner Private University, where she headed the Institute for Voice and Music Theatre until her appointment as mdw vice rector in 2011. Since the very beginning of her professional career, countering discrimination and ensuring equal opportunities have been among Ulrike Sych’s central concerns: she has headed both the mdw’s Working Group on Equal Opportunities and the Bruckner University’s Non-Discrimination Commission as well as been a member and/or chair of various other university representative bodies and commissions. Alongside her university obligations, Ulrike Sych has continued to perform in concert internationally. At the mdw, she was elected Vice Rector of Academic Affairs and the Advancement of Women by the University Board in 2011, and 2014 saw her transfer to the area of Central Resources while also being appointed as the rector’s deputy. Her work today as mdw rector is founded upon the linkage of art, research, and teaching, the ideals of participation and transparency, and a style of communication that strives to be both open and esteeming along with the non-negotiable principle of upholding human dignity and human rights.
What and how can music mediation contribute to tomorrow's society and musical life?
Annemarie Mitterbäck
Annemarie Mitterbäck Freelance dramaturge, music mediator and cultural producer.Conception, dramaturgy & realisation of transcultural music and art projects in diverse social contexts.
In 2017, she founded MusicScapes, a collective dedicated to a contemporary, transcultural music language and the participatory negotiation process of social diversity. MusicScapes opens up participation in new, experimental art and music to a wider audience. www.musicscapes.at
2006-2016 Project leadership/music education at the Berliner Philharmoniker, Jeunesse, Klangforum Wien and since 2022 head of community music/community engagement at the Musiktheatertage Wien.
Cooperations and projects with Zukunft@BPhil/Berlin Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall NYC/ Berlin in Lights Festival, Osterfestspiele Salzburg, Arcana Festival/ regional X, Festival St.Gallen, Wiener Festwochen, Jeunesse, RSO Vienna and Wiener Konzerthaus.
Winner of the YEAH! Young EARopean Award of the netzwerk junge ohren 2011
Dietmar Flosdorf
Dietmar Flosdorf works as viola-player with the “Wiener Kammerorchester” and teaches at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and at the music school Vienna.
With „Musik zum Anfassen“ (“music to touch”) www.musikzumanfassen.at he initiated a special program in music education more than 28 years ago and developed it constantly. Patron of this initiative is Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Under the title “orchestra to touch” Flosdorf coordinates cultural education-programs for the „Wiener Symphoniker“, the Tonkünstler Orchestra and the New Opera House “Theater an der Wien”.
He is engaged in network activities in the field of cultural education and realizes projects with different cooperation-partners like the academy of fine arts Vienna or the privat-university “Konservatorium Wien” again and again. His especially request is to include social disadvantaged groups into his program.
Prizes: „jungen-ohren-preis (2007) and „IRIDA“ - Kulturvermittlung in neuen Kontexten (2009)
Annette Ziegenmeyer
Annette Ziegenmeyer is Professor of Music Education at the University of Music Luebeck where she also directs the Center for Teacher Education. Her main areas of work and research include composition pedagogy (international perspective), community music and music in prisons. Beyond her active participation in music teacher education networks (for example Allianz für Lehrkräftebildung, Schleswig-Holstein; Kompetenzzentrum für musikalische Bildung, Schleswig-Holstein; Bundesverband Musikunterricht e.V., Schleswig-Holstein) she also co-edits the journal Diskussion Musikpädagogik.
Sabine Reiter
Sabine Reiter MBA studied musicology and art history and completed an MBA in general management. Before joining mica - music austria, she worked in cultural management, especially in the field of music theater, and as a journalist for newspapers, cultural magazines and for the Vienna Konzerthaus. Moreover she was involved in concert organization, press relations and research at the Orpheus Trust. In 2009 she was appointed head of mica - music austria. She is a member of the board of IG Freie Theater, of the board of Vera - Vertrauensstelle gegen Belästigung und Gewalt in Kunst, Kultur und Sport, and of the advisory board of the Arnold Schönberg Center.