Beate Willma
Born in 1972
Nationality: German
Summary of skills
• Co-creation of productions in theatre and opera in close collaboration with the artists. Co-creation of original work in serious musical theatre.
• Academic research in musicology, publication, organization of conferences.
• Teaching: Development of courses with academic, practical and amateur orientation, tailored to the participants’ particular needs. Excellent contact with both amateurs and professionals.
• Choral conductor, choral singer, organist in theatre, church and concert contexts.
• International experience: Cooperation with German, Austrian, British, American, Danish, French, Italian and Spanish institutions and companies, while working for institutions in Germany, Britain and Denmark.
Education
2007 Participant of Veronika Kær’s acting classes
2000-2006 PhD thesis (Historical Musicology), King’s College, London, ‘Music in Ingeborg Bachmann’s poetology 1959/1971’, Supervisor: John Deathridge
1999-2000 MMus (Historical Musicology), King’s College, London, With distinction, Dissertation on Schiller’s concept of the Naïve and the Sentimental in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger, supervisor: John Deathridge
1995-1999 Music (for teaching at Grammar Schools), Stuttgart Music Academy
1993-1996 German (for teaching at Grammar schools), Tübingen University, to Intermesiate Exam
1992 Abitur (A-levels), Grammar School Ulm-Wiblingen, Germany
Scholarships and prizes
2003 King’s College London, Small Grant for the Humanities. Travelling grant for research in the Archivio Luigi Nono, Venice
2000-2003 Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB). British National Scholarship on postgraduate level
1999-2000 Krupp-von-Bohlen-und-Halbach-Stiftung. German National Scholarship for one year of studies abroad
1993-2000 Member of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes. German National Scholarship on undergraduate level
1992 Winner of the “Scheffel Prize” of her school for outstanding performance in German
1990 2nd prize in the Youth Organ Competition, “Jugend Musiziert” in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg
1988 2nd prize in the Youth Organ Competition, “Jugend Musiziert” on regional level
Work experience
Theatre
Production dramaturge at the Royal Danish Opera: The Rape of Lucretia, dir. Veronika Kær (in preparation for 2009),
Don Carlo, dir. Kasper Bech Holten (2007)
Production dramaturge, Director’s Assistant (chorus), Chorus Manager at Gladsaxe Ny Teater Blodbryllup, dir. Veronika Kær (2007/08)
Chorus Assistant at Gladsaxe Ny Teater in Hamlet, dir. Kaspar Rostrup (2006/07)
Consultant at Den Anden Opera (now: PLEX), Copenhagen: Consultant on Den Anden Opera’s new identity (2006)
Dramaturge in opera and concert, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Germany: Responsible for chamber concert ‘artemis-Ensemble’, 14. juli 2002; teamwork on various projects (summer 2002)
Intern in dramaturgy, Staatstheater Stuttgart, Germany: Norma (dir. Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito), incl. programme editing and paid translations for the programme booklet (29 June 2002)
Academic Teaching
University Teacher (part-time), King’s College London, Music Department: ‘Musical Modernism since 1945’ (2003 and 2005)
Teaching Assistant, King’s College London, Music Department: ‘Opera and Reason’, ‘Origins of Musical Modernism’, ‘The Beethoven Myth’ (2002-05)
Teaching Assistant, Tübingen University, German Department: Introduction course (1994-95)
Other teaching
Music classes for children ages 1-6. Development of my own method in Copenhagen (2005-07)
Music teacher for small children at North London Colourstrings (2005)
German Language Coach (chorus) at BBC Proms, Matthäuspassion, cond. Trevor Pinnock (2003) at Aldeburgh and Bath Festivals, cond. James Wood (2002-04)
German Language Coach (soloists) at Holland Park Opera, London, Fidelio, cond. Peter Robinson (2003)
German teacher (“German for musicologists”) at King’s College London (2002-03)
Music teacher in Stuttgart, London and Copenhagen, for all age levels, since 1996
Musical experience
Ensemble singing. Chorister at Lindehøj Kirke, Herlev (since 2008).Specialisation in contemporary music: performances at the BBC Proms, Aldeburgh and Bath Festivals with New London Chamber Choir (James Wood), 2002-2005. Chorister in St. Mary-le-Strand, London, 2001-2005. Ensemble for Contemporary Vocal Music at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart (Angelika Luz), 1998-1999. Kammerchor Stuttgart (Frieder Bernius), 1996–1999
Performances as a soloist (semi-professional level): Songs by Brecht and Weill, Café RETRO, Copenhagen, 2006. Charpentier’s Te Deum (first soprano), London, 2002. Dido and Aeneas (Belinda), semi-staged, Stuttgart, 1999. Die Dreigroschenoper (Penny), staged, Caracas/Venezuela, 1998. Numerous church concerts. Organist at Evangelische Friedenskirche, Stuttgart, Germany (1998-99). Chorus Master at Evangelische Kirche Freiberg/Beihingen, Germany (1997-98)
Lecturing, convening, presenting
Organization of an international conference on ‘The Rape of Lucretia’, planned for the Royal Danish Opera, March 2009.
‘“On the high-voltage current of the present”: Music in Ingeborg Bachmann’s early poetology’. Conference paper in ‘Writing Against War – Writing Against Violence’, Nottingham University, 15 January 2005
‘The Mediated Voice’, King’s College London. Roundtable with musicologists and artists; idea, organization and presentation, 15 March 2003
Annual Graduate Exchange Conference in Musicology, London. Cambridge, King’s College London, Oxford, Royal Holloway; organization and presentation, 2001-2003
‘In dialogue with Henze, Nono, Hartmann: Reflections on music in the writing of Ingeborg Bachmann’. Public lecture at the Oxford Colloquia, 28 May 2002
‘Wagner’s Aesthetics of Myth in Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy’Conference paper for ‘Music and Literature in German Romanticism’, University College Dublin, 12 December 2000
‘Undermining Postmodernism: Olga Neuwirth, Vampyrotheone’ Post-graduate lecture, King’s College London, 18 March 2000
‘Wagnerrezeption in Frankreich 1933-45’. Paper presented at the Sommerakademie der Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, La Rochelle, 12 August 1997
Publications
‘Staten og Kirken’, in: Giuseppe Verdi: Don Carlos [Programme booklet at the Royal Danish Opera], Copenhagen 2007.
‘Two American friendships: Ingeborg Bachmann’s letters to Nicolas Nabokov and Eugene Walter in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin’, in: Gespräche über Ingeborg Bachmann, LiDi Edition, Berlin 2006.
‘“Am Starkstrom Gegenwart”: Postwar musical aesthetics in Ingeborg Bachmann’s Musik und Dichtung’, in: Schreiben gegen Krieg und Gewalt. Ingeborg Bachmann und die deutschsprachige Literatur 1945-1980. (Eds.) Dirk Göttsche, Franziska Meyer, Claudia Gluz, Thomas F. Schneider. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (= Jahrbuch Krieg und Literatur, vol. X: 2004), 35-48
(ed.) Federico García Lorca: Blodbryllup [Programme booklet at Gladsaxe Ny Teater], Copenhagen 2007.
(ed., with Lene Rostrup and Ulla Kallenbach) Federico García Lorca: Blodbryllup [Educational brochure at Gladsaxe Ny Teater], Copenhagen 2007.
Translations
Ana Isabella Fernández Valbuena: ’Et glimt af Bodas de sangre’, in: Federico García Lorca: Blodbryllup [Programme booklet], Copenhagen 2007
David Kimbell, extract from: The Life of Bellini, in: Vincenzo Bellini: Norma [Programme booklet], Stuttgart 2002.
Translation of numerous “Colourstrings” children’s teaching songs from English into German.
Languages
German: mother tongue
English: near-native in speaking and writing
Danish: fluent in speaking and writing
French: good reading skills
Italian: very little
Latin: Latinum
Greek: Graecum
References
Dramaturgy:
Henrik Engelbrecht, Head of Dramaturgy at the Royal Danish Opera, wrote in the LinkedIn database:
“Beate Willma’s work for the Royal Danish Opera has included production dramaturgy for two very different projects (operas by Verdi and Britten), and in both cases she has shown great knowledge of both the musical and theatrical side of opera production today. Her thorough and scholarly approach to research has been greatly appreciated and has added very much to the productions in question.
I can heartily recommend Beate Willma if you are looking for a truly first-rate dramaturge in the operatic field.”
Academic:
Joachim Eberhardt writes in his review of the collection of essays, Die Saite des Schweigens. Ingeborg Bachmann und die Musik (Vienna 2006, ed. Susanne Kogler/Andreas Dorschel):
“Blickt man zusammenfassend auf den ganzen Band, bleibt nur das Fazit: Schade. Da hätte mehr draus werden können. Abschließend möchte ich daher auf einen kürzlich erschienenen Aufsatz zum Thema hinweisen, der ein paar mir neue Erkenntnisse enthält und Thesen vertritt, nämlich Beate Willma: »›Am Starkstrom Gegenwart‹. Postwar musical aesthetics in Ingeborg Bachmann’s ›Musik und Dichtung‹«, erschienen in Krieg und Literatur X (2004), S. 35–48. Willma ordnet Bachmanns Essay in den musikgeschichtlichen Kontext der 1950er Jahre ein: in Stockhausens Ästhetik der seriellen Musik, die Zielsetzungen der Münchner Konzertreihe ›musica viva‹, in Henzes und Nonos Textvertonungen. Willma zeigt dabei auch, wie Bachmann bewusst ihren Blick beschränkt auf bestimmte Typen von Musik, also andere ausschließt. Beispielhaft finde ich an diesem Vorgehen sowohl die Orientierung an der konkreten Zeitgeschichte der Musik als auch an der genauen Lektüre des Essays, die sich eben nicht damit begnügt, ihn mit den bekannten Interviewäußerungen zur Ausdrucksutopie Musik kurzzuschließen. So überraschend und gut begründend hätte ich mir die literaturwissenschaftlichen Beiträge des besprochenen Sammelbandes gewünscht.”
