Rebekah Ahrendt appointed Early Music Festival Fellow at Centre for the Humanities

Musicologist Rebekah Ahrendt (Yale University) has been appointed as the Utrecht Early Music Festival Fellow and Scholar-in-Residence at the Centre for the Humanities (CfH). Ahrendt’s work centers on the importance of mobility in the construction of identity. She also plays viola da gamba and is an active performer and recording artist. Her visit to Utrecht on 19-24 January 2016 will also be part of the Utrecht University Lustrum residencies programme at the CfH.

During her stay in Utrecht between 19 and 24 January, Dr Ahrendt will participate in several public and academic activities:

• a public lecture at the Utrecht University Humanities Faculty on 'The Republic of Music: Transposed Lives in Letters' on January 19
• a talk at the City Symposium ‘Cultures of Migration and the City’, jointly organised by the Centre for the Humanities and Residenties in Utrecht programme on January 20
• a colloquium and masterclass with the Musicology research group and Huizinga Institute on January 21-22
• a concert 'Utrecht en de diaspora', hosted by Rebekah Ahrendt herself on January 22, 20:30h at RASA (Pauwstraat 13, Utrecht). Central theme of the evening, which will incorporate a mix of text and music, will be musical migration. 

For latest updates on the programme, see the CfH website and Facebook page.

Interdisciplinary profile

A specialist in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Ahrendt’s work is fundamentally interdisciplinary: her approach integrates perspectives gained from history, sociology, linguistics, anthropology, and performance studies with extensive archival research. Ahrendt’s dissertation (Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 2010-11) studied the transformations of French operatic works in the lands of Huguenot exile, and will form the basis for her second book. Her current project, 'The Republic of Music: Transposed Lives at the Crossroads of Europe, 1669-1713', continues the work of the dissertation by reconsidering the social bases of emerging debates about 'national style' in music. Ahrendt’s interests extend to other periods, genres, and concerns as well. She is particularly interested in the interactions of the contemporary early music scene with popular music studies, especially in the realms of gothic, industrial, and metal. Much of Ahrendt’s most recent work has centered on the roles of music in diplomatic practice.

Festival Fellowship at the CfH

The Fellowship forms part of a larger project in the Centre’s ‘Academic and Civic’ programme, which aims at connecting the University and the city of Utrecht. More specifically, by promoting the arts and culture as crucial factors in constructing a socially sustainable urban and academic environment, the programme also aims to stress the social responsibility of artists, scholars and the media as a shared priority for both our university and the city. Previous incumbents of the Fellowship have included Lorenzo Ghielmi in 2012 and Björn Schmelzer in 2011. In 2016 the fellowship also forms a part of Utrecht University Lustrum Residencies programme, set up to celebrate the 380th lustrum of the University, and is implemented together with the Musicology research group (Utrecht University), Huizinga Institute, Residenties in Utrecht, RASA and the Utrecht Early Music Festival.

Utrecht University Lustrum 2016

This fellowship is also part of the Lustrum Residencies programme, set up to celebrate the 76th Utrecht University Lustrum: 380 Years Bright Minds, Better Future. Together with students, staff, alumni, local and regional partners the university is working together to organize the lustrum program. Create, Connect & Celebrate! 

See more at: www.uu.nl/lustrum