Alan Bern

Alan Bern is the recipient of the prestigious Weimar Prize in 2016, co-founder and chair of Other Music Academy e.V. and creator and artistic director of Yiddish Summer Weimar and Winter Edition. He is a composer/arranger, pianist, accordionist, educator, cultural activist and philosopher.

In 2017, Bern was honored with the Thuringia Order of Merit.

He is co-founder and director of "Brave Old World," founder and director of "The Other Europeans" and "Diaspora Redux," and he also performs with Bern, Brody & Rodach and with Guy Klucevsek.
His education included classical piano with Paul Badura-Skoda and Leonard Shure, jazz with Karl Berger, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton and others, contemporary music with John Cage, Frederic Rzewski, Joel Hoffman and others, and philosophy and cognitive science with Dan Dennett. He received his master's degree in philosophy and his doctorate in music composition. 

In 2009, he was given the Ruth Lifetime Achievement Award for his work as a musician and educator and achievement with "Brave Old World".

>> www.alanbern.net

Photo: Shendl Copitman

Katrin Füllsack

Mother. Friend. Companion. Catalyzer. Project manager. Decaf coffee drinker. Katrin is responsible for the renovation of the Other Music Academy building and she manages projects in the OMA framework. She represents the Board Chair when he’s away.

Andreas Schmitges

is a musician, anthropologist of music, dance master, cultural manager, arts consultant, workshop leader and researcher – above all in the field of Yiddish musical culture. He studied Jazz Guitar (HfMT Köln) and is a mandolinist as well as author of articles about Yiddish music and dance. He has been part of Yiddish Summer Weimar and the Other Music Academy since the very beginning and feels lucky as a board member of Other Music Academy e.V. to participate in the development process of the OMA.

Valentin Schmehl (Berlin/Weimar)

Valentin is a performer, a dance scholar and an cultural activist. In a university seminar in 2011 he learned about the OMA vision from Alan Bern. He recognized his own future in this vision, and the fascination for everything that comes together in the OMA hasn't let him go since then. He supports the OMA in management and strategy, through projects, grant acquisition and networking. In the OMA he sees the consistent integration of social, artistic and scientific approaches, where otherwise one of these dimensions is often missing.

Katrin Petlusch

Katrin has been devoted to the festival and the Other Music Academy heart and soul since 2002, when, fresh from school, she attended what was then still the Weimar Klezmer Weeks. She served as a founding board member of the Other Music Academy until 2013, after which she assumed various functions within the festival management. She is currently coordinating artist support. She studied art history, psychology and modern history at the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena and works as cultural manager for various cultural associations and projects.

Sabrina Rostek

I’m an even-tempered humanities scholar with creative ambitions and a friend of pragmatic solutions. At home I’m a loving mom and nature lover. For the OMA I handle the paperwork with a patient love of numbers; I passionately plow the topsoil of the organization’s administration with expense receipts. For me, the OMA is a small, swimming, changeable island that I constantly discover anew, a place forpeople and projects that dancingly push the island forward to drop anchor and explore new horizons.

Alma Roggenbuck

Alma Roggenbuck (she/her) studied Jewish Studies in Halle (Saale) and came to the OMA in 2017 as an intern. After some time writing grants and coordinating volunteers, in 2020 she founded her own first project within OMA; Generation J, a creative community for youth and young adults around and about Yiddish. In addition, Alma is involved in the anti-discrimination area of the OMA and is one of the reference persons in matters of discrimination of sexualized violence. In her life outside of the OMA she organizes critical events and gives workshops primarily on discrimination and sex.

Sayumi Yoshida

Sayumi studied visual communication at the Tokyo Designer Gakuin College and on the Arts Hochschule Berlin (today the Arts University). Since her diploma in 1993 she has worked as a freelance artist in diverse projects in the areas of sound- and space installations, as well as as a freelance graphic designer.

She has been responsible for the visual appearance of the Other Music Academy e.V. since 2010. In addition to the websites, she designs everything from posters to T-shirts for Yiddish Summer, for the OMA and for the organization. She has also worked extensively on Yiddish dance, for which she gives workshops in Japan (at the Yiddish Academy Tokyo, the University of Osaka and the Japanese-Jewish Friendship and Study Society in Kobe), Berlin, Leipzig, London and Italy.

Since 2006 she has been a member of the Berlin Dance Ensemble "TarantalaScalza" (Tarantella - traditional southern Italian dance), with whom she has performed at numerous festivals.

Eyal Davidovitch

Multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker, studied at the Sam Spiegel Film School, Jerusalem and graduated from the Marc Rich Honor Program for Humanities and Arts, Tel Aviv University. From the first encounter, Eyal fell in love with The OMA. Since then, he regularly contributed to projects such as Yiddish Summer Weimar and #openpavillon as a filmmaker and designer, alongside documenting the OMA's activities for a feature documentary film. He's a strong believer in the OMA vision and hopes for a world full of OMAs all over. Currently living and dreaming in Berlin.

Andie Welskop

I’m Andie Welskop, Manager of the Zughafen Kulturbahnhof (for 18 years in Erfurt). Since 2013 a member of Other Music Academy e.V. and a friend of OMA and Alan and many others. The friendship began with the song “Paris” in Clueso’s studio. I’m a supporter, I make connections, help with projects, especially YSW and infrastructure, advise and promote YSW and OMA. For me, the OMA is a symbol of my friendship with Alan, and with everyone else I’ve met I’ve met there, a philosophical metalevel, I’ve learned much there and shared my knowledge, experienced much. A place to learn and to argue, of cultures, opinions and minds, that stands for the Other Music Academy, not just a house made of stone, but for the entire idea. I wish for a shared photo exhibition with Yulia Vendeland in the OMA or at YSW.

Diana Matut

Diana is a Yiddish/Jewish Studies scholar and musician. She is particularely interested in Yiddish song cultures of the Renaissance and Baroque and Old-Yiddish literature. In her research, she follows questions such as: was Old Yiddish literature sung and performed? What and how did Jewish women read/sing in Yiddish?

In the past decade, Diana has been teaching and lecturing at Yiddish Summer Weimar and initiated various projects - among them the performance of the only surviving Yiddish opera from Europe in an arrangement by Josh Horowitz (https://triangleorchestra.eu/video/) or the  Kadya Molodovsky project with music by Alan Bern (https://www.1meter60-film.de/film-detail/die-jungen-kadyas/).

Diana is fond of the OMA since this place provides the outer shell for a melange of the most insipring, thought-provoking, controversial, lovable and enraging, sublime and rough ideas, thoughts, performances, endevaours and trials; in short - for creativeness. It is the closest she can get to experiencing, learning and teaching an all-encompassing Academy for Vernacular Yiddish Culture(s). 

Photo: Antje Seeger

Eva-Maria Thiele

Eva-Maria is a student of Near East Studies and Political Science, she loves music, nature, cafés, travel and good books. Since first volunteering for Yiddish Summer Weimar in 2014, its uniquely creative atmosphere that brings together people from many different backgrounds hasn’t let her go. Today, she helps project management in running and administering the festival. She sees the OMA vision being realized in the various OMA projects and hopes that this creative learning community can continue to make a sustainable contribution to society.

Jordan White

I'm an Australian musician living and working in Weimar. I play guitar, compose instrumental and electronic music, and I seem to have a habit of getting jobs which involve me sending a lot of emails or occasionally carrying a lot of stuff.

Hoping to organise gigs at the OMA towards the end of 2018, I got a chance to sit down with Alan, and then a few days later to meet the OMA Vorstand. There it became clear to me that far from just being a room to put on gigs every now and then, the OMA is that rare project which would allow me to combine my life and work as a musician with my desire to be more politically active - and wanted to pay me for it! This kind of project is something I'd been searching for since about 2014, and the amazing multicultural and multigenerational community around the OMA which at first seemed like a nice bonus has quickly become a reason to stay much longer in Weimar than I'd originally been planning. Currently I curate concerts at the OMA, I help out with various aspects of Yiddish Summer (Gender Awareness, sound engineering, carrying things), and I also spend a lot of time there practicing guitar and composing because it's a nice place to hang out. Outside the OMA, I teach guitar at the Volkshochschule in Weimar, I manage the Landesjugendbigband Thüringen, and I try to make a lot of music.

Anna Grochocka

Anna studied Jewish Studies and Applied Lingustics. When she first joined the YSW Festival as a volunteer in the summer of 2012, it was love at first sight and she has been returning ever since. In Weimar, she discovered her passion for cultural management. In 2019 Anna took over the project coordination for the Triangle Orchestra: Yiddish Opera!, the following year she joined the YSW-Team as volunteer coordinator and 2021 she started working as a project manager for the OMA.

Maike & Daniel Gaede

Maike and Daniel Gaede have lived in Weimar since 1995. They’ve been closely involved with the Buchenwald memorial site, and also, thanks to their children, with the Waldorf school. They came across “Agriculture in Solidarity” through “Transition Town Weimar” and in general they’re well connected with the alternative life of the city.
In YSW and the OMA they act somewhat in the background, helping with cleaning, planting and mailing, and helping provide a pavilion, a ladder, material for “Bobe Mayses,” theater extras for “Megile,” and places to sleep after 11 pm.
They regularly rehearse in the OMA with the Band “Munterwegs” and they also play in the Erfurt Klezmer Orchestra (Maike on trombone, Daniel on flute). Both are members of OMA e.V., and Daniel is also on the oversight council.

Sabine Roselt

Sabine is like a multifunctional tool and has already worked in many areas for OMA. With her experience from various events and festivals, her studies in musicology and cultural management and seven years of Yiddish Summer Weimar, she has become indispensable for the OMA.
She currently focuses on finance and controlling and manages everything that happens in the office. When she's not rummaging around in the OMA database or designing spreadsheets, she's playing the cello, practicing her creative hobbies or baking a delicious cake.

Photo: Antonia Ramljak

Vivien Zeller

I’ve played violin since I was 5 years old, and since I was 15 I’ve concentrated exclusively on traditional dance music repertoire and the corresponding dances. My focus is on 17th-20th c. handwritten music notebooks used by dance musicians in German-speaking lands. I research new sources and together with some colleagues we’ve created the YouTube channel “TradTanzMusik” and the website www.tanzmusikarchiv.de
I’m also par of the organizing team for the German traditional music meeting “Klangrauschtreffen.”

Between 2011-2014 I was part of the YSW team leading workshops in instrumental music, especially dance music from North Germany, as well as New Yiddish Dance and the European Balfolk dance movement. My second love is improvisation, and for that reason I’ve been project manager of the OMA Improv Project since 2016, something very dear to my heart.

For me, the OMA is a actively lived philosophical concept that resonates with my own view of living together, art, culture, openness, curiosity, exchange, mutual understanding and critical confrontation. The Improv Project courses are not only music courses, for example, rather, they help us to develop an holistic understanding of our own very individual “musical and human” being, with its fears and strenghths, and ways in and out of crises. Musical development is not possible in this approach without at the same time developing one’s own self. For me, the need for a deep self-understanding is essential for all learning and all positive developments within a human society.

Claas Sandbothe

I'm a dedicated drummer, spoonman and dj. When I first came to Yiddish Summer Weimar as a partisipant in 2012, I was especially intreaged by the passion amongst musicians and within the team. And the energy of the OMA as a vivid epicenter, where cultural exchange is alive and jam sessions are long.
Since 2018 I'm part of the production team and take care of event management and technical stuff.
I now also spread Klezmer music as a drummer and teacher - i.g. with the Klezmer Orchestra Erfurt (KlezWeCane.V.).
Other than that I like driving cargo bikes and occasionally wave the towel.

Seraphina Voigt decided to spend a year volunteering at a cultural organization after completing her finals at school. She saw the OMA as the perfect place to develop her skills and learn about culture in society.

Seraphina mainly supports the team in the office and helps look after the OMA building. At events, she supports the team in setting up, organization and post-event follow-up.

At Yiddish Summer Weimar 2024 she is responsible for the registration and support of the workshop participants. She is excited about the festival and the people she’s going to meet this year!

Lorena Komnick

in 2021/2022 I was an FSJ intern with the OMA. The OMA people, their work and the OMA organization itself inspired me and being part of the team was a lot of fun. That's why I'm happy to continue working with the OMA following my FSJ year.

Alessa Augustin

was a volunteer at OMA e.V. in 2019-20 in the area of culture and education. Her goal was to get to know the different sides of cultural management and to be a supporting member of the OMA-team’s various activities. Her main responsibilites for YSW20 included preparing and realizing the festival, especially through assisting the participants and artists.

From the beginning, the OMA as a place to volunteer inspired her through its unique philosophy and the openness of her colleagues. She is looking forward to sharing this philosophy with other people through projects as well as to experiencing new directions in music and culture.

Alida Lorenz

I'm Alida: traveler, singer and soon-to-be student. I've always found it fascinating to be part of a support team for projects that depend on creative and practical processes in the background. In order to find my own role on such teams I spent 2020/21 at the OMA as a Social Volunteer. Since then, I've often been involved in OMA projects, and since October 2023 I'm doing an internship. I enjoy helping with office work as well as hands-on project realization, especially for everything connected with the projects Altenburg am Meer (Altenburg-by-the-Sea) and Wir am Wasser (We-by-the-Water). The OMA took hold of me and won't let go, thanks to all the different people. the creative learning process and the approach to society, culture and the arts that are all part of it.

I joined the OMA as a European Solidarity Corps volunteer this year. Coming from a background in Cultural Anthropology, I try to always stay curious.

As a student, I had the opportunity to participate in, execute, and write European Erasmus+ projects. Even when I later worked in a corporate environment, the goal of active citizenship never left my mind. I continued to try to make a change through various projects at the companies where I worked, whether in climate change and sustainability or communication mediation between management and employees.

My curiosity led me to the inspiring people of the OMA community and their philosophy. I hope that during my European Solidarity Corps volunteer year, engaging in the world of the OMA will help me direct my career path, but especially grow as a person.

Louise kam im Februar als Freiwillige des Europäischen Solidaritätskorps zur OMA und hat in dieser kurzen Zeit bereits das Wolf GANG Festival mitorganisiert. Aber Vorsicht! Sie ist nicht die Großmutter, die vom Wolf gefressen wird (das Symbol des WG-Festivals) - sie ist voller Energie und Fantasie.
Tanz, Theater und Gesang sind ein Teil ihrer Persönlichkeit, so dass die OMA perfekt zu ihr passt!

Yasmina Budenz

Buchkinder_Weimar

Who am I? Catcher of word framents. Pencil sharpener. Idea souffleuse. Twister of glue stick caps. Cleaner of paint brushes. Book binding fairy. Children’s newspaper maker. Handicrafts lady. Radio report editor. Art – and culture workshop manager. Fighter for participation. Project brainstormer. Source of inspiration. Materials procurer. Treasurer of Gummibears. That’s who I am, and much more, too. Hail to daily multitasking!
The OMA is a multicultural hotspot and idea pool, where all kinds of people find each other, exchange ideas and try to create change. The OMA People teach empowerment, one more reason why the Buchkinder_Weimar has made its home in the OMA. Why not bring together people of all ages? A place, where everyone can learn from everyone – perfect! For us, the OMA is a cultural exchange and a multi-use workbench in one.

Susanne Kurz-Lukas und Fraubaut!

Susanne is the founder of the handicraft company Fraubaut!, a diverse group of young and older craftspeople. Together they developed the “United Summer Construction Site,” which supports social and political groups in their work. This is how Fraubaut! came to be enchanted by the OMA during Yiddish Summer Weimar in 2016. Since 2017 the team has been working in various constellations on the #openpavillon projects. Susanne and the Fraubaut! team are enthusiastic about the OMA vision, such as bringing art and craft together, living empowerment and intercultural work across generations.

Peter Niebling

Although retired, Peter still doesn’t have enough time for his many hobbies. That’s why he takes care of the OMA front garden (even if too seldom and in intensive campaigns). As a former teacher he also gladly take part in projects involving learning in the OMA. He is belongs to a charitable organization dedicated to preserving beat- and rock-music that’s found a secure home in the OMA. During Yiddish Summer he limits himself to simply enjoying the festival. Peter has known the OMA building since his childhood, so there are more than enough reasons for him to feel very good there. Maybe that even slows down the aging process.

Ilana Reynolds

Ilana Reynolds (USA/FR) is specialised in the fields of choreography and performance. She has collaborated as a dance artist with the OMA for the past four years on several socio-cultural, educational and interdisciplinary projects, such as OMA Pavillion and Yiddish Summer. For Ilana, the OMA is a socio-cultural center deeply embedded in artistic, scientific, and social practices which cultivate, support and empower individuals and communities from various backgrounds to come together to inspire, exchange and learn from one another.

Tayfun Guttstadt

Tayfun Guttstadt was born to a German-Turkish-Jewish family in Hamburg. At the age of 13, he discovered his love of music through the guitar, a few years later he began to work intensively on music of the Middle East. Today, Tayfun is among the most in-demand performers of klassical Middle Eastern music, particularly on the Ney flute and as a guitarist. Following a long stay in Iran and Turkey as well as studies musicology, Islamic studies and a Master of Religion and Culture, Tayfun is a musician, teacher and author and lives in Berlin.

Tayfun has been a member of several ensembles in the frameworks of Yiddish Summer Weimar and the Other Music Academy (e.g. the Kadya Choir Project). He has led workshops in Middle Eastern music and has been a consultant for intercultural projects that build bridges and make connections.

“For me, the Other Music Academy is much more than an organization that enables me to make music. The Other Music Academy is a common project of great people from widely different backgrounds and disciplines working towards a common goal: understanding and exchange through culture on the highest level, always with curiousity and respect for the uniqueness of the “Other.” That’s incredibly meaningful to me.”

Jakob J.

Jakob J. is a photographer with a lot of love for capturing good light. Especially if that light shines upon the meaningful work that OMA does. He documents the #openpavillon events and tries to show - through his photographs - the deep stories of a craftsperson’s palm, the astonishing beauty of a recycled piece just created by a student, the smile upon a neighbour’s face, and sometimes, when he’s lucky, the magical moments that make OMA’s soul.
thisismywork.online

Jörg Kuppermann

Together with his company, GKL Planer Partnerschaft MbB, architect Jörg Kupperman is responsible for the renovation and construction of the OMA. It is especially important to him that the tangible mindfulness towards others and their points of view that the OMA exemplifies be reflected in the physical dimension of the building.