Dr A Behr

Qualifications

• BMus (cum laude) (UP)
• MA in Musicology (cum laude) (Uni. of Stellenbosch) 
• PhD in Musicology (Uni. of Stellenbosch)

Currently teaching

• MHS1511 Early Music to Baroque
• MHS3702 Opera
• MHS3704 Music in South Africa
• MHS3711 Modernism and Twentieth Century Music
• MHS3714 Opera and Choral Music

Fields of academic interests

Research interests

• Afrikaans music
• Afrikaans music historiography
• Jewish music
• Jewish music historiography
• Art music composition in South Africa
• Art music practice in South Africa 

Field of Specialisation

• Musicology
• Archives
• Content analysis
• Digital Humanities
• Jewish studies

Books

Book chapters:

• Songs, Singing and Spaces in South Africa: Afrikaans Folk Songs in Nationalist Publications. Speculum Musicae. Volume 22. Edited by Massimiliano Sala. Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini: Pistoia. 

Journal articles

• 2015 (Accredited article) The Politics of Musical Meaning: The Case of Jeanne Zaidel- Rudolph’s Masada. SAMUS: The South African Music Studies Journal, Vol. 34/35:1-28.
• 2015: The Hans Kramer Collection at the National Library, Cape Town: an archival perspective on Jewish patronage of music in 20th-century South Africa. Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa. Vol. 12(1)
• 2014: Book review: Stephanus Muller: Nagmusiek. Johannesburg: Fourthwall Books, 2014, 3 volumes: I 228 pp.; II 148 pp.; III 540 pp. ISBN: 978-0-9922263-2-9. Muziki: Journal of Music Research in Africa, Vol. 11(2):133-135.
• 2013: Deon Opperman en Janine Neething se Die Skepping—’n Skouspel. Tydskrif vir Letterkunde, Vol. 50(2):161-166

• 2010. Die Europese musiektradisie en die ontwikkeling van ’n Afrikaner-identiteit: ’n Oorsig van Afrikaanse musiekjoernalistiek in Die Brandwag (1910–1921) en Die Nuwe Brandwag (1929–1933). Litnet Akademies. 7 (3): Desember 2010. http://www.litnet.co.za/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_news_item&cause_id=1270&news_id=92637&cat_id=201
• 2010. Reflections on Music and Exile: North-South Narratives. Musicus. Vol. 38(1):81-166.
• 2009. Reflections on a seminar in celebration of Kevin Volans’s sixtieth birthday in Stellenbosch. Musicus. Vol. 37(2):88-89.
• 2009. Erik Chisholm, Scottish Modernist 1904–1965: Chasing a Restless Muse By Purser, John (2009). Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa. Vol. 6(1):84-86.
• 2008. Pretoria, ZK Matthews Hall: 85th Birthday concert for Stefans Grové. Tempo, Vol. 62(243):60-61.
• 2007. Emerging Solutions for Musical Arts Education in Africa. Onder redaksie van Anri Herbst. Fontes Artis Musicae. Vol. 54(3):379.

Paper presentations

2019

‘Jewish citizens of the world: Musical representations of the Metropolitan Opera and Albert Einstein in the Zionist Record’, at SASRIM’s annual conference, Stellenbosch University, 4-7 September 2019.

 ‘Silent Histories: Digital Representation of Cultural Heritage in Africa’

co-authors: Sarah Schäfer, Chao Tayiana, Felix Oke, Ignatia Madalane, Birhanu Mekonnen; Poster presentation at the 2019 Digital Humanities Conference, Utrecht University, The Netherlands, 11 July 2019

 2017

‘Coming to terms with the ‘Peruvian’ in our midst: Victor Chenkin’s experiment in assimilation’, at SASRIM’s annual conference, North-West University, 31 August – 2 September 2017.

 2016

‘Navigating local Musicology towards Digital Humanities: Music Reportage in South African Jewish Publications – a Case Study’ at SASRIM’s annual conference, University of the Free State, 25-27 August 2016.

 2014
Panelist on the topic ‘SASRIM and Research Ethics – do we need more guidelines?’ at SASRIM’s annual conference, University of the Witwatersrand, 12-14 September.

 2012

‘Songs, Singing, and Spaces: Volksliedjies in Nationalist Publications’ at the departmental seminar of the Music Department at the University of Pretoria, 31 July.

 2012

‘Songs, Singing, and Spaces: Volksliedjies in Nationalist Publications’ at SASRIM’s annual conference, Tshwane University of Technology, 19-21 July.

 2012

‘Volksliedjies in Nationalist Publications: Transforming spaces through performative texts’ at the Music and Propaganda in the Short Twentieth Century, an international conference presented by the Centro Studi Opera Omnia Luigi Boccherini (Lucca/Pistoia) and Amici di Groppoli (Pistoia) at UNISER – Polo Universitario di Pistoia, 18-20 May.

 2012

‘Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph’s Masada: In the wake of the Unspoken Cultural Alliance’ at the departmental colloquium of the Music Department at the University of Stellenbosch, 23 April.

 2012

‘Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph’s Masada: In the wake of the Unspoken Cultural Alliance’ at the NSS conference hosted by the Department of Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology (UNISA), Pretoria.

2011

‘The Unspoken Cultural alliance: Israel, Afrikaner Nationalism and Jeanne Zaidel-Rudolph’s Masada’ at the Art Musics of Israel: Identities, Ideologies, Influences conference presented by the Institute of Musical Research, Department of Music and the Jewish Music Institute SOAS University of London, London.

2010

‘Jewishness and Music in South Africa: The Hans Kramer Collection in the National Library, Cape Town’ at SASRIM’s annual conference, Stellenbosch.

 2009

‘Cosmopolitanism in early Afrikaans music historiography, 1910-1950’ at SASRIM’s annual conference, Durban.

Professional positions, fellowships & awards

• 2015-2017: Academic Qualifications Improvement Programme – University of South Africa
• 2015: Reviews Editor, Muziki: Journal of Music Research in Africa
• 2009-1014: Secretary, SASRIM (South African Society for Research in Music)
• 2010: Lifelong member of the Golden Key International Honour Society.
• 2009: H.B. and M.J. Thom Prize, F.A.K. (Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurvereniginge), for outstanding research in the field of Musicology. 
• 2007-2008: Research Grant from SAMAP (the South African Music Archive Project) towards a database of Afrikaans music historiography.

Projects

• 2015-2017         Project manager and principle data collector for database: ‘South African Jewish Music Articles’. Hosted by Stellenbosch University, digitised by the National Library of South Africa. See https://digital.lib.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.2/5913.
• 2007-2012         Initiated a database of South African music historiography at the University of Pretoria. See https://repository.up.ac.za/handle/2263/17223.