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10/14/2025 14:35

Start of the new academic year at HfK Bremen with 281 new students and three new professorships

Kerstin Finkel Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Hochschule für Künste Bremen

The 2025/26 winter semester at the University of the Arts (HfK) Bremen was officially opened with a ceremony at Speicher XI A on 6 October. 281 new students were welcomed, around a third of whom are studying at the Faculty of Music, while two thirds are enrolled at the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design. More than 2,600 prospective students had applied. A total of more than 1,000 musicians and artists from 70 countries are now enrolled at HfK Bremen. 235 lecturers teach during the winter semester, including 65 professors. The administration of HfK Bremen has 89 employees.

Culture of togetherness

Openness, equal opportunities and lived diversity are fundamental values of the HfK Bremen, which are more important today than ever, as Rector Prof. Dr. Mirjam Boggasch emphasised in her welcome speech: "The HfK Bremen is an open place of encounter and stands for diversity, intercultural dialogue, inclusion and equal opportunities. With its international university community, HfK Bremen is once again sending a strong and necessary signal for lived diversity. A culture of togetherness, driven by art, innovation, research and interdisciplinary work, strengthens the creative potential of our university and also opens up space for new perspectives and ideas."

HfK students Lola Atkinson (Historical Harp) and Fred Palupski (Jazz Percussion), who hosted the welcome event, also encouraged the first-year students to think outside the box of their subjects, take advantage of the diversity offered by HfK Bremen, and get actively involved: "It is precisely this cross-disciplinary collaboration that makes HfK Bremen so unique. It inspires and connects – and shapes our own artistic work."

New professorships

On 1 October 2025, three renowned professors took up their positions at HfK Bremen. "With their multifaceted experience and expertise, our new professors will enrich the range of courses and fields of research at HfK Bremen and further sharpen the university’s profile, particularly with regard to interdisciplinary collaboration between the Faculty of Fine Arts and Design – with degrees in Fine Arts, Integrated Design and Digital Media – and the Faculty of Music," stated Prof. Dr. Mirjam Boggasch.

Professorship for Performance and New Musical Presentation Forms

Prof. Lea Letzel is an artist, director and pyrotechnician who develops interdisciplinary performative works at the intersection of sound, music, media art, dance and space. Her focus is on the concert format and exploring the conditions and conventions of performance situations. She studied applied theatre studies at Justus Liebig University in Giessen and media art at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. Prof. Lea Letzel has participated in numerous international exhibitions and performances, including at Kunstinstituut Melly Rotterdam, Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Philharmonie Duisburg, FrankfurtLAB, Acht Brücken Festival Cologne, Edith-Russ-Haus Oldenburg, PACT Zollverein Essen, Münchner Kammerspiele and Kaaitheater Brussels. She has received several scholarships for her work, including from the Hessian Cultural Foundation in London, as well as artist residencies at the Goethe-Institut Villa Kamogawa Kyoto and the Kulturensemble Palermo. From 2019 to 2022, she was a member of the ‘Junges Kolleg’ of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Since 2024, she has been pursuing a doctorate in the inter-university programme “Science & Art” in Salzburg.

In her professorship for Performance and New Musical Presentation Forms at the HfK Bremen, Prof. Lea Letzel sees an important and encouraging signal for dialogue and community: "It is long overdue for music and art universities to view interdisciplinary projects not as exceptions, but as a natural part of education. In a time of massive social, political and ecological crises, in a time of devastating wars, universities are places where understanding across boundaries can be tested. They have a responsibility to create conditions under which art not only reacts, but develops new forms of community. My teaching concept is based on the conviction that musical and artistic innovation lies not only in the search for new sounds or playing techniques, but also in the examination of the performance itself. I look forward to bringing this perspective to the HfK Bremen and to thinking further together with the students."

Professorship for Historical Oboe Instruments

Prof. Katharina Andres developed her interest in Early Music at an early age at the Saarbrücken Music School through ensemble lessons with Bernhard Stilz, where she became acquainted with the music and instruments (recorder, crumhorn, shawm, pommer, dulcian) of the 16th and 17th centuries. At the age of twelve, she received her first baroque oboe lessons from Elsa Frank. She completed her studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Conrad Steinmann and Katharina Arfken with two diploma concerts: in 2005 with a focus on Baroque (recorder and Baroque oboe) and in 2006 with a focus on Renaissance (recorder, shawm, pommer and dulcian). Since then, she has also been extensively involved with the classical and romantic repertoire and instruments. Since 2013, Prof. Katharina Andres has been principal oboist with the Prague orchestra Collegium 1704 under the direction of Václav Luks, and since 2020 she has been teaching Historical Oboe at the HfMDK Frankfurt am Main.

At the HfK Bremen, she is now taking up her professorship for Historical Oboe Instruments at an internationally recognised centre for in-depth training in Early Music. Prof. Katharina Andres: "My instruments and repertoire range from the Renaissance to the Romantic period: from the shawm to various Baroque instruments such as the oboe d'amore and the oboe da caccia to the classical and Romantic oboe. I want to inspire students with this diversity of timbres and expressive possibilities, while at the same time teaching them historical playing practices. I want to pass on to my students the musical experiences and impulses I draw from my own concert activities as inspiration, as well as my experiential knowledge of a successful professional life. Through regular performances and educational projects with my class, I also plan to bring the world of double-reed instruments closer to a wide audience, especially young people." At the semester opening, Prof. Katharina Andres played the baroque oboe together with HfK student Hans Fröhlich (baroque bassoon) from “Partita 1” from “Kleine Kammermusik” by Georg Philipp Telemann (1681-1767).

Professorship for Ensemble Conducting New Music

Prof. René Gulikers studied orchestral conducting, school music and viola at the Music Conservatoire in Maastricht. He has conducted numerous renowned orchestras, including the Moscow Philharmonic, Svetlanov's State Academic Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and many others in Europe, Asia and South America. He has earned a special reputation in the modern repertoire, including at festivals such as the World Music Days and the Warsaw Autumn. During his career, Gulikers has worked with many world-famous soloists, including Alexei Lubimov, Anna Kravchenko and Lauma Skride, as well as with almost all the major instrumental soloists and singers from The Netherlands. From 1988 to 2004, he directed the “Ensemble '88”, which he founded, as well as other ensembles for new music. Prof. René Gulikers taught orchestral conducting at music academies of Maastricht and Enschede. He then taught at the Münster Conservatory for 16 years. From 2005 to 2012, he was a professor at the University of Music and Theatre in Hamburg, where he was also university music director from 2011 to 2013. From 2018 to 2020, he was a professor for Orchestra Conducting at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague.

Prof. René Gulikers has been teaching at the HfK Bremen since 2012 and, as part of his current professorship, aims to further consolidate the university ensemble for new music with an innovative approach: “The title of my professorship, 'Ensemble Conducting New Music,’ implies that one or more ensembles are needed to teach, learn, and work together. However, within a university, ensembles can never have the same formation for long, as their personnel is fluid. To address this particularity, I will shortly be introducing a format that will make the ensemble working on New Music within the HfK Bremen more visible, give it a more solid composition and enable it to perform at the highest level of quality. In the coming years, I will focus all my energy and experience, which I have gathered over the last 40 years, on conveying, awakening and nourishing our students' love of new music."

Awards for international students

To support students from abroad, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) has set up a scholarship and support programme (STIBET) for outstanding academic achievements and remarkable social and intercultural engagement. The start of the winter semester was the occasion for the STIBET honours for 2025 to be presented at the HfK Bremen. The awards went to Pei-Chen Chao, Ivan Emelianov, Rebecca Bottari, Fuka Ishikawa and Polet Silva Lorca from the Music Department, and Rafael Soto Acebal, Aditi Chauhan, Salma 'Elkafrawy, Haram Choi and Aysen Kocakabak from the Art and Design Department.

In addition, the DAAD Prize for outstanding achievements by international students was awarded to Ziyi Li from the Digital Media programme. She presented her master's project ‘Vocal Tectonics’, a simulation and reconstruction of the mechanisms of vocal cords and resonance cavities: “What makes Ziyi Li's research-oriented practice so extraordinary is her ability to combine profound scientific insights and technology with poetic imagination. She creates works that are visually and acoustically impressive, conceptually compelling and deeply thought-provoking,” said Prof. Ralf Baecker, HfK professor of Experimental Design of New Technologies, in his laudatory speech.

Welcome Week with numerous offers for HfK students

Representatives of the student body, such as the General Student Committee (AStA) and the Student Council (StuRa), also presented their wide range of activities, in particular their support for students in matters relating to scholarships, applications, co-determination, financial affairs and everyday university life in general. The official semester welcome marked the start of Welcome Week, during which first-year students in their respective degree programmes – Fine Arts, Integrated Design, Digital Media and Music – attend further introductory events and get to know the university and their fellow students. The AStA also organises numerous events such as an international brunch, city tour and opening party to encourage students to meet and exchange ideas.

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Semester opening at HfK Bremen
Source: Kim Mayer
Copyright: HfK Bremen/ Kim Mayer

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Business and commerce, Journalists, Students
Art / design, Music / theatre, Teaching / education
transregional, national
Miscellaneous scientific news/publications, Personnel announcements
English

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