Room to Maneuver
for Arts and Culture

Understanding Artists –

Fostering Culture

Born in Gütersloh in 1969 and raised in the Lower Rhine region, I studied musicology, German language and literature, and Romance languages at the University of Cologne after completing my A-levels, and obtained my PhD under the supervision of Dietrich Kämper. At the same time, I completed an artistic training programme at the Robert Schumann University of Music in Düsseldorf, specialising in trombone, and undertook postgraduate studies in cultural management at the Cologne Academy of Administration and Economics.

I secured my first position in 1997 as a trainee and later as an editor at the music magazine ‘Fono Forum’. In 2007, I moved to the Bochumer Symphoniker as artistic manager and dramaturg; in 2012, I continued as orchestra manager at the Wuppertaler Bühnen; and finally, from 2014 to 2022, I was managing director of the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen, a state orchestra based in Recklinghausen.

Since 2017, I have qualified as a coach, trainer and mediator through various education courses: systemic coaching and constellation work with Klaus Horn and Markus Widera, and with the latter also ‘Next Leadership’; mental field techniques with Amelie Schmeer and Manu Bruns, with the latter also systemic therapy and counselling; mediation with a focus on business with Susanne Fest; mental coaching with Philippe Hort; and training at the Ineko Institute at the University of Cologne.