Alina Bauer (Germany; violin, musicology)

born in Darmstadt, when she began to study musicology with an educational and sociological focus in Gießen in 2005, she had had little contact with klezmer music or Yiddish culture. That changed in 2007, when she co-founded the band Bakad Kapelye as a violinist and attended klezmer music workshops in which she learned more about not only musicianship but also about the religious, historical and social background of Yiddish culture and music. Following a deeper exploration of the connections between folk and art music through her study of klezmer music, the history of Giora Feidman's development in Germany seemed a natural topic for a scholarly graduation dissertation. Although Feidman's ideas concerning klezmer music and music in general stand in strong contrast to those of other distinguished klezmer musicians, he remains the most famous advocate of this music who also polarised the field not only in an artistic sense, but also with respect to ethnology and pedagogical approach.