MDI: Daniela Holdegel

Daniela Holdegel has studied Musicology at the Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, graduating in 1989 with a Master's degree by research and has an extensive background and work experience in research, performing and teaching both in Hong Kong and in Europe.

She was active in various aspects of performance, teaching and cultural management in Germany. She worked with renowned stage directors like Joachim Herz at the "Semperoper" in Dresden before she served as dramaturgist in the areas of opera and ballet at the Mecklenburgisches Staatstheater Schwerin, one of the leading mid-size opera houses in the north of the country for several years.

She founded and single-handedly managed her own theater group, "Theater Korona" , organizing and supervising no less than 120 performances per year for two years in the Berlin region.

As a committed teacher she worked as a Drama teacher with young people and children, leading them to perform dramas, based on their own created stories or adapted from their favorite books as well as multimedia performances.

She also developed, written and staged her owe theater pieces and collaborated on a book: "Frauen im europaischen Theater heute" ("Women in European Theater today").

All this time she continued as an active researcher, carrying out historical research on the interpretation and staging of the various operas, ballets, and theater pieces to be performed, writing program notes, giving public lectures about music and music history, and supervising the development of the ensembles she guided by finding suitable repertoires for them.

In Hong Kong she was employed as senior research assistant in the Department of Music at The University of Hong Kong. She also worked at the Goethe Institut Hong Kong as a teacher of German as a foreign language and at several tertiary institutions in HK. Aside from oral and written language skills at different levels, topics taught include German culture and modules on German music. For the Department of Music at the Chinese University, she developed a special course "German for musicians" and for the Extension and Continuing Education for Life (EXEL) Unit at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts a Drama-based German Language Learning Course for Children. She is also teaching "German for singers" at the HKAPA.