Nannan Chen M.A.

Nannan Chen studied musicology in China and Germany. She completed her bachelor’s degree in 2009 at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with a thesis on The Performance Aesthetics of “Jazz Bach”. In 2017, she finished her master’s degree at the University of Münster with the thesis Walter Ruttmann’s Abstract Film “Lichtspiel Opus I” (1921) and Max Butting’s “Accompanying” Music. She subsequently began her doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Michael Custodis, researching the significance of the musical culture of the traditional Chinese zither Guqin in contemporary composition. In the summer semester of 2022, she taught as a lecturer at the University of Vechta. Since October 2024, she is a research associate in Collaborative Research Centre 1671 “Home(s): Phenomena, Practices, Representations” in subproject B01 “In Search of Home – Music-Cultural Practice in East Asia,” an interdisciplinary project in musicology and sinology jointly led by Prof. Dr. Barbara Mittler and PD Dr. Stefan Menzel.

• Chinese music and cultural practices in global contexts
• Music visualization practices in the early 20th century
• Music-aesthetic discourses