• Encyclopaedia of female instrumentalists
• The beginnings of the academic appointment of the piano teacher
• The Liszt pupil Martha Remmert (1854 - 1941)
• Caroline Boissier-Butini (1786 - 1836). Musical practice of a Geneva citizen of the early 19th century
• Female violinists between the 1848 revolution and the First World War
• Johannes Brahms and the construction of gender in 19th century music
• Europeanisation, gender polarisation and consumer orientation. The musical culture of Japan at the beginning of the 20th century using the example of the Mitsukoshi department stores'
• The composer and pianist Ilse Fromm-Michaels (1888 - 1986)
• Music in the care of troops during the Second World War

Encyclopaedia of female instrumentalists

Under the direction of Prof. Dr Freia Hoffmann, an encyclopaedia has been in preparation since 2006 which will include outstanding female instrumental musicians from the period 1700 to around 1900. This is a group of people who were active and well-known in the public, semi-public or (in a few cases) private sphere, but who cannot be researched in specialised encyclopaedias or cannot be researched satisfactorily. An essential basis is the evaluation of 52 German-language music journals and 57 encyclopaedias in German-speaking countries, which is currently being extended to Europe and the second half of the 19th century. Approximately 1000 entries are planned. Further information on the homepage of the Sophie Drinker Institute Staff: Kadja Groenke, Claudia Schweitzer, Volker Timmermann, Annkatrin Babbe, Jannis Wichmann and numerous external authors

Claudia schweitzer: The beginnings of the academic appointment of the piano teacher

The development of a profession in the German-French language area up to the Congress of Vienna.

The academic appointment of the piano teacher ("clavier" as a collective term for harpsichord, clavichord, organ, fortepiano) is one of the oldest qualified professions open to women. In her dissertation, Claudia Schweitzer examines the different conditions of training and academic appointments in the French-Dutch-German language area.

The dissertation was published in 2008 under the title "...ist übrigens als Lehrerinn höchst empfehlungswürdig. Kulturgeschichte der Clavierlehrerin" as volume 6 of the Sophie Drinker Institute series published by BIS-Verlag.

Status: 2007 completed

Dieter Nolden: The Liszt pupil Martha Remmert (1854 - 1941)

Doctoral candidate Dieter Nolden came across the estate of one of Franz Liszt's most distinguished piano students in the Liszt Archive in Weimar in connection with his work as a family researcher. The evaluation allows the reconstruction of a biography that is of equal interest with regard to Franz Liszt as a teacher, Remmert's extensive concert activity, her contacts with many well-known contemporaries and her activities to cultivate Liszt's legacy.

Status: completed in 2019

Irène Minder-Jeanneret: Caroline Boissier-Butini (1786 - 1836). Musical practice of a Genevan citizen of the early 19th century

Irène Minder-Jeanneret has discovered the estate of a musician, which was exceptionally rich for the time in Switzerland, and has begun to analyse it for a dissertation. The wife of a well-to-do and music-loving Genevan citizen left behind not only grades, but also diaries, letters and travel reports, which allow the reconstruction of a biography and lifeworld that was characterised on the one hand by material opportunities for education, travel and the cultivation of music, but also by the limits imposed by gender and geographical conditions.

Status: Doctoral degree procedure completed, publication pending

Volker Timmermann: Female violinists between the 1848 revolution and the First World War

The initial astonishment and amazement that women dared to perform in public as violinists was overcome by the middle of the 19th century. Nevertheless, female violinists remained isolated, and their working conditions and public perception continued to characterise them as exceptional phenomena. Volker Timmermann, research associate at the Sophie Drinker Institute, is preparing a dissertation on this topic.

Status: ongoing

Marion Gerards: Johannes Brahms and the construction of gender in 19th century music

Can music provide information about the gender images of the composer and his time? It certainly does in connection with language, in songs, operas and oratorios. Is "pure" instrumental music free of attributions, or are symbols, programmes, the composer's intentions and contemporary attributions (e.g. in reviews) embedded in it in such a way that sounds also convey gender images? Marion Gerards, research associate at the Sophie Drinker Institute, explores these questions in her dissertation using the example of selected compositions by Johannes Brahms.

Status: completed in 2008

Yuko Tamagawa: Europeanisation, gender polarisation and consumer orientation. The musical culture of Japan at the beginning of the 20th century using the example of the Mitsukoshi department stores'

Yuko Tamagawa, a visiting researcher at the Sophie Drinker Institute from 2005 to 2007, analysed the archives of the famous Japanese department stores' in her dissertation. With advertising materials, its own magazine and documents on public relations work, unique sources are available here on a development that still characterises Japan today: the orientation towards Western lifestyle and consumer behaviour, which in the case of the practice of music was linked to an alignment with traditional European gender roles.

Status: ongoing

Babette Dorn: The composer and pianist Ilse Fromm-Michaels (1888 - 1986)

Why is the name Ilse Fromm-Michaels possibly less well-known today than it was in the 1920s? To what extent did the academic appointments to which the artist was subjected from 1933 onwards affect her compositions, and to what extent did they shape her career as a pianist? Was her situation different from that of her male colleagues? Doctoral student Babette Dorn is seeking answers to these questions by analysing sources that have so far been little or not at all tapped. The aim is to produce a comprehensive biography with a catalogue raisonné.

Status: ongoing

Heike Frey: Music in troop support during the Second World War

Heike Frey's dissertation project on music in Wehrmacht troop support during the Second World War deals with the organisation and programme of musical troop support as well as the working and performance conditions of musicians from the fields of art music and popular music.

Status: ongoing