International Council for Traditions of  Music and Dance 

National Committee for Germany

The National Committee of the Federal Republic of Germany is chaired by the President Prof. Dr. Matthias Lewy, the Vice President cand. Dr. Mitra Behpoori, the Vice President Junior Professor Dr. Sean Prieske.

E-Mail addresses:
matthias.lewy@hfm-weimar.de, mitra.behpoori@hfm-weimar.de, sean.prieske@uni-koeln.de

---

Dear colleages,

At the Annual Symposium of the National Committee for Germany within the ICTMD, the General Assembly has elected a new presidency.

We warmly welcome our newly elected Executive Board:

President Prof. Dr. Matthias Lewy, *Vita see as attachment.

Vice President cand. Dr. Mitra Behpoori, *Vita see as attachment.

Vice President Junior Professor Dr. Sean Prieske, *Vita see as attachment.

The handover of (most of) the documents from the period of my presidency from 2008 to the newly elected Presidium took place on August 29, 2026 in Berlin.

Matthias Lewy took part online from Weimar. Mitra Behpoori, Sean Prieske and Dorit Klebe met in Berlin.

The former presidency (Dorit Klebe, Edda Brandes, Klaus Näumann) wishes the new elected colleagues all the best for their new tasks.

Kindest Regards,

Dorit Klebe

New E-Mail-Address: dklebe@erg-fu-berlin.de

-----

Attachments:

Vita: President Prof. Dr. Matthias Lewy

Since 2025, Matthias Lewy has held the Professorship for Musicology (Chair of Transcultural Music Studies) at the Weimar-Jena Institute of Musicology, affiliated with the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar. On June 24, 2026, he will assume the role of Co-Chair, taking over from Prof. Dr. Tiago de Oliveira Pinto, the founding holder of the UNESCO Chair on Transcultural Music Studies. Prior to this, he served as Professor of Ethnomusicology at the University of Brasília in Brazil from 2015 to 2019. In 2019, he moved to Switzerland, initially working as a researcher at the Competence Center for Music Education Research at the Lucerne School of Music, where he was appointed Professor of Research and Teaching in 2023.

His research focuses on ecomusicology, sound ontologies in the Amazon region, popular music from Latin America and the Caribbean, music and politics, and the global music industry, particularly the world music scene. Additionally, he works with ethnohistorical sources regarding the music of ancient Mexico, addresses issues of archiving in music research, and engages with the curatorial practice of sound in museum contexts, including at the Musée d'ethnographie de Genève and the Humboldt Forum in Berlin.

He is a member of the Federal Expert Committee on Cultural Diversity of the German Music Council.

---

Vita: Vice President cand. Dr. Mitra Behpoori,

Mitra Behpoori, MA, is a musicologist, composer, tar and oud player, and coordinator and lecturer at the UNESCO Chair on Transcultural Music Studies at the Franz Lizst University of Music Weimar/Jena. Since beginning her work at the Franz Lizist University of Music Weimar, she has also been a project collaborator at the AMRC "Afghanistan Music Research Center" in Germany . After completing her Bachelor of Arts degree with distinction in Iranian Art Music and Musicology at the University of Tehran, she came to Germany for her Master's studies, which she completed in 2020 at the University of Paderborn, specializing in digital editing. She first performed at the ICTMD Annual Conference in Münster in February 2019 and subsequently published her paper "The Tar as a Medium of Cultural Memory." She is currently pursuing her doctorate on the topic of music in the context of displacement and migration, with a focus on Iranians. As a member of the German UNESCO Commission 's Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage , she is committed to raising the profile of living musical practices in Germany. She is the founder and artistic director of the Iranian women's quintet ABAN Ensemble, which has performed at, among others, the "Rudolstadt Festival 2023", " UNESCO World Heritage Day (Weimar 2023), " Nowrouz Festival Moods" (Zurich 2023), "Young Euro Classic" (Berlin 2024) and "Ruhrfestspiele 2025" . As a long-standing member of the ICTMD community and a bridge-builder between Iranian musical traditions, diaspora research, and German cultural policy, I want to contribute, as Vice President, to anchoring vibrant musical practices—both regional and those shaped by immigration—more firmly in research, teaching, and public perception. My experience as a member of the Senate and the Equal Opportunities Advisory Board of the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar, as well as on the Expert Committee for Intangible Cultural Heritage of the German UNESCO Commission, reinforces my commitment to further developing these structures within the ICTMD, promoting greater support for emerging talent, international networking, and a broader understanding of music as a living source of transmission and creativity. For me, understanding music as intangible cultural heritage does not mean confining it to display cases, but rather recognizing it as a living practice passed down from generation to generation, constantly finding new forms of expression. I am committed to ensuring that ICTMD Germany promotes this broader understanding of cultural heritage in academia and the public sphere.

---

Vita: Vice President Junior-Professor Dr. Sean Prieske

Sean Prieske is a junior professor of ethnomusicology with a focus on music and migration at the Institute for European Ethnomusicology at the University of Cologne. His current research centers on music in the context of cultural-political exchange between Germany and the Mashreq ( Turkish-speaking population). After receiving his doctorate from Humboldt University of Berlin with a dissertation on music and flight, he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Salzburg on international music networks during the Nazi era. Previously, he was a research associate at the UNESCO Chair for Transcultural Music Studies at the Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar and Assistant Director of the Center for World Music at the University of Hildesheim. In 2021, he co-led a research group on German-Turkish music exchange at the Berlin University Alliance with Utku Öğüt. Sean Prieske has received several awards for his scholarly work and hosts the musicological podcast "Musikgespräch" (Music Conversation).

As a long-standing ICTMD member, Sean Prieske founded the first ICTMD Early Career Workshop for in 2022. Ethnomusicology . He is also a member of the ICTMD Study Groups on Mediterranean Music Studies, Music in the Arab World, and Music of the Syrian Diaspora. As Vice President, he wants to continue promoting young talent, strengthening ethnomusicology in Germany, and advancing the international exchange of the National Committee Germany.

-----