In the winter semester 2024/25, the Freundeskreis der Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe e. V. has announced the Hans Hachmann Scholarship for the second time. The scholarship is named after Dr h. c. Hans Hachmann, long-time Senior Music Editor at SWR and Chairman of the Friends from 2009 to 2023. The call for applications for the scholarship, which focused on music journalism in 2023/24, is now aimed at students in the fields of music informatics and musicology: The Hans Hachmann Scholarship is intended to honour an outstanding project that takes a mutually enriching look at the fields of music informatics and musicology in its freely chosen topic, thereby exploiting the possibilities and perspectives of both disciplines. The scholarship is endowed with 300 euros per month and has a duration of 12 months.
The jury of the Circle of Friends with Claus Temps, Monika Rihm, Sen. E. h. Dr h. c. Thomas Renner and Dr Alexander Becker, with the professors of the Institute of Music Informatics and Musicology Dr Thomas Seedorf and Dr Christoph Seibert, and with the participation of the namesake Dr h. c. Hans Hachmann, voted in favour of Negin Mozafari's contribution. Her project ‘Vocal resonance. The body as an instrument’ investigates the use of the human body, in particular the vocal cords, as an instrument within an interactive performance system. The aim is to explore the integration of the body into computerised sound processing through external stimulation of the vocal cords. Communication and co-operation between the performers and the technology play an important role here. The jury was impressed by the change of perspective in relation to the human voice that the artistic research project has achieved: The voice is not treated here as an active, sound-producing organ, but as a passive instrument that is set in vibration and ‘played’ from the outside - by the voice of another person or by external devices. This can be realised in sound and processed in real time using technical means.
The project can be experienced as a performance in the summer semester 2025 as part of an evening at the institute (4 July, 7:30 pm).
Negin Mozafari studied film, composition and piano in Tehran (Iran) and was already involved with electronic music there. She is currently studying for her Bachelor of Arts in Music Informatics/Musicology with an artistic focus at the Karlsruhe University of Music.