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Nike Wagner

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Nike Wagner
Wagner in 2014
Born (1945-06-09) 9 June 1945 (age 79)
Überlingen
EducationNorthwestern University
Occupations
  • Author
  • Festival director
Organizations
AwardsOrder of Merit of the Free State of Thuringia

Nike Wagner (German pronunciation: [ˈniːkə ˈvaːɡnɐ])[1] (born 9 June 1945) is a German dramaturge, arts administrator and author. She directed the festival Kunstfest Weimar [de], and has been the director of the Beethovenfest from 2014. The daughter of Wieland Wagner, she is a great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner, and a great-great‑granddaughter of Franz Liszt. She devoted books to the Wagner family and its cultural and political influence.

Career

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Wagner was born in Überlingen on Lake Constance in Germany, the daughter of Wieland Wagner and the choreographer Gertrud Reissinger. Her paternal great-grandfather was Richard Wagner, and she is also the great-great‑granddaughter of Franz Liszt.[2]

She grew up in Wahnfried, Bayreuth,[3] until her father's death in 1966, whereupon her uncle Wolfgang Wagner had the house measured and asked her widowed mother to pay rent.[4] She studied musicology, literature and theatre in Berlin,[3] and holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, obtained in 1980 under the direction of Erich Heller.

She is the author of several important books on a variety of subjects, which include Karl Kraus (Geist und Geschlecht: Karl Kraus und die Erotik der Wiener Moderne, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, 1982 — a work based on her doctoral dissertation) and the Wagner family (The Wagners: The Dramas of a Musical Dynasty, Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press, 2001). Her article questioning the propriety of public subsidies given to high-profile cultural events in general, and the Bayreuth Festival in particular (at present c. US$6.5 million annually), Im Fadenkreuz der Kulturpolitik, published in the July 2006 issue of Cicero: Magazin für politische Kultur, engendered controversy within Germany.

In 1999 Wagner became a member of the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung, and has served as its vice president since 2011.[3] In 2001, she made a bid for directorship of the Bayreuth Festival, together with Gérard Mortier, who had changed the Salzburg Festival, but did not expect to win.[5] In 2004, Wagner became the director of the Kunstfest Weimar [de], which she named Pèlerinages in honour of Liszt. She stood down from the post in September 2013.

In 2013 she was named the director of the Beethovenfest,[6] and assumed this post in January 2014.[7] She has recognized Wagner's relation to Beethoven, who modeled his first composition on Beethoven's works.[5] She focused less on Beethoven's symphonies, but presented more chamber music, often in contrast with contemporary works in the genre.[8]

Other activities

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  • Bonner Akademie für Forschung und Lehre praktischer Politik (BAPP), Member of the Board of Trustees[9]
  • Deutsche Bank, Member of the Advisory Board (since 2017)[10]
  • Goethe Institute, Member of the Committee for the Goethe Medal[11]

Selected publications

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  • Nike Wagner, et al., Mann, sei nicht so hysterisch (Munich, Matthes und Seitz, 1991).
  • Nike Wagner, Wagner-Theater (Frankfurt am Main, Insel-Verlag, 1998).
  • Nike Wagner, Traumtheater: Szenarien der Moderne (Frankfurt am Main, Insel-Verlag, 2001).

Awards

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See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Duden Aussprachewörterbuch (in German) (6 ed.). Mannheim: Bibliographisches Institut & F.A. Brockhaus AG. 2006. ISBN 3-411-04066-1.
  2. ^ Anastassia Boutsko (2011-10-20). "Nike Wagner on her great-great grandfather Liszt". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 2015-06-28.
  3. ^ a b c "Nike Wagner". Beethovenfest. Archived from the original on 4 November 2016. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
  4. ^ Kurbjuweit, Dirk. (12 April 2013). ' Wagner's Dark Shadow: Can We Separate the Man from His Works?' Spiegel Online. (Germany),
  5. ^ a b Ivan Hewett (15 August 2014). "Nike Wagner: I was bitter at my Bayreuth ousting / Defeated in the battle to rule Bayreuth, Nike Wagner has moved on to Beethoven". The Telegraph. Retrieved 4 November 2016.
  6. ^ Marita Berg (2013-05-24). "Wagner meets Beethoven in Bonn music festival". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 2015-06-28.
  7. ^ Rick Fulker (2013-09-27). "Nike Wagner: Handle artists with kid gloves". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 2015-06-28.
  8. ^ "Beethovenfest Bonn / Beethoven von Wagner frisch entstaubt" (in German). Deutschlanfunk. 4 October 2015. Retrieved 7 October 2016.
  9. ^ Board of Trustees Bonner Akademie für Forschung und Lehre praktischer Politik (BAPP).
  10. ^ Members of the Regional Advisory Board, 2017 Archived 2017-07-17 at the Wayback Machine Deutsche Bank.
  11. ^ Organization Goethe Institute.
  12. ^ PH Heidelberg bestellt Dr. Nike Wagner als Honorarprofessorin PDF
  13. ^ "Nike Wagner erhält Ehrendoktorwürde der Musikhochschule Weimar - neue musikzeitung". nmz (in German). 23 October 2022. Retrieved 2022-10-24.

References

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  • Jan Brachmann, ‘Das Zertrümmern ist langweilig geworden: Nike Wagner über Heimweh, Autoritäten, Bayreuther Marktlärm und ostdeutsche Kaffeepausen’, Berliner Zeitung, August 21, 2004, p. M4 (Magazin Section) [an interview with Nike Wagner].
  • David Littlejohn, [untitled review of Nike Wagner's The Wagners: The Dramas of a Musical Dynasty], Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, vol. 58, No. 4 (June 2002), pp. 828–831.

Further reading

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