 |
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
Alumni Profile: April Lynn James, PhD |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
DAAD grant: Annual Grant, 1999
Current occupation: Mezzo-Soprano & Director of the Maria Antonia Project, also non-profit consultant/grant writer
Current city of residence: New York, NY
Contact: april_james@ekit.com
How has your time in Germany affected your academic/professional career path?
It was directly responsible for my career path. I returned to the US, finished my degree, and continued to both study voice and to research operas composed by women. I curated an exhibit for the Eda Kuhn Loeb Music Library at Harvard University entitled "In Her Own Hand: Operas Composed by Women 1625-1913" in 2003. Also that year, I returned to NYC to pursue a career as an opera singer and founded a performance ensemble called the  Maria Antonia Project, which is named after the subject of my dissertation, Maria Antonia, Electress of Saxony (1724-1780, photo right). The ensemble is dedicated to restoring operas composed by women to the living repertory through performances, recordings, articles and exhibits.
What's the most important piece of advice you could give a new DAAD grantee?
Learn to speak and understand German really well.
What was your most dramatic experience of culture shock in Germany?
My first day alone in Dresden (after my Goethe Institut course), I was standing at a Haltestelle, waiting for a streetcar. A streetcar running in the opposite direction came by, and two young boys (not older than 10 yrs of age) were hanging out of the back of the streetcar, yelling at me in German, and giving me the finger. I was the only person on the platform, and so I know they weren’t talking to anyone else. I later found out from my friends that an African worker had been murdered near the Albertstrasse not too long before.
Other than family/friends, what did you miss most while abroad? What do you miss from Germany now that you're back in the US?
I missed the anonymity of big city life. I felt much more comfortable in Berlin than in Dresden (or in smaller towns), since in Berlin Germans are used to seeing (and tolerating) people of different skin tones. Now that I’m back, I miss the Sonnenblumenbrot, certain desserts, a slower pace of life, the streetcars, the cleaner subways and streets of Berlin, speaking German, some of the old buildings/castles, my friends there.
If you could go back and live your overseas adventure again, what would you do differently?
Live in Berlin, and visit Dresden. Travel throughout Europe more.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
