7 April 2009, Central School of Speech and Drama
Laudation (en)

Honorary Fellowship for Heiner Goebbels

The Central School of Speech and Drama is to award an honorary fellowship to the distinguished German composer and director Heiner Goebbels. He will be presented with the award on Friday 24th April, after which he will give a keynote address to the Theatre Noise international conference at the Central School. There will also be performances of his works Sampler Suite (from Surrogate Cities) and Songs of Wars I Have Seen by the London Sinfonietta and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank.

Heiner Goebbels is a major figure in both contemporary European music and European theatre. He has been described as a “beast slithering between the three conventions of opera, theatre and concert”. His music reflects a variety of styles ranging from the Beach Boys to traditional Japanese music. He is currently professor and managing director of the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies, Justus Liebig University, Giessen.

The Theatre Noise conference runs from Wednesday 22nd to Friday 24th April. Mounted by the Centre for Excellence in Training for Theatre, it will explore the acoustic environments and auditory phenomena of theatre and performance.

Central’s Dean of Research Professor Andrew Lavender comments: “Heiner Goebbels doesn't just write music - he conceives performance in all its dimensions. He has brought contemporary music into the theatre, and the theatre into the concert hall. His work blends playful idiosyncrasy and rigorous musicality, with great wit and inventiveness in its composition and staging. Central has a strong tradition of training for music theatre, and a taste for cutting edge practice in this field. We're delighted that Heiner Goebbels has agreed to become an honorary fellow and look forward to connecting with him and his work now and in the future.”

Notes for Editors

1. The Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London is an international centre of excellence based in London serving its professions by providing quality higher education in, and training for, the dramatic arts and the performance and media industries. Courses include full-time Undergraduate and full and part-time Postgraduate programmes in acting, design, voice, movement, music theatre, puppetry, drama education and teaching, drama therapy and applied theatre as well as many Short and Summer courses in acting, design, voice and presentation skills, training in spoken English, and bespoke courses.
Alumni include: Laurence Olivier, Michael Grandage, Judi Dench, Julie Christie, Cameron Mackintosh, Harold Pinter, Zoë Wanamaker, Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson and many many more.

2. The UK’s only Centre for Excellence in Training in Theatre was created by The Central School of Speech and Drama. It works to provide a national resource for vocational performing arts training and learning, a focus for theatre research and scholarship, and a site for collaboration, nationally and internationally, between industry, Higher Education and specialist training providers.