Norbert Meyn

Diplom Gesang (HfM Weimar), LGSM, FHEA

Norbert Meyn is a professional singer, coach and project curator.

At the Royal College of Music he teaches repertoire classes (German Lieder) and diction for singers, coaches chamber music and devises performance and research projects. He has also been involved in Masters and PHD supervision.  

Born in Weimar in former East Germany, Norbert has been living in the UK since 1997. After a short period as a curator of international arts projects in the 1990s he chose a full time career in music.

After graduating from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama he performed all over the world and recorded with vocal ensembles including the New London Consort, The Choir of the Enlightenment and London Voices. As a soloist he has sung with conductors including Roger Norrington, Simon Halsey, Howard Arman and John Eliot Gardiner and with companies including, The Opera Group, Pavilion Opera and The Continuum Ensemble. For 15 years he was a member of the extra chorus of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.  

Norbert has been designing and leading a range of practice-based research projects since 2004. His research interests are the performance practice of the German Lieder repertoire, the history of vocal pedagogy and the theme of music and migration, especially émigré musicians from Nazi-ruled Europe.  Norbert is currently Principal Investigator for the three year AHRC funded research project Music Migration & Mobility.  His previous research outputs include a series of educational videos for singers, first recordings of songs by CPE Bach, German pronunciation guides for singers (published by Choraline), the online resource Singing a Song in a Foreign Land and a video documentary, first recordings and a performing edition of songs and chamber music by the émigré composer Peter Gellhorn . He is director of the research-lead professional Ensemble Émigré . Norbert is also much in demand as a coach for leading choirs and opera companies in the UK and beyond.

Selected publications

Bower B, Meyn N, & Curran T (2016), The Peter Gellhorn Edition: General Statement and 16 associated scores, Royal College of Music Editions [LINK].

Find out more about Norbert. Visit website

Watch Norbert's interview with Dame Janet Baker Visit website

Music Migration & Mobility research project website Visit website

Faculties / departments: Vocal Studies, Research

Research

Research areas

Performance

Historical and Source Studies

Musicology

Education

Film and Video

 

Research projects

Singing a Song in a Foreign Land

Music, Migration and Mobility

 

Latest Publications

Meyn, N. and Doutney, D. (2023) Eric Sanders: Songs. RCM Editions, London.

Meyn, N. and Grosch, N. and Adey, P. (2023) Foregrounding mobility rather than belonging: a conceptual framework for engaging with music shaped by transnational migration. Acta Musicologica, 95 (1) pp. 4-20. ISSN 0001-6241 (print) 2296-4339 (online)

Meyn, N. and Holden, M. (2023) Music, migration, and mobility: the story of émigré musicians from Nazi Europe in Britain. [Show/Exhibition]

Meyn, N. (2023) Encounters with the émigré experience: discovering the chamber music and songs of Peter Gellhorn. 'Music and Exile: from 1933 to the Present Day' Yearbook of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, 22 pp. 217-236. ISSN 1388-3720 (print) 1875-8118 (online)

Meyn, N. (2023) Eric Sanders. Music, Migration and Mobility Online Resource: Émigré Musicians from Nazi Europe

Meyn, N. (2021) ‘Music, Migration and Mobility’: an ongoing research project at the Royal College of Music. Music & Practice, 9 ISSN 1893-9562 (online)

Meyn, N. (2021) Marginalised in our cultural memory: migrant musicians from Nazi-occupied Europe in Britain. In: First Annual Midlands Music Research Network Conference, 19-20 April 2021, Online. (Unpublished)

Meyn, N. (2021) Between two worlds: discovering the music of Robert Kahn (1865-1951). Classical Music ISSN 0961-2696 (print) 2632-8208 (online)

Meyn, N. and Pearson, I. E. and Sun, E. and Driver, D. (2021) Robert Kahn: Leaves from the tree of life. [Audio]

Meyn, N. (2020) Trees have roots, humans have legs: foregrounding migration and mobility in performances. In: Symposium: The Legacy of Migrant Musicians from Nazi Europe in Britain, 3 December 2020, Online. (Unpublished)

Meyn, N. and Stanhope, L. and Bower, B. and Freyhan, M. (2020) Hans Gál: What a Life! RCM Editions, London.

Meyn, N. (2020) Prince Albert and Anglo-German connections in 19th-century music. Angermion: Yearbook for Anglo-German Literary Criticism, Intellectual History and Cultural Transfers, 13 (1) pp. 197-212. ISSN 1438-2091 (print) 1868-9426 (online)

Meyn, N. and Heher, H. (2020) Egon Wellesz: Drei Lieder Op. 24. RCM Editions, London.

Bohm-Duchen, M. and Meyn, N. (2020) RNCM Holocaust Memorial Lecture: belonging and not belonging. In: The Sir John Manduell Research Forum Series, 29 January 2020, Forman Lecture Theatre, Royal Northern College of Music. (Unpublished)

Meyn, N. (2020) Enemy aliens: music in internment. Music, Migration and Mobility Online Resource: Émigré Musicians from Nazi Europe

Meyn, N. and Curran, T. and Levi, E. (2020) The legacy of Peter Gellhorn. Music, Migration and Mobility Online Resource: Émigré Musicians from Nazi Europe

Meyn, N. (2019) The legacy of Jewish musicians who emigrated to the UK from Nazi-Europe. In: Musica Judaica Symposium: Jewish Music Between Oral and Written Traditions, 14-15 July 2019, Clarendon Institute, Oxford. (Unpublished)

Meyn, N. (2019) Mendelssohn, Albert and Anglo-German connections in 19th century music. In: Two Centuries of Anglo-German Correspondences, 26-28 June 2019, London. (Unpublished)

Meyn, N. (2019) Musical migrants: refugee musicians from Nazi Germany and Austria in Britain. In: German Research Seminar, 6 February 2019, King's College London. (Unpublished)

Meyn, N. and Bower, B. (2019) Norman O'Neill (1875-1934): Drei Lieder (1896). RCM Editions, London.

Meyn, N. (2019) Discovering the music of Robert Kahn. Music, Migration and Mobility Online Resource: Émigré Musicians from Nazi Europe

Meyn, N. (2019) Singing a song in a foreign land: related performances. Royal College of Music. (Unpublished)

Meyn, N. and Heller-Jones, C. (2018) Love of Lieder: tracing the Jewish journey through 19th and 20th century German song [study course]. Liberal Jewish Synagogue, London. (Unpublished)

Meyn, N. (2018) Engaging with émigré music in Britain. Arts of the Working Class (3) p. 9. ISSN 2627-6984

Meyn, N. (2018) Love of song: from Mendelssohn to Brahms [study course]. Liberal Jewish Synagogue, London. (Unpublished)

Meyn, N. (2018) Singing a song in a foreign land. In: Association of Anglican Musicians Conference, 11-14 June 2018, San Antonio, Texas. (Unpublished)

Meyn, N. (2018) Music for 'Through Lotte's Lens' directed by Tony Britten. Capriol Films.

Meyn, N. and Breinl, J. (2017) English songs by Karl Rankl. In: Workshop, 21-22 October 2017, Austrian Cultural Forum, London. (Unpublished)

Meyn, N. (2017) Emigrés from Nazi Europe in British opera. In: Operá Sans Frontières: Musicians and Migration in a Globalised World, 12 September 2017, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford. (Unpublished)

Curran, T. and Meyn, N. (2017) Peter Gellhorn (1912-2004): Biography. RCM Editions, London.

Meyn, N. (2017) Researching forbidden music regained. In: Leo Smit Stichting, 2017, Amsterdam. (Unpublished)

Bower, B. and Meyn, N. and Curran, T. (2016) The Peter Gellhorn Edition: General Statement and 16 associated scores. RCM Editions, London.

Meyn, N. (2015) Exile estates and music restitution. In: Symposium, 31 May 2015, Royal College of Music, London. (Unpublished)

Meyn, N. and Charlston, T. (2014) C. P. E. Bach: spiritual songs. [Audio]

Meyn, N. (2014) Singing a song in a foreign land: a celebration of music by émigré composers. In: Symposium, 21-23 February 2014, Royal College of Music, London. (Unpublished)

Meyn, N. (2013) Singing a song in a foreign land. [Website]

Meyn, N. and Charlston, T. and Bavington, P. (2012) C.P.E. Bach songs with clavichord: a conversation with Norbert Meyn and Terence Charlston. The British Clavichord Society Newsletter (54) pp. 3-10. ISSN 1359-5105 (print)

Kelly, J. and Meyn, N. (2011) History of vocal teaching II: singing in English - a session with Catherine Lambert Hon. R.C.M. [Video]

Meyn, N. (2011) German pronunciation guide: Beethoven: 9th Symphony, Choral Fantasia. ChoraLine.

Meyn, N. (2011) German pronunciation guide: Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem. ChoraLine.

Kelly, J. and Meyn, N. (2010) History of vocal teaching I: an exploration of a vocal lineage: from the 19th century to today. [Video]

Meyn, N. (2010) Erwin and Elmire. [Video]

Meyn, N. (2010) History of vocal teaching III: my building blocks of singing - Laura Sarti. [Video]

Meyn, N. (2009) Uniting the true and the beautiful: music and text in the age of Goethe. In: Study Day, 13 November 2009, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. (Unpublished)

Connor, M. and Meyn, N. (2009) Acting for singers: a workshop with actors and singers at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London. [Video]

Contact

For enquiries please contact:

Norbert Meyn

Repertoire professor, Speech and Language

research@rcm.ac.uk

norbert.meyn@rcm.ac.uk

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