Scholar, Author, Lecturer, Translator | Byzantine Musicology
PDoz. Mag. Dr. Nina-Maria Wanek
NINA-MARIA WANEK
is a senior scientist currently directing a major research project on "Byzantine Psalmody" funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).
Her successfully completed long-term project on the chants of the so-called "Missa graeca" is going to be published by BRILL Publishers in 2022.
She is affiliated with the Institute of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies at the University of Vienna.
FROM FLUTE TO BYZANTINE AND MODERN GREEK MUSIC
After being trained as flutist at the Vienna Conservatory, Nina-Maria Wanek studied Byzantine and Modern Greek studies as well as Art History at Vienna University. She already devoted her M.A.-thesis to Byzantine liturgical music ("The Cherubika by Chrysaphes the Younger"). In her PhD thesis she investigated Greece's National School (Manolis Kalomiris) in contrast to Nikos Skalkottas' dodecaphonic works. Returning to Byzantine music, she wrote her Habilitation about the Byzantine musical manuscripts of the Austrian National Library.
VENIA LEGENDI IN HISTORICAL MUSICOLOGY
In 2008 Wanek was awarded the "Kardinal Innitzer Price for Young Austrian Scientists" for the publication of her Habilitation. In 2011 she published a "Festschrift" in honour of her colleagueʼs Gerda Wolframʼs 70th birthday and in 2013 the results of her FWF-Project were published in the book "Sticheraria in Late- and Post-Byzantine times".
RESEARCH INTERESTS | TEACHING |
TRANSLATION
Nina-Maria Wanek's main fields of interest are Byzantine liturgical chant from the beginnings in the tenth century until today and its connections with Western medieval music. She has published many books and articles on these topics. Furthermore she is also interested in Greek classic music of the 19th and 20th c. and has published studies on the works of e.g. Manolis Kalomiris and Nikos Skalkottas. Another research emphasis lies on 20th c. Austrian music, above all the life and work of Egon Wellesz.
Nina-Maria Wanek teaches at the Institute of Musicology and the Institute of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies (Vienna University) as well as abroad (e.g., Athens University; Würzburg University; guest-professorship University Bratislava etc.) and is a frequent speaker at international conferences.
Beside her work as scholar Wanek also translates Modern Greek literature, specialising in Greek poetry by Giorgos Seferis, Konstantinos Kavafis, Giannis Ritsos and contemporary poets such as Tassos Denegris and Dimitris Lyacos.