Norbert Meyn

Aug 24, 2019

Enseble EMIGRE (with Friederike Fechner, cello, Jakob Fichert, piano and Norbert Meyn, tenor) gave two sold out and well received concerts in northern Germany on August 22 and 23. They were dedicated to the music of Robert Kahn and hosted by the Hauptmannhaus on the beautiful island of Hiddensee and the new event series Bankdruecken in the hanseatic city of Stralsund.

Aug 2, 2019

It took more than two years to prepare, but the long wait has paid off. The research project 'Music, Migration and Mobility - The Legacy of Migrant Musicians from Nazi Europe in Britain' will run from September 2019 for three years, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and lead by Norbert Meyn (RCM, Principle Investigator), Prof. Nils Grosch (Salzburg University) and Prof. Peter Adey, Royal Holloway University of London.

Video recordings and lecture, June 2019

On the occasion of the bicentenary of Victoria and Albert's birth and for my lecture at the conference '200 Years of Anglo-German Correspondences' at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (June 26-28, 2019), I recorded a selection of songs by Prince Albert and Felix Mendelssohn at the RCM studios.

March 11, 2019

This concert at the Akademie der Künste Berlin (Hanseatenweg) was dedicated to the music of Robert Kahn (1865-1951) who had been a prominent member of the Akademie before being removed by the Nazis because of his Jewish roots. Twelve London based musicians, among them professors and students from the Royal College of Music and members of Ensemble EMIGRE were involved in this performance. It gave a fairly representative overview of Kahn's sizeable musical output and was introduced by Kahn expert Steffen Fahl and Werner Grünzweig, director of the music archive at the Akademie. 

June 14, 2018

In this lecture recital, Norbert Meyn (tenor) and Robert Brewer (piano) will perform a selection of songs composed by migrant musicians from Nazi-Europe who settled in Britain in the 1930s and 40s. The lecture will tell the stories of some of these musicians, and it will also reflect on the problems they encountered as well as the challenges their arrival posed for their British colleagues. Finally, with a view to what is going on in our world right now, it will ask what we can learn from their experience about nationalism and protectionism and about the cultural significance of migration.  

Sunday December 10, 3pm and Monday December 11, 7pm

Produced by Euphonia Studio and performed in the round, this production will offer an intimate experience of Schubert's famous song cycle. Norbert will be singing and the multi-talented Alisdair kitchen will play the piano, direct and design. Not to be missed! 

April 2, 2017, 5.30pm

On 2 April 2017, Norbert and Ensemble Émigré return to the Liberal Jewish Synagogue with a programme of words and music that brings together the voices of German and Austrian composers who came to Britain seeking refuge from Nazi oppression, and who were ‘collared’ by Churchill in the internment camps on the Isle of Man from 1940–41.

The Barbed Lyre: Leaves from the Isle of Man celebrates the extraordinary resilience and creative spirit of artists in the face of migration, detention and uncertainty. The concert weaves together poetry and music written in the internment camps – including works by Kurt Schwitters, Hans Gál and Peter Gellhorn – with stories of contemporaries, and music that celebrates the cultural legacy of an Island where sun-seeking holidaymakers after the War found themselves staying in boarding houses that were once occupied by refugees.

Autumn 2016

Further concerts are planned for the new ensemble EMIGRE on November 21 and December 14 in London this autumn. For details do have a look at the new website for the ensemble, created by the wonderful designer and artist Joseph Kohlmaier, who will perform with the ensemble again in April next year.

June 19, 2016, 4pm

After four years of performance projects and research about emigre musicians
at the Royal College of Music I have teamed up with my colleagues to start a
professional ensemble dedicated to their music and legacy.
For this performance the wonderful Sigridur Osk will come from Iceland to sing songs from our
recording of ENGEL LUND’s BOOK OF FOLK SONGS. You can also hear some
wonderful violin pieces by Peter Gellhorn, who is the subject of our current project
at the RCM, performed by star player Eunsley Park.
as well as songs by Joseph Horovitz, Robert Kahn and
Hans Gal, accompanied by Lucy Colquhoun. The programme will be narrated by the amazing performer and designer
Joseph Kohlmair. There will also be a special treat with Gesprochener Musik by Ernst Toch.

Sunday Jan 24, 5.30pm

Come to this extraordinary concert, a collaboration of the "Singing a Song in a Foreign Land" project at the Royal College of Music with the LJS, the artist Joseph Kohlmaier and the duo "Postcards from Europe". The programme features Lieder and music for violin and piano by Gerhard Braun, Robert Kahn, Victor Ullmann, Karl Rankl, Hans Gal and others, interwoven with spoken prose and poetry. Not to be missed!

January 2016

Norbert's research project about musicians in exile has received a massive boost with this grant, dedicated to exploring the musical legacy of conductor/composer Peter Gellhorn.

August 12, 2015

The latest DVD produced by Norbert Meyn, Nr. 3 in the History of Vocal Teaching Series, is now available. The film features Italian Mezzo-Soprano Laura Sarti MBE, who at the age of 90 passes on her knowledge, accumulated during a wonderful carreer as a singer and from more than 40 years of teaching as a professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London. 

August 2015

Norbert's recent interview with Dame Janet Baker has been watched more than 5000 times in just two months on Youtube. See it for yourself:

May 14, 2015

A new online resource with 10 oral history interviews with eminent musicians was lauched at the Royal College of Music in May 2015.

Feb 21, 2014

Norbert Meyn and pianist John Blakely will give the first UK performance of three German songs by Joseph Horovitz at the Royal College of Music. Texts by Otto Julius Bierbaum and Theodor Körner

Images inspired by Schubert songs

These images focus on a different Schubert song each. They were created at the Baumwollspinnerei in Leipzig. For further information about the artist please visit: http://www.tea-makipaa.eu

Nov 7, 2013, 6pm

Norbert's Royal College of Music production of "What a Life", a revue written by the Austrian composer Hans Gal during his internment on the Isle of Man in 1940, will go to Strasbourg on November 7, 2013. Organised by Forum Voix Etouffées.