Dr Barbara Reul
guest speaker at Fresh Fasch

Barbara M Reul is Associate Professor of Musicology at Luther College, University of Regina, Canada. Dr Reul’s main area of interest is German sacred music of the early eighteenth century, specifically Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688-1758), Kapellmeister at the Court of Anhalt-Zerbst. An organist and choirmaster by training, she took her undergraduate and graduate training at the University of Victoria, Canada, and completed a doctoral dissertation on the sacred cantatas of Johann Friedrich Fasch in late 1996.

In early 1997 she commenced a position as resident musicologist at the headquarters of the International Fasch Society in Zerbst, Germany. In addition to carrying out research on Fasch’s life and works, she organized the Fifth and Sixth International Fasch Festivals and oversaw the Fasch Archive in Zerbst. Dr Reul also organized an annual concert series and presented lecture recitals, conceived the Society’s bilingual website, www.fasch.net, and edited its newsletter, Faschiana, and conference proceedings, Fasch Studies. She returned to Canada in 1999.

In 2005 Dr Reul became the first scholar outside Europe to receive the International Fasch-Prize of the City of Zerbst. This biennial award is given in recognition of outstanding contributions to Fasch scholarship and the popularization of the life and work of Anhalt-Zerbst's most influential Kapellmeister. On 12 April 2008 Dr Reul was elected president of the International Fasch Society. Her term begins on 1 July, the main focus being the preparation of the Eleventh International Fasch Festival in 2011. This year also marks the 275th birthday of Zerbst-born Carl Friedrich Christian Fasch (1736-1800), son of Johann Friedrich Fasch and founder of the famous Berlin Sing-Akademie Choral Society.

Dr Reul has presented her research at numerous international conferences, including Canada, Germany, Britain, the USA, and Australia. At the international musicological conference held on the occasion of the Tenth International Fasch Festival in April 2008, she examined hitherto-unknown primary sources related to musical life at the court of Anhalt-Zerbst during the eighteenth century. Dr Reul has also published extensively in both English and German journals, including Eighteenth-Century Music, Fasch-Studien, and the Bach-Jahrbuch. Current book projects includes a volume on "German Hofkapellen, 1715-1760: Changing Artistic Priorities", co-edited with Dr Samanth Owens (University of Brisbane) and Dr Janice B Stockigt (University of Melbourne). It will be published by the British publisher Boydell & Brewer. An article by Dr Reul on employment practices at the court of Anhalt-Zerbst is forthcoming with Steglein Publishing, MI, USA.

Dr Reul is also a gifted pedagogue, winning an Inspiring Teaching Award in 2004 and being named a Popular Professor at the University of Regina in the Canadian University Review issue of McLean’s magazine in 2004, 2005, and 2006.

Dr Reul's appearance has been made possible with the generous support of the Pennsylvania Humanities Council.

For more information about Fresh Fasch, Dr Reul or Tempesta di Mare, you can reach us at 215-755-8776 or info@tempestadimare.org.