Professor Rebekka Sandmeier
PhD Trinity College Dublin, Habilitation Münster University
Rebekka Sandmeier completed her Ph.D. on early 20th-century German opera at Trinity College Dublin. Later, she was awarded a Habilitation (professorial dissertation) on a study of John Dunstaple and the contenance angloise at Münster University. After standing in for professorial positions in musicology at the universities of Potsdam and Münster (Germany), she was appointed professor of musicology at the South African College of Music (University of Cape Town). She was director of the SACM from 2014 to 2022.
Rebekka has published widely on English music, opera and oratorio. In 2014 she received the Händel Research Prize (jointly with Dominik Höink) for a study on the performance of Handel’s oratorios in 19th-century Germany. In 2025 she was awarded a fellowship at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies. Her current research interests centre on the reception of Handel’s oratorios, oratorio in 19th-century Germany, and on the history of Western music and Western music institutions in South Africa.
In addition to her academic duties she heads a collaborative project between the SACM, the community centre iThemba Labantu in Philippi and the German NGO “Crossroads” bringing music education to Cape Town townships.
In her spare time Rebekka plays the viola da gamba and enjoys riding her motorbike.
Picture credit: Ignus Dreyer, SCPS Photography