Berlin's Barenboim-Said Academy Appoints New Rector

Dr. Regula Rapp will succeed founding Rector Michael Naumann following the latter's 80th birthday

Currently President of the Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts since 2012, Dr. Regula Rapp also served as the Director of the Swiss Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.

Michael Naumann and Daniel Barenboim are "extraordinarily happy" to welcome Dr. Rapp's return to Berlin.

Close friends Daniel Barenboim and Edward W. Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in Weimar, Germany, in 1999 — with a mission to unite young Arab and Israeli musicians. To continue this mission, The Barenboim-Said Akademie then opened in 2015, committed to educating a new generation of musicians.

"It is an honor for me to be asked to contribute my experience and energy as rector of a very special conservatory that not only stands for the very highest quality but also embodies the international cultural and political task of fostering Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said's 'experiment in utopia,' a utopia that could not be more musical, more human, and most of all more timely," said Dr. Rapp.