Hannah Otto
Musicology - Research Assistant
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Office address
AR-B 2326
Level 3
Adolf-Reichwein-Str. 2
57076
Victories
Person
Hannah Otto is a musicologist and soprano specializing in contemporary music, expanded vocal practice, and artistic research. She studied at the Detmold University of Music and at the Detmold/Paderborn Seminar for Musicology, and earned her master’s degree with a focus on artistic research at the Cologne University of Music and Dance.
Since the summer semester of 2026, she has been a research assistant to Prof. Dr. Evelyn Buyken (Musicology / Sound Studies) at the Institute of Music at the University of Siegen.
Her artistic and scholarly work explores the expressive and performative potential of the voice. Her research centers on contemporary music as well as questions of the democratization of artistic spaces, accessibility, and inclusion. In her research, she examines the formation and transformation of identity through sound. Her focus ranges from the performative dimensions of gender and vocality to the materiality of breath, text, and sonic presence. She also explores issues related to exile, memory, and resistance.
Her work emerges from an exchange between research and practice, within collaborative and transdisciplinary contexts that extend into the visual arts, video, and sound technology. She maintains ongoing collaborations with international composers such as Ahmetcan Gökçeer, Carlie Schoonees, and Joan Tan Jing Wen; world premieres and projects have taken place at venues including the Sommerblut Culture Festival in Cologne, the Museum of Applied Arts in Cologne, the Beethoven House in Bonn, and the INMM in Darmstadt. In March 2026, she sang Schoenberg’s *Pierrot Lunaire* with the Contemporary Sound Forum Seoul in South Korea. She also works as a voice-over artist and narrator for short films and children’s concerts.
For her work on the Chilean composer Leni Alexander, she was awarded the Best Paper Award by the GMM (Society for Music Business and Music Culture Research). She has received scholarships and grants from, among others, the Mozartfest Würzburg, the FARM program at the Orpheus Institute in Ghent (BEL), and a residency at the European Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Montepulciano (IT); further inspiration came from master classes and summer schools, including at the Cage Academy in Halberstadt. She is an editorial board member, author, and podcast host at musiktexte.online.
Her doctoral project at the University of Siegen is closely linked to her artistic practice. In September 2026, she will perform at the Bern Music Festival in the world premiere of a new work by Aline Sarah Müller, in which she will, among other things, perform using gestural vocal techniques.
