Prof. Dr. Jascha Nemtsov

The pianist and musicologist Jascha Nemtsov was born in Magadan, Siberia, in 1963. He grew up in St. Petersburg and graduated from the special music school there (with a gold medal). He then continued his musical education at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory (concert diploma with honours). He has lived in the Federal Republic of Germany since 1992.

Jascha Nemtsov performs internationally as a pianist. He has recorded more than 40 CDs to date, including numerous first recordings of works by persecuted composers who have been rediscovered. ‘Jascha Nemtsov shows himself to be a pianist worthy of Liszt's lineage’, was the verdict of the magazine “Fono Forum” on the occasion of his recording of Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsodies. Many of his CDs have won international awards. The CD with sonatas for violin and piano by Shostakovich and Weinberg with violinist Kolja Blacher received the German Record Critics' Award in 2007. In 2018, Nemtsov was honoured with the ‘OPUS KLASSIK - the German Classical Music Prize’ for his anthology of five CDs with piano works by the Russian composer Vsevolod Zaderatsky, who was persecuted under Stalinism. His most recent CD ‘Ukrainian Préludes’ was nominated for the International Classical Music Awards 2025. On 27 January 2012 and 27 January 2022, he performed at the German Bundestag to mark the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of National Socialism. Nemtsov is also a gifted storyteller and often accompanies his concerts with lively commentary.

Nemtsov received his doctorate in 2004 and habilitated in 2007. In 2011, he took up a guest professorship for Jewish music and culture at the University of Lüneburg. In 2018, he was a DAAD guest lecturer at the University of Haifa (Israel). In 2013, he was appointed Professor of the History of Jewish Music at the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar. Nemtsov is the editor of the series ‘Jüdische Musik. Studies and Sources on Jewish Musical Culture’ published by Harrassowitz Verlag Wiesbaden. His academic work focuses on Jewish music and Jewish composers in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries as well as topics such as ‘Nationalism and Music’, ‘Religion and Music’ and ‘Totalitarianism and Music’. He has given numerous guest lectures at various German universities, in many European countries, Israel, Canada and the USA. In 2024, Harrassowitz Verlag Wiesbaden published his monograph ‘From St. Petersburg to Vienna: The New Jewish School in Music (1908-1938) as Part of the Jewish Cultural Renaissance’ and Nomos Verlag published his textbook ‘Jüdische Musik: Einführung’, the first publication of its kind in the world. Nemtsov is a member of the Institute for Musicology Weimar-Jena and the Institute for Jewish Theology at the University of Potsdam, Academic Director of Cantor Training at the Abraham Geiger College, member of the Board of Directors of the Selma Stern Centre for Jewish Studies Berlin-Brandenburg, member of the Federal Expert Committee ‘Music in Religions and Churches’ at the German Music Council and other academic bodies.

Jascha Nemtsov is married to the composer Sarah Nemtsov. They live in Berlin with their three children.

publication list (german PDF)