Selma Stern Centre for Jewish Studies in Berlin-Brandenburg (ZJS)
The FRANZ LISZT University of Music in Weimar is one of eight key partners supporting the Selma Stern Centre for Jewish Studies in Berlin-Brandenburg (ZJS). The Centre is dedicated to the academic study of the history and culture of Judaism in its religious and cultural manifestations. PhD students at the University of Music are working alongside Prof. Jascha Nemtsov, for example, on the interdisciplinary doctoral programme “Broken Traditions? Jewish Literature, Philosophy and Music in Nazi Germany”.
The centre’s structure brings together the key players in the academic study of Judaism, in both its religious and cultural dimensions, within the Berlin-Brandenburg research region. The active collaboration between researchers at the Selma Stern Centre provides an outstanding foundation for innovative and forward-looking research.
Other members of this supra-regional network, founded in 2012, include: the Free University of Berlin, Humboldt University of Berlin, the Technical University of Berlin, the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), the University of Potsdam, the Abraham Geiger College and the Moses Mendelssohn Centre for European-Jewish Studies. Under the new cooperation agreement, the centre’s headquarters will move from Humboldt University of Berlin to Freie Universität Berlin.
Member of the ZJS Board
Prof. Dr. Jascha Nemtsov
Professor of Musicology, History of Jewish Music
Officer against anti-Semitism
Hochschulzentrum am Horn
Office hours: Wednesdays 12:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
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)
Back to list