Katharina Brand D.M.A. ’01

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Katharina Brand is a native German speaker who is also fluent in English and French. However, she has excelled in her field of study without the use of any language at all – she is an accomplished classical pianist who has most recently expanded her expertise to the period instrument, fortepiano. In addition, she has earned a diploma in organ for her studies at a German Protestant church.

While still living in her native country, Brand actively participated in all facets of musical scholarship, interning at the Badisches Konservatorium in Karlsruhe and running summer school music workshops in Regensburg. In 1996, she organized and led the Fachschaftstagung Musik, an annual meeting of all music and musicology scholars of the Cusanuswerk. Even after having embarked on her studies in the United States, Brand still regularly travels back to Europe to perform and participate in musical programs.

Although she is blessed with international experience, Brand has settled comfortably into the UCLA graduate studies program, becoming a valuable member of the academic community. She became a teaching assistant in keyboard skills and musicianship in 1999, consistently earning high marks on her evaluations from students. Most recently, she has produced an impressive dissertation on Mozart's Keyboard Sonatas that combines her performance experiences on piano and fortepiano with her theoretical studies in musicology. When she is not busy with her studies, she privately teaches piano to children and young adults at all levels.

However, Brand is not merely a student and instructor, she is foremost a talented performer. During her time in the graduate studies program, she has taken part in more than 36 solo and collaborative public recitals, ranging from the International Fortepiano Competition in Belgium to an Early Music Concert in UCLA's own Popper Theater.

Brand has been widely recognized for both her scholarship and musicianship, receiving multiple honors and awards such as the Mimi Alpert Feldman Award and travel grants to perform abroad. This year, after campus-wide competition, she was selected for a prestigious Dissertation Year Fellowship, her most recent of several hard-earned scholarships. She will receive her doctorate of arts at the end of this academic quarter.