Team
Çiğdem Göymen
Acting Manager
Çiğdem Göymen studied English language & literature and Romance languages in Freiburg, and also completed a Film & TV Studies course in London. Even at an early stage of her studies, she undertook a stage-direction internship at the Choreographisches Tanztheater Freiburg, run by Pavel Mikulastik, and spent the following years working, among other stints, in the Dramaturgy department of the Pretty Ugly Dance Company, under the artistic direction of Amanda Miller.
In 2000, she graduated with a Magister Artium in Freiburg and moved to Istanbul, where she designed the Music, Film and Visual Arts programmes at the Goethe Institute in Istanbul until 2009, before being appointed Assistant Director of the Contemporary Istanbul Art Fair.
She returned to Germany in 2010 and worked as a freelancer, with roles including script proof-reader for the Medienboard Berlin Brandenburg and the Komische Oper Berlin, as well as completing an advanced film-production course at the Institut für Schauspiel, Film- und Fernsehberufe (ISFF) in Berlin Mitte. In 2012, she joined the Hamburg-based team of film-maker Fatih Akin, who had been a friend and professional connection since 2003.
She took charge of managing the newly established Folkwang Institute for Pop Music in Bochum in the spring of 2014, and has been the Institute’s Acting Manager since January 2020.
Marc Grünhäuser
Student Employee (Studio Technology)
Marc Grünhäuser studied Popular Music and Media in Paderborn. Since the 2021 winter semester, he has been enrolled as a Masters student at the Institute for Pop Music at the Folkwang University of the Arts.
From as early as his Bachelor course, he began working as a musician at the Kassel State Theatre under Martina van Boxen. During this period, he also teamed up with interdisciplinary artist Anna Balthasar to create the LOKI music project, which was awarded the prestigious popNRW Prize in the Newcomer category in 2020 and, over the following years, was able to establish itself on the GSA music scene through performances at the c/o-pop Festival, Reeperbahn Festival and Waves Vienna Festival.
As part of his Masters course, Grünhäuser collaborated with dancer Maria Savva (BITE ME!, Ruhrfestspiele) and physical-theatre artist Julia Berger (A Western Story, Maschinenhaus Essen). His work in the field of ‘Generative Music’ has been exhibited at the likes of the tanz.tausch Festival, and, since 2022, he has also been part of the Deutschland-Stipendiat*innen scholarship programme at the Folkwang University of the Arts.
Since the 2023 summer semester, he has been assisting the Institute for Pop Music as a student employee, contributing his expertise in equipment inventory and studio technology.
(Photo: Anna Balthasar)
Bernhard Eichner
Study Programme Co-ordinator
In addition to this main role as a Folkwang Professor of Music Theory, specialising in arrangement / instrumentation / composition / production, Bernhard Eichner has also played a leading role in designing the Master of Popular Music course. As Study Programme Co-ordinator, he further develops the course by planning content and linking this with other disciplines at the Folkwang University of the Arts.
His work has also included interdisciplinary orchestral projects with the Duisburg Philharmonic during the Capital of Culture Year 2010 and the 300-year anniversary of Duisburg Harbour in 2016, as well as orchestrations and compositions for film/TV, including the theme music for the Deutscher Filmpreis, played by the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle.
Vera Timmerberg
Institutional Board/Chair
Vera Timmerberg heads the University Development department at the Folkwang University of the Arts, and represents the university on the City of Essen’s Cultural Advisory Council. Together with Prof. Bernhard Eichner, she founded the Institute for Popular Music, and has been the chair of the Institutional Board ever since. Vera Timmerberg has a degree in educational science, majoring in cultural work, and spent many years working as a lecturer in empirical cultural research at the Department of Cultural Policy at the University of Hildesheim. She was also head of the Mercator Foundation’s Cultural Education Cluster of Excellence in the Capital of Culture Year Ruhr 2010 project. She created and ran the Rote Liebe (Red Love) music club in Essen from 1992 to 1997.
