Project Design Consultants
Welcome to the Project Design Consultants section of OMAworks!
With decades of local, national, and international experience, our creative team is ready to help you envision and manage a new performing or community arts project. We are a group of diverse individuals with many different kinds of expertise, and we’d be happy to help you find the best match of our people with your project needs.
To reach us, write to us at omaworks@othermusicacademy.eu! Our team includes:
Alan Bern
Drawing on four decades of experience using the Arts and Sciences to develop human potential,
Dr. Alan Bern articulated the values, methods, and vision of the Other Music Academy in 2009. Since then, he has directed its development together with a team of powerful and creative co-workers.
Alan is an internationally renowned musician and composer whose education, work and life experience focus on personal and social transformation through empowerment. An inspiring speaker, he has given presentations and been a coach for the Goethe Institute, the German Federation of Continuing Education Centers (Volkshochschulen), the national Federation of Social-Cultural Centers in Germany and the international Educational Student Exchange (pädagogischer Austauschdienst), among many others.
He is a highly respected teacher with a unique educational vision and method. As an artist, he has designed and led many award-winning transcultural projects, including The Other Europeans, the Semer Ensemble, Brave Old World, and the Kadya Youth Choir. Alan can inspire you and your organization and help you to discover and design interdisciplinary projects for people of all ages that develop their deepest potentials.
Eyal Davidovitch
Multidisciplinary artist and filmmaker, Eyal studied in the Sam Spiegel Film School, Jerusalem and graduated from the Marc Rich Honor Program for Humanities and Arts, Tel Aviv University.
OMA projects he has worked on include #openpavillon and Yiddish Summer, among others. Depending on the project and needs Eyal can work as a film director, film editor, script writer, cameraman, user experience and user interface designer, visual effects maker, animator, and graphic designer. He has also many years of experience in project management and in teaching/mentoring methods, including with the Israeli Scouts, as an officer in the IDF and with various social platforms and projects.
Eyal is a strong advocate for multidisciplinary thinking, a big believer in the power of story-telling and he tries to bring cross-disciplinary knowledge to the fore in every task. Currently living and dreaming in Berlin.
Katrin Füllsack
Inspired by the OMA vision, Katrin has helped turn it into reality, developing it further in the process. Vice chair of the Other Music Academy e.V. her responsibilities for people, projects and partnerships go beyond that role and include developing an institution whose purpose is empowerment for everyone.
In addition to overseeing the renovation of the old building that is home to the OMA, she develops projects and cooperations that bring people together and respond to their needs in a sustainable manner.
Her strengths include concept development, grant writing and creative project management. Her goal is to motivate people and to show them new ways to develop themselves, to use their resources and to encounter each other with care and mutual respect. She looks forward to discovering and realizing these dimensions of your project or project plan together with you.
Johannes Paul Gräßer
Johannes Paul Gräßer is a musician and cultural manager. For many years he was the production manager of the Yiddish Summer Weimar and coordinated the Other Music Academy e.V. office. Since 2021, he has been the artistic director and manager of the Jewish-Israeli Cultural Days in Thuringia, the festival of the Jewish regional community.
Johannes is active as a conductor, teacher, musician, and project manager among many other professional activities. He performs as a violinist with a variety of ensembles in Germany and other countries. He is Founding Director of the Erfurt Klezmer Orchestra, a project with more than 70 amateur musicians that has performed since 2015 with the support of renowned professional musicians.
Artistic Director of KlezWeCan e.V., whose goal is to enable people with different musical skills to make music together, to encourage intergenerational music-making and to transmit musical knowledge. Johannes creates and produces public events, concerts, and seminars with the aim of helping spread knowledge about the breadth and depth of Yiddish culture.
Valentin Schmehl
Valentin has contributed to the the OMA vision as project creator, manager and artist since 2011. His approach to project development is always driven by curiosity about what he and others would like to learn together in interdisciplinary work settings that typically include students of various ages, artists and craftspeople as well as academic experts.
A sharp and critical mind, broad theoretical education, joyful character and abundance of ideas make him a strong partner in designing interdisciplinary sociocultural projects. His broad international network of partners from diverse disciplines and working styles will bring new dimensions to your envisioned project.
Valentin will help you conceptualize your ideas, identify and connect with potential partners, and design relevant, innovative learning formats. He will also work with you on fundraising, bookkeeping, project management and implementing principles of empowerment in your project.
Andreas Schmitges
Andreas Schmitges is a musician, anthropologist of music, dance master, cultural manager and an activist for Yiddish culture in an intercultural context. He has been closely affiliated with the OMA and Yiddish Summer since their beginnings. He is presently a member of the Other Music Academy e.V. board and Curator of Yiddish Summer Weimar. He is a research associate within the UNESCO chair for transcultural music research at the Conservatory of Music FRANZ LISZT in Weimar as well as Artistic Director of the Klezmerwelten festival in Gelsenkirchen and the Jewish Culture Days in Halle.
Andreas has diverse and wide experience with the creation and production of (inter)cultural projects and festivals in theater, music, education and community arts as well as with the organization and conception of international exchange projects such as Yiddish Summer Weimar 2019 “The Weimar Republic of Yiddishland,” Caravan Orchestra & Choir, Triangle Orchestra and many of the projects and productions represented by OMAworks.