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Silke Leopold (born 30 November 1948) is a German musicologist and university lecturer.
Born in Hamburg, Leopold studied musicology, theatre studies, Romance languages and literature at the University of Hamburg and the University of Rome, besides also singing and transverse flute at the Hamburger Konservatorium from 1969 to 1975.[1] From 1969 to 1980 she was member of the Monteverdi-Chor Hamburg (conducted by Jürgen Jürgens).[2] After receiving her doctorate in 1975 on the Roman Baroque composer Stefano Landi, she spent three years as a research fellow at the German Historical Institute in Rome, then two years as a fellow of the German Research Foundation. As a research assistant to Carl Dahlhaus, she has taught at the Technische Universität Berlin since 1980, where she habilitated in 1987 with a thesis on poetry and music in the Italian solo singing of the early 17th century. After an academic year as visiting scholar at Harvard University in 1985/86 and a substitute professorship in the summer semester 1988 at the University of Regensburg she was appointed in 1991 as full professor at the Musikwissenschaftliches Seminar Detmold/Paderborn and the Hochschule für Musik Detmold.
From 1996 until her retirement in 2014, she was Professor of musicology and Director of the Musicological Institute of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. Leopold held numerous elective positions in the Academic Self-Government; from 2001 to 2007 she was vice-rector for studies and teaching at Heidelberg University, where she was responsible for the conversion of courses to the BA/MA system and a sensible distribution concept for the newly introduced tuition fees. Leopold has been a member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities since 1999.[2]
Leopold's research focuses on the history of music from the 16th to the 18th century and on the question of how text and music combine to form an individual organism. She has studied this in connection with the Italian language and emphasized interdisciplinary approaches. This is reflected above all in her contributions to the history of opera. Leopold has published numerous books on this subject, a complete account of the 17th century opera, and writings on the operas of Claudio Monteverdi, Georg Friedrich Handel and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Further focal points are historically informed performance, the relationship between musical text and performance, aesthetics of music as well as questions of music historiography and the epochal classification of music. Since 2006 Leopold has been head of the research centre of the Südwestdeutsche Hofmusik of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences.[2][3]
Parallel to her scientific career, Leopold develops extensive journalistic activities, as the communication of scientific findings to an interested public outside her peers is important to her. She moderates and writes broadcasts on topics from her specialist fields in broadcasting, has co-developed various radio formats, writes programme book texts and organises seminars and teacher training courses outside the university.[2]
As editor: