Jana Semaan
My experience
My name is Jana Semaan, and I am a cellist from Byblos, Lebanon. My cello journey began in Beirut when I was eight years old, with a great teacher who died of cancer ten years later. He was like a father to me. Shortly before he left us, he made me promise to continue my cello studies abroad, as it would not have been possible to find a better teacher in Beirut.
I moved to Berlin in 2009 and had a small scholarship from the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, where I was a member. I took lessons from Professor Elena Cheah for a year to prepare for the entrance exam to the Musikhochschule. One year later, I was a bachelor student at the State University of Music and Performing Arts in Stuttgart.
I no longer had a scholarship or a job, but I had a lot of music projects and needed time to study and practice. Pastor Ulrich Hollop and his wife Ursula, my wonderful landlords and ‘German grandparents’, recommended me to the Dr. Gerda von Mach Memorial Foundation, where I was able to apply with the assistance of the very friendly Ms. Böttcher.
I immediately became a scholarship holder. With fewer worries about paying my rent, surviving and continuing to study, I could focus more on my studies. This motivated me to always have good grades and to work hard. My studies went very well and I graduated with a grade of 1.0 in 2014.
My goal was always to go back to Lebanon and teach the next generation of cellists and musicians the things I had learned. Since we didn’t have many good options with regard to teachers and schools in the field of classical music in Lebanon, I felt it was my obligation. Immediately after graduating, I decided to take the entrance exam for a master’s in baroque cello/early music, as we did not yet have this as a subject in Lebanon and the neighboring Arab countries.
When I passed the entrance exam, I reapplied to the Dr. Gerda von Mach Memorial Foundation, where, as an exception, I received another scholarship for my master’s degree. I graduated with 1.0 in 2016 and moved back to Lebanon, where I founded the first center for early music in the region at the Université Antonine in 2018. Together with friends and fellow students from my studies in Germany, I teach at the university, play concerts and regularly organize projects between Lebanon and Germany. Thanks to the Dr. Gerda von Mach Memorial Foundation, I have fulfilled my dream and am now helping young musicians to do the same.