Ms. Catherine Greer

Professional Background

Ms. Catherine Greer is currently PhD Candidate in German Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She holds an MA in German and minor in musicology, and a M.M. in Vocal Performance from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. As the Margit Meissner Fund for the Study of the Holocaust in Czech Lands Fellow, at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Ms. Greer will be conducting research for her project “Redeeming Theresienstadt: Music, Memory, and Marginalization.”

Ms. Greer is fluent in English and German. She also has advanced skills in Spanish and can read French, Polish, and Hebrew.

Ms. Greer participated in the USC-Yad Vashem Workshop for Advanced PhD Candidates in Holocaust Studies held at Yad Vashem in June 2017. In 2016, Ms. Greer presented “Commemoration or Exploitation? The Defiant Requiem Project” at the Lessons and Legacies XIV, Holocaust Educational Foundation at Northwestern Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California. She also presented “Flourishing in Captivity: Remembering Childhood in Theresienstadt” for Children and War: Past and Present at the University of Salzburg, Austria. Ms. Greer has been the recipient of several fellowships and awards throughout her career. Furthermore, she is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music and made her professional debut with the Ohio Light Opera. She can be heard on recordings with Albany Records and continues to perform as soloist in recital, chamber, and orchestral works. Ms. Greer also offers lecture recitals on vocal music composed in Theresienstadt.

Fellowship Research

While in residence at the Mandel Center, Ms. Greer initiated research on the musical activity in Theresienstadt. Drawing on the Museum's resources, she sought to challenge prevalent redemptive narratives and establish a historically nuanced understanding of the works multi-faceted roles in the camp and beyond, though the contextualized understanding of the three major works rehearsed in Theresienstadt - Hans Krása’s Brundibár, Giuseppe Verdi’s Requiem, and Viktor Ullman’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis.

Ms. Greer was in residence from September 1 to December 31, 2017.