Mauro Fosco Bertola is a Privatdozent in musicology at the University of Tübingen. He first studied philosophy in Italy (laurea), completing a thesis on the moral philosophy of Nicolas Malebranche, later earning a doctorate in musicology from Heidelberg University in 2012 with a dissertation exploring how collective identities were constructed through musicological research and radio broadcasting in Italy and Germany between 1890 and 1945. He has worked as a research associate at the Department of Musicology in Heidelberg, held a postdoctoral fellowship at the DFG Research Training Group “European Dream Cultures” at Saarland University, and served as an editor for contemporary music at Breitkopf & Härtel. Between 2022 and 2025, he directed a DFG-funded project on the theme of dreams in contemporary music theatre. In 2025, he completed his Habilitation with a study on the portrayal of dreams in the work of Kaija Saariaho and Salvatore Sciarrino. His research centres on contemporary music theatre, the relationship between music and philosophy, and the interplay between music and film.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Edited. Dream and Music Theatre from the 20th to the 21st Century. Tübinger University Press. In preparation.
- “Von Messen und Drohnen: Alain Badiou, die Musik und Jóhann Jóhannssons Drone Mass (2015)”. In Alain Badiou und die Künste, edited by Erik Vogt. Turia + Kant. In preparation.
- Wessen Traum, wessen Gesang? Traum und Musiktheater bei Kaija Saariaho und Salvatore Sciarrino. Edition Text + Kritik. In preparation.
- Edited. The Sound of Žižek: Musicological Perspectives on Slavoj Žižek. Peter Lang, 2023.
- An den Rändern des Lebens: Träume vom Sterben und Geborenwerden in den Künsten. Edited with Christiane Solte-Gresser. Fink, 2019.
- Die List der Vergangenheit: Musikwissenschaft, Rundfunk und Deutschlandbezug in Italien, 1890–1945. Böhlau, 2014.
