Eckart Altenmüller
A university professor and medical doctor, Eckart Altenmüller was born in Rottweil, Germany. He studied medicine at the University of Tübingen and the University Paul et Marie Curie in Paris. He completed his music studies at the University of Freiburg where he also attended master classes in German flute with Aurèle Nicolet and William Bennett.
His passion for music pulled him toward a concert career while his love for medical science would not let him go. So he found his personal way of combining the two passions into musician-specific medical research. Thus, in 1983 he became assistant to Professor Richard Jung in the Department of clinical neurophysiology in Freiburg, where he carried out research into brain activity while listening to music, and learning of motor skills.
Professor Altenmüller also assisted Dr. J. Dichgans in the Department of Neurology at the University of Tübingen. Here he received clinical training in neurology and conducted research on auditory processing and on motor systems in musicians.
Since 1994 Eckart Altenmüller is a full Professor and Head of the Institute for Musician¹s Physiology and Medicine at the University for Music and Theater in Hanover. He continues research on the processing of musical stimuli by the brain and motor skill learning in musicians.
He received the Kornmüller Young Scientists Award of the German Society for Clinical Neurophysiology as well as the Award for EEG Research from the German Society for Clinical Electrophysiology in 1992. He lectures on his work worldwide.