Park Foundation Music App

Home > Artists

Jenny Erpenbeck

Jenny Erpenbeck was born in East Berlin on March 12, 1967. Her father John Erpenbeck was a physicist, philosopher and writer. Her mother Doris Kilias worked as a translator and, among other things, translated the works of the Egyptian Nobel Prize winner for literature Nagib Machfus from Arabic into German. Jenny Erpenbeck went to school in Berlin. After graduating from high school in 1985, she completed an apprenticeship as a bookbinder at the Berlin State Opera until 1987. She then worked as a props mistress and dresser at various German theaters until 1988. From 1988 to 1990 she studied theater at the Humboldt University in Berlin. In 1990 she changed to the Berlin Academy of Music "Hans Eisler", where she studied musical theater direction until 1994. Among her teachers were the respected directors Peter Konwitschny, Werner Herzog and Heiner Müller.