The music therapist

Sandra is a trained music therapist and works in forensic psychiatry. The clinical pictures treated there are: schizophrenic psychoses, personality disorders such asantisocial/
dissocial personality disorder, borderline personality disorder/emotionally unstable personality disorder, sexual preference disorders, intelligence deficits, brain-organic disorders, autism and ADHD.

She uses active and receptive methods of western music therapy. In addition, Sandra has a strong passion for classical oriental music therapy. With colleagues from universities in Turkey and Egypt, she is in the process of evaluating the ancient knowledge from Arabic and Ottoman sources and transferring it into a contemporary, evidence-based context. In the process, there are lots of exciting questions to be answered, such as: Does the mâkam still have the same effect today as it did in the 13th century, when the tonal system has definitely undergone relevant modifications?

Sound example:
Ney and tambura - transfer to the 21st century 

You don't see Sandra with the almost clichéd guitar for music therapists, but with harps of all kinds. She believes that harps should have a very special place in psychiatry. Pythagoras already knew: the instrument is the body, the strings are the nerves and when these are plucked, the mind calms down. 

Sandra also loves to work with sound - depending on the symptoms. She is a certified sound massage practitioner (Peter Hess) and has a passion for tambouras and monochords. She is also trained seminar leader for autogenic training and progressive muscle relaxation (Jacobsen). 

The music pedagogue

Forensics and music education? This is a good way to promote personal resources and social learning in patients who have been in prison for a long time, as well as to realise the right to cultural education and participation intramurally. Sandra is currently working on her dissertation project: "Musical offers in the Uchtspringe (Saxony-Anhalt) forensic psychiatric  - conditional factors for strengthening resources and promoting participation, social learning and cultural education" at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Faculty of Philosophy and Education, Department of Music Education and Music Didactics, first supervisor: Prof. Dr. Daniel Mark Eberhard, second supervisor: Prof. Dr. Kai Koch (University of Vechta). 

Sandra was supported by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes during her studies. The German Academic Scholarship Foundation awards scholarships to outstanding students.

Even before her double degree, Sandra taught oboe at a municipal music school and led several young students to successful participation in the nationwide  "Jugend musiziert" competition as well as the performance badges of the National Wind Music Federation. She has also worked as a music teacher in Turkey and Egypt. 

Sandra has designed various intercultural children's concert formats. Examples include "Yakamoz- die Spur des Mondes" ( "Yakamoz - the track of the moon") for the Cultural Office of the City of Hanover and the Hanover Society for New Music (hgnm) and "Kaffee für den König" ("Coffee for the King") commissioned by the Cologne Philharmonic. "Kaffee für den König" is a musical fairy tale about coffee and the holy month of Ramadan and is also available as a CD and audio book. 

The university lecturer

Sandra was a lecturer (Öğretim görevlisi) at the Department of Musicology and Ethnomusicology at the State Conservatory of Turkish Music (ITÜ TMDK) of Istanbul Technical University in Istanbul for several years. 

She taught the Bachelor's and Master's programmes in Turkish and English. In research and teaching she dealt with the following topics: 

• Oriental influences in European music
• Classical Arabic and Ottoman music therapy
• Music history of antiquity
• Music history of the Occident - Middle Ages to Romanticism
• Ottoman music 1500-1800
• Chamber music and performance practice
• Source studies

Sandra has given guest lectures and master classes at various universities in Turkey. Today she is still happy to follow the artistic, pedagogical and music-therapeutic projects of her former students. 

The modern oboist

Sandra became an extraordinary student at the age of 14 in the class of Prof.
Winfried Liebermann, one of the most renowned representatives of the classical German orchestral school, at the Music University Heidelberg-Mannheim. There she also began her studies in orchestral music, which she later completed in Hamburg with Thomas Rohde, also a Liebermann student, with the concert diploma.

Sandra Sinsch was a scholarship holder of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes and first prize winner in the European competition for woodwind and brass instruments of the Yamaha Music Foundation of Europe.

Shortly after graduating from high school, she was engaged by the State Orchestra Rheinische Philharmonie Koblenz, after which Sandra was principal oboist of the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen. Parallel to her studies and orchestral activities, she has been engaged as a guest in orchestras such as the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg, the Philharmonic State Orchestra Bremen, the Orchestra of the Beethovenhalle Bonn, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the City of Heidelberg, the Philharmonic Orchestra of the City of Trier and the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester. For the sake of completeness, it must be mentioned that Sandra was not happy with this for a single day.

In the 2016/17 season, Sandra Sinsch was principal oboist in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina Symphony Orchestra and Alexandria Opera House in Alexandria, Egypt. This then reconciled her a little with the modern orchestra, perhaps because the Orient began right outside the door of the concert hall. As a soloist, she performed in Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Russia.

The historical oboist

The encounter with historical oboes led to a readjustment of her artistic profile. Sandra received her training on baroque and classical oboes with occasional excursions to the double-reed instruments of the Renaissance with Carole Wiesmann at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel, Switzerland) and with Ann-Kathrin Brüggemann at the Conservatoire Strasbourg (France) and the Institute for Early Music at Trossingen Music University (Germany). Diploma thesis: Ottoman influences in European art music. In 2007 she was awarded a prize in the Early Music Competition of the National German Radio (SR) and the Fritz-Neumeyer-Academy for Early Music.

From 2009 to 2012 Sandra was a member of the Pera Ensemble. During this time she was awarded the Echo-Klassik for the CD "Baroque oriental" (Berlin Classics). Since 2012 she has focused on her work with the Alla Turca Kollektif. As a chamber musician Sandra can be heard on several CD's (Sony BMG, Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, Berlin Classics) as well as radio recordings and has performed in the following houses/festivals: Tage Innsbruck Early Music Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Fränkischer Sommer, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Berliner Philharmonie, Handel Festival Halle, CRR Istanbul, Köln Philharmonie, Tage Alter Musik Herne, Bodenseefestival, Herrenchiemsee Festspiele, Schlosskonzerte Bad Krozingen, ODTÜ Ankara Concert Hall. 

On a project basis she has worked as a baroque and classical oboist with: Lauttencompagney Berlin, Das Neue Orchester Köln, l'arte del mondo, Chursächsische Kammerphilharmonie, Main-Barockorchester Frankfurt, Neumeyer Consort, Concerto Stella Matutina, Ensemble Corund Lucerne, Le Concert Lorrain, Orchestre de Festival de Saintes, l'arpa festante, Bremer Barockorchester and of course the obligatory "telephone orchestras."

The music geragogue

Sandra is a certified musicgeragogue (Münster University of Applied Sciences). Musicgeragogy is a still young academic field at the interface of pedagogy and geragogy, which deals with musical educational processes from the age of 50. Musicgeragogical work can be directed at physically and mentally fit people, but also includes very old seniors who suffer from dementia. Even then, it is still possible to make music actively. 

Musicgeragogues work in education, social services, health care and nursing. In contrast to music therapy, it is mainly about aesthetic experiences that serve to improve the quality of life and life satisfaction of people in the third and fourth age. Sandra's special music-geragogical interests are in the fields of prison and (forensic) psychiatry.