The Siegmund Seligmann Foundation is a foundation under civil law with legal capacity. The foundation’s purpose is the idealistic and financial promotion of art and culture, research, education as well as religion and international understanding in the field of sacral Jewish music.
For this reason, the Siegmund Seligmann Foundation has acquired the Villa Seligmann and established a place of encounter and research, that is operated by the Siegmund Seligmann Society e.V.
Board of Directors
Dr. Reinhard Geck, Chairman
Retired lawyer and tax consultant
Robert Cholewa, Deputy Chairman
Chairman of the Executive Board Mittelstand of Commerzbank AG a.D.
Michael Wieck, Treasurer
Lawyer and notary, Wieck & Hölscher law firm
Board of Trustees
Dr. Sabine Johannsen, Chairwoman
State Secretary for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony a. D.
Dr. Franz Rainer Enste, Deputy Chairman
Representative of the Government of Lower Saxony against Anti-Semitism and for the Protection of Jewish Life a.D.
Dirk Roßmann
Founder of Dirk Rossmann GmbH
Prof. Dr. Joachim Schachtner
State Secretary in the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony
Martin Kind
Managing Director of KIND GmbH & Co. KG
Hans-Jürgen Duensing
Member of the Executive Board Continental AG a.D.
Volker Alt
Chairman of the Board of Management of Sparkasse Hannover
Dr. Johannes Janssen
Director of the VGH Foundation and the Lower Saxony Savings Banks Foundation
Herbert Flecken
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Verlagsgesellschaft Madsack GmbH & Co. KG
Prof. Andor Izsák
Director of the European Center for Jewish Music a. D.
Prof. Dr. Jascha Nemtsov
Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar History of Jewish Music
Andrea Rey-Suter
Seligmann family
Heinz-Gerhard Wente
Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Salzgitter AG
Laura Berman
Artistic Director of the Hanover State Opera
Ronald Clark
Director of the Herrenhäuser Garden a. D.
Prof. Andor Izsák, Honorary President
Director of the European Center for Jewish Music (ret.)
Claudio Esteban Seleguan, Honorary Member of the Board of Trustees
Managing Director Pelikan Group GmbH
The Siegmund Seligmann Society e.V.
The Siegmund Seligmann Society is a registered non-profit association pursuing the promotion of research and culture, education as well as religion and international understanding in the field of Jewish music in accordance with the funding objectives of the Siegmund Seligmann Foundation. To this end, cultural events such as concerts, lectures and exhibitions with the content of Jewish music are organized and carried out by the association’s office. The office is institutionally funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture and, since 2021, by the City of Hannover.
Board of Directors
Robert Cholewa – Chairman
Chairman of the Executive Board Mittelstand of Commerzbank AG a.D.
Dr. Reinhard Geck – Deputy Chairman Chairman
Retired lawyer and tax consultant
Michael Wieck
Lawyer and Notary, Wieck & Hölscher Law Firm
Anne Remmers
Speaker, State Chancellery of Lower Saxony
Daniela Finkelstein
Head of Network for Traumatized Refugees in Lower Saxony e. V. Göttingen
Management and artistic direction
Eliah Sakakushev-von Bismarck has been Artistic and Managing Director of Villa Seligmann since 2018. His extensive responsibilities include artistic planning, business administration, fundraising, public relations, and event management.
He was the director and initiator of various chamber music festivals in Germany, Spain and Bulgaria. He turned to music at an early age and attended a special school for professional musicians. At the age of 16 he became a student of cello at the University of Music in Vienna. He completed his concert examinations at the Musikhochschule Mannheim. He has performed on international stages as a chamber musician, orchestral cellist and soloist. Appointments as solo cellist in orchestras have taken him to Spain, Germany, Brazil and New Zealand.
Eliah is fluent in six languages. He lives in Hanover with his wife Caroline von Bismarck and two children.
International Artistic Advisory Board
Prof. Dr. Edwin Seroussi (Israel, USA)
Hebrew University Jerusalem
University of Pennsylvania
Prof. Dr. Jascha Nemtsov (Germany)
Franz Liszt University of Music Weimar
University of Potsdam
University of Lüneburg
Concert pianist
Prof. Dr. Sarah Ross (Germany)
European Center for Jewish Music, Hanover University of Music, Dance and Media
Prof. Dr. Mark Kligman (USA)
University of California at Los Angeles – The Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience
Benjamin Maissner (Canada)
Cantor Emeritus Holy Blossom Temple Toronto
Yair Harel (Israel)
The Piyyut Database
The Jerusalem Massortiyut Conference
Concert musician, singer
Matt Austerklein (USA)
Cantor, musicologist
