Teacher of the Year draws inspiration from acting: \u00bbI often improvise\u00ab<\/a><\/em><\/p>\nShe carefully selected those words a few years ago when a tutor asked if she would write a few lines for the new students that captured who she is.<\/p>\n
\u00bbI thought about what lies at the core of my heart. What is my foundation? And then it struck me: It\u2019s that,\u00ab she says, pointing with one hand to the words, and the other to her heart.<\/p>\n
Nenia Zenana seeks, in all areas of life, the places where the heart opens, she says. And if she has to explain what that really means, music is a good place to start.<\/p>\n
\u00bbI experience that we can work with certain sonorities\u00a0or texts that suddenly resonate with the individual, where you feel released, and where you can simultaneously be a channel for those who are listening,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n
\u00bbIf I, as the performing musician, can make peace with myself, then those who listen can also make peace with themselves. Do you see what I mean?\u00ab<\/p>\n
Entreat me not to leave you<\/h3>\n
Nenia Zenana teaches ear training and practical piano, leads community singing at the department once a month, and is coursework coordinator for various courses on the programme. She also leads the musicology choir, MUKO, which is comprised of 80 volunteer students from different year cohorts.<\/p>\n
\u00bbWonderful, wonderful young people. It is such a joy. Just insanely delightful,\u00ab she says about the choir.<\/p>\n
It is particularly in her work with large choirs that she repeatedly sees her wish for open hearts play out in reality.<\/p>\n
Recently, Nenia Zenana was leading the choir through the piece Entreat Me Not To Leave You<\/em> by Dan Forrest, which tells the story of a family forced to flee their homeland and settle in a neighbouring country.
\n
\nAfter many years in the neighbouring country, the family\u2019s father and two sons have died, and the woman is left with her two daughters-in-law. She tells them she plans to return to her homeland and release them. But one daughter-in-law will not accept this:<\/p>\n\u00bbShe says: Do not force me to leave you; entreat me not to leave you<\/em>. Where you go, I will go. Your people shall be my people. Your home shall be my home. Your language shall be my language. And when the choir sings this piece, it is clear that the students are deeply moved by it. They feel the love in the words \u2014 the willingness to say, even if I have to leave something of myself behind, I will stay with you.\u00ab<\/p>\nNenia Zenana touches her heart again as she recounts the story. She exhales deeply:<\/p>\n
\u00bbThere are 80 young people standing there, opening their hearts. And this \u2014 this is what I get to do.\u00ab<\/p>\n
\u00bbCan I have a hug?\u00ab<\/h1>\n
It\u2019s not hard to see, hear or feel that Nenia Zenana loves her job \u2014 and that, in a certain sense, her job loves her back.<\/p>\n
As we walk the corridors and she enthusiastically points out the things we pass along the way, we run into a student who stops us.<\/p>\n
\u00bbCan I have a hug?\u00ab the student asks, and the teacher exclaims ‘Of course! What\u2019s up?’<\/em><\/p>\nIt\u2019s been tough, the exams, the student explains. Nenia Zenana sighs and says she knows. I\u2019m glad you said so, she replies, and gives the student\u2019s arm a gentle squeeze before we move on.<\/p>\n
In addition to her position as associate professor on the musicology programme, Nenia Zenana works as a Body Self Development System therapist. She makes sure her students know. They shouldn\u2019t hesitate to come to her if they\u2019re experiencing pain \u2014 whether physical, psychological or \u2014 as is often the case \u2014 a combination of both.<\/p>\n
\u00bbStudents often come to me during a break and say, I\u2019ve got something with my wrist, my neck, or something else. And if they allow me, I help them release it,\u00ab says Nenia Zenana.<\/p>\n
What hurts is usually rooted in something deeper than strained muscles, she says. Over the years, she has worked with students who\u2019ve suffered from various forms of anxiety and depression, or who have been in deep sorrow for one reason or another.<\/p>\n
\u00bbI find that the students show me an incredible amount of openness and trust, and I find that beautiful.\u00ab<\/p>\n
On our tour, we pass a wall covered in clippings that Nenia Zenana has been graciously allowed to put up by a campus officer.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re from a themed week she led in the autumn, where all first-semester students worked across subjects on the band Savage Rose<\/em> \u2014 ensemble, ear training, functional piano, and musical anthropology.<\/p>\n\u00bbI once worked with the lead singer (Annisette Koppel, ed.), so I wrote to her and asked if she would come and see what we had done \u2014 and she said yes. It was fantastic that the students got to experience a connection between their studies and real life,\u00ab says Nenia Zenana.<\/p>\n
\u00bbThe students loved the fact that there was coherence between their different courses throughout an entire week. And sure, it cost us teachers a lot of extra time to put it all together, but we just thought it was so much fun.\u00ab<\/p>\n
The perfect choir hall<\/h1>\n
Nenia Zenana herself graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in ear training, conducting, and piano in 1996. That same year she began teaching at UCPH, and although it was only a few hours a week at first, it gradually increased.<\/p>\n
Today, she is employed in a 25-hour position. This allows her time for both her therapeutic work and her own musical projects.<\/p>\n
But of all the places she has been, nothing compares to the choir hall that was built at South Campus, she says as we arrive.<\/p>\n
\u00bbThis room has simply the perfect acoustics. They have had some really skilled acousticians working on it when they built it,\u00ab she says, as we stand in the large hall with high ceilings and special acoustic panels on the walls.
\n
\n\u00bbThere\u2019s a reason I\u2019ve stayed out here. As a performing musician, you can help convey a message and help the audience find peace within themselves. But as a teacher, you get even closer,\u00ab says Nenia Zenana.<\/p>\n
\u00bbI often teach groups of ten to twelve students, and that really lets you sense the mood in the room. Maybe one student is eager to learn, and another needs to hang back a bit. Then it\u2019s up to the teacher to find the right balance.\u00ab<\/p>\n
Be good on your own terms<\/h1>\n
Nenia Zenana is still \u00bbcompletely overwhelmed\u00ab that her students nominated her for the title of Teacher of the Year 2024.<\/p>\n
\u00bbI don\u2019t know how other people teach \u2014 I only know what I do,\u00ab she emphasises when I ask about her teaching methods.<\/p>\n
\n
Nenia Zenana (b. 1966) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 1996.<\/p>\n
She has worked as an associate professor on the Musicology programme for 29 years.<\/p>\n
Long-standing conductor of the Academic Orchestra and Choir in Copenhagen, with whom she has performed and recorded major classical works.<\/p>\n
Nenia Zenana has also conducted the Danish National Girls\u2019 Choir and the Danish Broadcasting Corporation\u2019s entertainment orchestra.<\/p>\n
She has worked as a Body SDS therapist since 2010 and has over the years given talks on music, leadership, spirit and energy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u00bbBut I remember the students writing in their nomination that what they learn from me is that if you do your best and lead with your heart, that\u2019s enough. They also wrote that these values matter in a world that is moving ever faster, where young people are under immense pressure to perform,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n
\u00bbI\u2019m grateful that this is what the students take with them. I believe this is how we set off a ripple effect for peace \u2014 by teaching our young people to lead with their hearts.\u00ab<\/p>\n
Nenia Zenana doesn\u2019t like when someone claims to be \u00bbthe best\u00ab at something. For the same reason, she doesn\u2019t want to be called \u00bbThe best teacher at UCPH\u00ab. Because if you\u2019re only good when you\u2019re better than others, it doesn\u2019t mean anything, she believes.<\/p>\n
\u00bbIf you want to be good, just be good on your own terms. All that stuff about others \u2014 it simply doesn\u2019t matter. Focus instead on whether you\u2019re better than you were yesterday. Great, then be happy about that. If you compare yourself to others, you\u2019ll always lose.\u00ab<\/p>\n
According to Nenia Zenana, young people today are under tremendous pressure to perform and succeed. But despite higher expectations placed on individuals, she sees a generation that increasingly seeks community.<\/p>\n
\u00bbI\u2019ve been teaching for almost 30 years, and about 20 years ago, I experienced a period where a wave of students arrived who weren\u2019t that focused on community. They were very self-oriented and demanded more from their surroundings,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n
\u00bbBut that has changed significantly. Right now, we\u2019re seeing a generation of young people who want to make use of each other. The spirit of the times puts a lot of pressure on students, and that means that in some ways, we now have students who are highly sensitive,\u00ab she says, stressing that at the same time, many are fighting back against that very pressure.<\/p>\n
\u00bbStudents today are increasingly indifferent to career, status, and money. They want a meaningful life. And I think that\u2019s absolutely wonderful,\u00ab she laughs. And adds:<\/p>\n
\u00bbIt\u2019s also sustainable. I think it\u2019s good for us \u2014 as a society, that is. I see students out here who manage to lead with their hearts, and that makes me happy.\u00ab<\/p>\n
A chord in major, minor, or off the scale?<\/h1>\n
A couple of weeks later, I visit a functional piano class, where around ten students are seated at individual electric keyboards in a music room.<\/p>\n
Soon after the lesson begins, another student walks through the door. She waves apologetically and says: \u00bbHi, I\u2019m supposed to be in here.\u00ab<\/p>\n
\u00bbNo way, really? That\u2019s fantastic!\u00ab exclaims Nenia Zenana, turning to the rest of the group:<\/p>\n
\u00bbAnna has been struggling with her vocal cords since she started.
\n
\nShe had been silent for three months, but now she\u2019s back. I just can\u2019t get over how amazing it is!\u00ab<\/p>\n
The student \u2014 Anna \u2014 nods with a laugh and takes a seat at a free keyboard. Nenia Zenana soon asks the students to \u00bbpair up in twos\u00ab and make sure Anna \u00bbjoins the club.\u00ab<\/p>\n
Now the students are taking turns in plenary to assess whether the different chords in Se min kjole<\/em> are major, minor or \u2018weird\u2019, as Nenia Zenana puts it. One student hesitates when it\u2019s her turn.<\/p>\n\u00bbWould you like to phone a friend?\u00ab Nenia Zenana asks quickly, using the phrase from the TV quiz show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,<\/em> and the student nods. \u00bbWho are you calling?\u00ab she continues, and the students laugh. Another student jumps in and declares that the chord is major. \u00bbWell said, that\u2019s correct!\u00ab confirms Nenia Zenana.<\/p>\nDuring the break, I catch up with one of the students, Lars Hedegaard Petersen, who is in his second semester but has worked for many years as an IT developer.<\/p>\n
\u00bbI\u2019ve had many different kinds of music teachers throughout my life. And several of them had a very different approach to teaching \u2014 they\u2019d get annoyed if you couldn\u2019t figure things out,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n
\u00bbNenia is just completely different. She welcomes insecurities and mistakes in such a positive way. If you say something wrong, she responds with \u2018that\u2019s an interesting way of looking at it\u2019, instead of saying it\u2019s wrong.\u00ab<\/p>\n
Bastian Smith-Sivertsen is a former student of musicology and was the main organiser behind the nomination of Nenia Zenana for the teaching award, which ended up with about 60 named nominators.<\/p>\n
\u00bbActually, the idea of nominating Nenia had already been floating around the year before \u2014 it just hadn\u2019t been picked up. So last year, I thought: now\u2019s the time. I posted in our shared group, and the response was overwhelming in no time,\u00ab says Bastian Smith-Sivertsen. He adds:<\/p>\n
\u00bbAnd that really says a lot about who Nenia is. This award isn\u2019t about something special she did this year \u2014 it\u2019s about what she\u2019s done as a teacher at musicology for what amounts to a human lifetime.\u00ab<\/p>\n
The music world is sometimes driven by cutthroat competition and ambition, says Bastian Smith-Sivertsen. But Nenia Zenana stands for the complete opposite.<\/p>\n
\u00bbShe always says you should only contribute what you\u2019ve had time to prepare. For Nenia, the most important thing is that you give the best you\u2019re capable of. And that actually makes you more motivated to do your homework for her class, because you\u2019re not afraid of being judged,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n
One of Nenia Zenana\u2019s greatest strengths, however, is that to many students, she is more than just a teacher, says Bastian Smith-Sivertsen.<\/p>\n
\u00bbI know so many people who\u2019ve had stress or felt overwhelmed and unable to cope \u2014 and who have gone to Nenia with it, even before turning to their closest friends or family. The role she plays in that regard is simply outstanding,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n
Ask, ask, ask<\/h1>\n
As much as Nenia Zenana loves people, she also loves being alone. Being lonely, in fact. And it took her many years to reach that realisation, she says.<\/p>\n
She experiences a particularly calming solitude when she\u2019s kayaking \u2014 a sport she has practised for the past 12 years. She usually rows out from the north coast of the central Danish island of Zealand, where she lives, and on rare occasions, she\u2019s paddled \u2018around Denmark\u2019 \u2014 a route from the Wadden Sea, around Jutland and Zealand, ending up in Flensburg, Germany. During that journey, she is alone for weeks at a time.<\/p>\n
\u00bbWhen you\u2019re alone, it\u2019s as if the water settles and the truth comes into view,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a bit strange, she adds, because she comes from a family of six siblings, which has over the years grown to a close-knit extended family of 30\u201340 people.<\/p>\n
\u00bbIt took me many years to realise how much I appreciate being alone. I was always used to thinking that being with lots of people meant you were happy. It wasn\u2019t until I started kayaking that I discovered just how hard it is to be alone \u2014 and then, how wonderful it can be, too,\u00ab she says.
\n
\nThe relatively new interest in solitude is about being curious about oneself and questioning the things one has previously taken for granted, she says. She learned to ask those questions many years ago.<\/p>\n
\u00bbWhen I was at the Academy, I hated two things: jazz and the US. I didn\u2019t really know why. So I decided to spend an entire semester at an American jazz college to really find out whether it was because I didn\u2019t understand the language \u2014 both literally and musically \u2014 or whether my taste simply lay elsewhere,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n
\u00bbAnd then I discovered that jazz was just a language I didn\u2019t know. And that the US is made up of people \u2014 some of them not so great, and some of them absolutely amazing. I wouldn\u2019t have discovered those things if I hadn\u2019t dared to ask questions.\u00ab<\/p>\n
She hopes that students will increasingly learn to question themselves and the world around them.<\/p>\n
\u00bbAsk questions, if you can. And if you don\u2019t have the energy to ask questions, then clear the clutter and figure out why that is. Because you\u2019ll never find answers unless you ask,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n
Nenia Zenana has learned a lot about herself over the years, and today she\u2019s not afraid to tell her students that she\u2019s actually not very social \u2014 even if that surprises most of them.<\/p>\n
\u00bbI always take part in the student-organised song contest \u2014 MiGP \u2014 but I no longer go to Christmas parties and that sort of thing,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n
\u00bbI love being with my students. And I also love going home, closing the door, and being completely alone.\u00ab<\/p>\n
This article was first written in Danish and published on 12 August 2025. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.<\/em>
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Award-winning UCPH lecturer \u00bbwelcomes insecurities and mistakes\u00ab \u2014 University Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/award-winning-ucph-lecturer-welcomes-insecurities-and-mistakes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Award-winning UCPH lecturer \u00bbwelcomes insecurities and mistakes\u00ab \u2014 University Post\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Associate professor Nenia Zenana has taught musicology students to be kind to themselves \u2014 and open-hearted with others \u2014 for nearly a whole lifetime. 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"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Standfirst","subject":"Prize educator","text":"Associate professor Nenia Zenana has taught musicology students to be kind to themselves \u2014 and open-hearted with others \u2014 for nearly a whole lifetime. The University Post met up with the Teacher of the Year 2024 on South Campus \u2014 a workplace she adores for both its aesthetics and its people.\r\n","use_post_excerpt":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Byline","is_author":true,"contributors":false},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>\u00bbThis is what I mean.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>Nenia Zenana spreads her arms in a gesture towards a large panoramic window, which, as far as the eye can see, offers views of vast, sand-coloured buildings reflected in the surface of the canals at South Campus.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbImagine that I get to enjoy this view every single day,\u00ab she says, letting her gaze linger for a moment.<\/p>\n<p>Others have, over the years, described the University of Copenhagen’s (UCPH) South Campus in less flattering terms like \u2018grey\u2019 or \u2018uninspiring\u2019. But Nenia Zenana, who has worked as an associate professor at the Department of Musicology for nearly 29 years, has unreserved enthusiasm for the large buildings of beige sandstone and glass that make up her workplace.<\/p>\n<p>In November 2024, she won the title of Teacher of the Year, because \u00bbNenia is the kind of teacher the world simply needs more of,\u00ab as her students wrote when they nominated her for the University of Copenhagen\u2019s teaching award, known as the Harald.<\/p>\n<p>The University Post met up with Nenia Zenana at the Department of Arts and Cultural Studies, the base of musicology, during the spring semester of 2025. Wearing multicoloured, hand-knitted wool socks, she gives us a tour of all the nooks and crannies of the musicology unit. So we can get a sense of how great it is here, as she puts it.<\/p>\n<p>The tour begins at the door to her office, which she has decorated with personal photos, clippings, and little text snippets. Among them are words and phrases that hold a special meaning for the associate professor.<\/p>\n<p>On the door, it says: nature, music, solitude, people, and ‘when the heart opens’.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ ALSO:<\/strong> <em><a href=\"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/teacher-of-the-year-draws-inspiration-from-acting-i-often-improvise\/\">Teacher of the Year draws inspiration from acting: \u00bbI often improvise\u00ab<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>She carefully selected those words a few years ago when a tutor asked if she would write a few lines for the new students that captured who she is.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI thought about what lies at the core of my heart. What is my foundation? And then it struck me: It\u2019s that,\u00ab she says, pointing with one hand to the words, and the other to her heart.<\/p>\n<p>Nenia Zenana seeks, in all areas of life, the places where the heart opens, she says. And if she has to explain what that really means, music is a good place to start.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI experience that we can work with certain sonorities\u00a0or texts that suddenly resonate with the individual, where you feel released, and where you can simultaneously be a channel for those who are listening,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbIf I, as the performing musician, can make peace with myself, then those who listen can also make peace with themselves. Do you see what I mean?\u00ab<\/p>\n<h3>Entreat me not to leave you<\/h3>\n<p>Nenia Zenana teaches ear training and practical piano, leads community singing at the department once a month, and is coursework coordinator for various courses on the programme. She also leads the musicology choir, MUKO, which is comprised of 80 volunteer students from different year cohorts.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWonderful, wonderful young people. It is such a joy. Just insanely delightful,\u00ab she says about the choir.<\/p>\n<p>It is particularly in her work with large choirs that she repeatedly sees her wish for open hearts play out in reality.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, Nenia Zenana was leading the choir through the piece <em>Entreat Me Not To Leave You<\/em> by Dan Forrest, which tells the story of a family forced to flee their homeland and settle in a neighbouring country.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Image","image":{"ID":178115,"id":178115,"title":"\u00c5rets underviser p\u00e5 KU (2024), Nenia Zenana.Photo by: Jonas Pryner Andersen","filename":"nenia_zenana_y9a3685-scaled.jpg","filesize":671590,"url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3685-scaled.jpg","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/prisbeloennet-underviser-tager-imod-usikkerheder-og-fejl-paa-en-virkelig-positiv-maade\/aarets-underviser-paa-ku-2024-nenia-zenana-photo-by-jonas-pryner-andersen-2\/","alt":"","author":"99","description":"","caption":"Nenia Zenana mener, at musikken har en helt s\u00e6rlig evne til at lade hjertet \u00e5bne sig. ","name":"aarets-underviser-paa-ku-2024-nenia-zenana-photo-by-jonas-pryner-andersen-2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":178099,"date":"2025-06-13 11:46:11","modified":"2025-06-13 11:47:19","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1708,"height":2560,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3685-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3685-480x720.jpg","medium-width":480,"medium-height":720,"medium_large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3685-768x1151.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":1151,"large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3685-1280x1919.jpg","large-width":1280,"large-height":1919,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3685-1025x1536.jpg","1536x1536-width":1025,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3685-1366x2048.jpg","2048x2048-width":1366,"2048x2048-height":2048,"featured-soft":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3685-290x435.jpg","featured-soft-width":290,"featured-soft-height":435,"featured-hard":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3685-290x180.jpg","featured-hard-width":290,"featured-hard-height":180,"narrow":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3685-700x1049.jpg","narrow-width":700,"narrow-height":1049,"extended":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3685-990x1484.jpg","extended-width":990,"extended-height":1484}},"style":"extended","text_placement":"metadata-below","image_link_url":"","image_link_title":"","caption_prefix":"","enable_alternative_caption":true,"alternative_caption":"Nenia Zenana believes that music has a unique ability to open the heart."},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>After many years in the neighbouring country, the family\u2019s father and two sons have died, and the woman is left with her two daughters-in-law. She tells them she plans to return to her homeland and release them. But one daughter-in-law will not accept this:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbShe says: Do not force me to leave you; <em>entreat me not to leave you<\/em>. Where you go, I will go. Your people shall be my people. Your home shall be my home. Your language shall be my language. And when the choir sings this piece, it is clear that the students are deeply moved by it. They feel the love in the words \u2014 the willingness to say, even if I have to leave something of myself behind, I will stay with you.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>Nenia Zenana touches her heart again as she recounts the story. She exhales deeply:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThere are 80 young people standing there, opening their hearts. And this \u2014 this is what I get to do.\u00ab<\/p>\n<h1>\u00bbCan I have a hug?\u00ab<\/h1>\n<p>It\u2019s not hard to see, hear or feel that Nenia Zenana loves her job \u2014 and that, in a certain sense, her job loves her back.<\/p>\n<p>As we walk the corridors and she enthusiastically points out the things we pass along the way, we run into a student who stops us.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbCan I have a hug?\u00ab the student asks, and the teacher exclaims ‘O<em>f course! What\u2019s up?’<\/em><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been tough, the exams, the student explains. Nenia Zenana sighs and says she knows. I\u2019m glad you said so, she replies, and gives the student\u2019s arm a gentle squeeze before we move on.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to her position as associate professor on the musicology programme, Nenia Zenana works as a Body Self Development System therapist. She makes sure her students know. They shouldn\u2019t hesitate to come to her if they\u2019re experiencing pain \u2014 whether physical, psychological or \u2014 as is often the case \u2014 a combination of both.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbStudents often come to me during a break and say, I\u2019ve got something with my wrist, my neck, or something else. And if they allow me, I help them release it,\u00ab says Nenia Zenana.<\/p>\n<p>What hurts is usually rooted in something deeper than strained muscles, she says. Over the years, she has worked with students who\u2019ve suffered from various forms of anxiety and depression, or who have been in deep sorrow for one reason or another.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI find that the students show me an incredible amount of openness and trust, and I find that beautiful.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>On our tour, we pass a wall covered in clippings that Nenia Zenana has been graciously allowed to put up by a campus officer.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re from a themed week she led in the autumn, where all first-semester students worked across subjects on the band <em>Savage Rose<\/em> \u2014 ensemble, ear training, functional piano, and musical anthropology.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI once worked with the lead singer (Annisette Koppel, ed.), so I wrote to her and asked if she would come and see what we had done \u2014 and she said yes. It was fantastic that the students got to experience a connection between their studies and real life,\u00ab says Nenia Zenana.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThe students loved the fact that there was coherence between their different courses throughout an entire week. And sure, it cost us teachers a lot of extra time to put it all together, but we just thought it was so much fun.\u00ab<\/p>\n<h1>The perfect choir hall<\/h1>\n<p>Nenia Zenana herself graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in ear training, conducting, and piano in 1996. That same year she began teaching at UCPH, and although it was only a few hours a week at first, it gradually increased.<\/p>\n<p>Today, she is employed in a 25-hour position. This allows her time for both her therapeutic work and her own musical projects.<\/p>\n<p>But of all the places she has been, nothing compares to the choir hall that was built at South Campus, she says as we arrive.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbThis room has simply the perfect acoustics. They have had some really skilled acousticians working on it when they built it,\u00ab she says, as we stand in the large hall with high ceilings and special acoustic panels on the walls.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Quote","quote":"There are 80 young people standing there, opening their hearts. And this \u2014 this is what I get to do.","quotee":"Nenia Zenana, associate professor in musicology","style":"extended"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>\u00bbThere\u2019s a reason I\u2019ve stayed out here. As a performing musician, you can help convey a message and help the audience find peace within themselves. But as a teacher, you get even closer,\u00ab says Nenia Zenana.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI often teach groups of ten to twelve students, and that really lets you sense the mood in the room. Maybe one student is eager to learn, and another needs to hang back a bit. Then it\u2019s up to the teacher to find the right balance.\u00ab<\/p>\n<h1>Be good on your own terms<\/h1>\n<p>Nenia Zenana is still \u00bbcompletely overwhelmed\u00ab that her students nominated her for the title of Teacher of the Year 2024.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI don\u2019t know how other people teach \u2014 I only know what I do,\u00ab she emphasises when I ask about her teaching methods.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\">\n<p class=\"factbox-header feature-color\">Profile<\/p>\n<p>Nenia Zenana (b. 1966) graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Music in 1996.<\/p>\n<p>She has worked as an associate professor on the Musicology programme for 29 years.<\/p>\n<p>Long-standing conductor of the Academic Orchestra and Choir in Copenhagen, with whom she has performed and recorded major classical works.<\/p>\n<p>Nenia Zenana has also conducted the Danish National Girls\u2019 Choir and the Danish Broadcasting Corporation\u2019s entertainment orchestra.<\/p>\n<p>She has worked as a Body SDS therapist since 2010 and has over the years given talks on music, leadership, spirit and energy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>\u00bbBut I remember the students writing in their nomination that what they learn from me is that if you do your best and lead with your heart, that\u2019s enough. They also wrote that these values matter in a world that is moving ever faster, where young people are under immense pressure to perform,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI\u2019m grateful that this is what the students take with them. I believe this is how we set off a ripple effect for peace \u2014 by teaching our young people to lead with their hearts.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>Nenia Zenana doesn\u2019t like when someone claims to be \u00bbthe best\u00ab at something. For the same reason, she doesn\u2019t want to be called \u00bbThe best teacher at UCPH\u00ab. Because if you\u2019re only good when you\u2019re better than others, it doesn\u2019t mean anything, she believes.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbIf you want to be good, just be good on your own terms. All that stuff about others \u2014 it simply doesn\u2019t matter. Focus instead on whether you\u2019re better than you were yesterday. Great, then be happy about that. If you compare yourself to others, you\u2019ll always lose.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>According to Nenia Zenana, young people today are under tremendous pressure to perform and succeed. But despite higher expectations placed on individuals, she sees a generation that increasingly seeks community.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI\u2019ve been teaching for almost 30 years, and about 20 years ago, I experienced a period where a wave of students arrived who weren\u2019t that focused on community. They were very self-oriented and demanded more from their surroundings,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbBut that has changed significantly. Right now, we\u2019re seeing a generation of young people who want to make use of each other. The spirit of the times puts a lot of pressure on students, and that means that in some ways, we now have students who are highly sensitive,\u00ab she says, stressing that at the same time, many are fighting back against that very pressure.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbStudents today are increasingly indifferent to career, status, and money. They want a meaningful life. And I think that\u2019s absolutely wonderful,\u00ab she laughs. And adds:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbIt\u2019s also sustainable. I think it\u2019s good for us \u2014 as a society, that is. I see students out here who manage to lead with their hearts, and that makes me happy.\u00ab<\/p>\n<h1>A chord in major, minor, or off the scale?<\/h1>\n<p>A couple of weeks later, I visit a functional piano class, where around ten students are seated at individual electric keyboards in a music room.<\/p>\n<p>Soon after the lesson begins, another student walks through the door. She waves apologetically and says: \u00bbHi, I\u2019m supposed to be in here.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbNo way, really? That\u2019s fantastic!\u00ab exclaims Nenia Zenana, turning to the rest of the group:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbAnna has been struggling with her vocal cords since she started.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Image","image":{"ID":178108,"id":178108,"title":"\u00c5rets underviser p\u00e5 KU (2024), Nenia Zenana.Photo by: Jonas Pryner Andersen","filename":"nenia_zenana_y9a3155-scaled.jpg","filesize":511804,"url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3155-scaled.jpg","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/prisbeloennet-underviser-tager-imod-usikkerheder-og-fejl-paa-en-virkelig-positiv-maade\/aarets-underviser-paa-ku-2024-nenia-zenana-photo-by-jonas-pryner-andersen\/","alt":"","author":"99","description":"","caption":"Nenia Zenana elsker korsalen p\u00e5 KUA. Rummet har \u00bbden perfekte akustik,\u00ab siger hun. ","name":"aarets-underviser-paa-ku-2024-nenia-zenana-photo-by-jonas-pryner-andersen","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":178099,"date":"2025-06-13 11:26:29","modified":"2025-06-13 11:28:46","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1708,"height":2560,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3155-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3155-480x720.jpg","medium-width":480,"medium-height":720,"medium_large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3155-768x1151.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":1151,"large":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3155-1280x1919.jpg","large-width":1280,"large-height":1919,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3155-1025x1536.jpg","1536x1536-width":1025,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3155-1366x2048.jpg","2048x2048-width":1366,"2048x2048-height":2048,"featured-soft":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3155-290x435.jpg","featured-soft-width":290,"featured-soft-height":435,"featured-hard":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3155-290x180.jpg","featured-hard-width":290,"featured-hard-height":180,"narrow":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3155-700x1049.jpg","narrow-width":700,"narrow-height":1049,"extended":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/nenia_zenana_y9a3155-990x1484.jpg","extended-width":990,"extended-height":1484}},"style":"extended","text_placement":"metadata-below","image_link_url":"","image_link_title":"","caption_prefix":"","enable_alternative_caption":true,"alternative_caption":"Nenia Zenana loves the choir hall at South Campus. The room has \u00bbperfect acoustics,\u00ab she says."},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>She had been silent for three months, but now she\u2019s back. I just can\u2019t get over how amazing it is!\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>The student \u2014 Anna \u2014 nods with a laugh and takes a seat at a free keyboard. Nenia Zenana soon asks the students to \u00bbpair up in twos\u00ab and make sure Anna \u00bbjoins the club.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>Now the students are taking turns in plenary to assess whether the different chords in <em>Se min kjole<\/em> are major, minor or \u2018weird\u2019, as Nenia Zenana puts it. One student hesitates when it\u2019s her turn.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWould you like to phone a friend?\u00ab Nenia Zenana asks quickly, using the phrase from the TV quiz show <em>Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?,<\/em> and the student nods. \u00bbWho are you calling?\u00ab she continues, and the students laugh. Another student jumps in and declares that the chord is major. \u00bbWell said, that\u2019s correct!\u00ab confirms Nenia Zenana.<\/p>\n<p>During the break, I catch up with one of the students, Lars Hedegaard Petersen, who is in his second semester but has worked for many years as an IT developer.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI\u2019ve had many different kinds of music teachers throughout my life. And several of them had a very different approach to teaching \u2014 they\u2019d get annoyed if you couldn\u2019t figure things out,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbNenia is just completely different. She welcomes insecurities and mistakes in such a positive way. If you say something wrong, she responds with \u2018that\u2019s an interesting way of looking at it\u2019, instead of saying it\u2019s wrong.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>Bastian Smith-Sivertsen is a former student of musicology and was the main organiser behind the nomination of Nenia Zenana for the teaching award, which ended up with about 60 named nominators.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbActually, the idea of nominating Nenia had already been floating around the year before \u2014 it just hadn\u2019t been picked up. So last year, I thought: now\u2019s the time. I posted in our shared group, and the response was overwhelming in no time,\u00ab says Bastian Smith-Sivertsen. He adds:<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbAnd that really says a lot about who Nenia is. This award isn\u2019t about something special she did this year \u2014 it\u2019s about what she\u2019s done as a teacher at musicology for what amounts to a human lifetime.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>The music world is sometimes driven by cutthroat competition and ambition, says Bastian Smith-Sivertsen. But Nenia Zenana stands for the complete opposite.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbShe always says you should only contribute what you\u2019ve had time to prepare. For Nenia, the most important thing is that you give the best you\u2019re capable of. And that actually makes you more motivated to do your homework for her class, because you\u2019re not afraid of being judged,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<p>One of Nenia Zenana\u2019s greatest strengths, however, is that to many students, she is more than just a teacher, says Bastian Smith-Sivertsen.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI know so many people who\u2019ve had stress or felt overwhelmed and unable to cope \u2014 and who have gone to Nenia with it, even before turning to their closest friends or family. The role she plays in that regard is simply outstanding,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n<h1>Ask, ask, ask<\/h1>\n<p>As much as Nenia Zenana loves people, she also loves being alone. Being lonely, in fact. And it took her many years to reach that realisation, she says.<\/p>\n<p>She experiences a particularly calming solitude when she\u2019s kayaking \u2014 a sport she has practised for the past 12 years. She usually rows out from the north coast of the central Danish island of Zealand, where she lives, and on rare occasions, she\u2019s paddled \u2018around Denmark\u2019 \u2014 a route from the Wadden Sea, around Jutland and Zealand, ending up in Flensburg, Germany. During that journey, she is alone for weeks at a time.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWhen you\u2019re alone, it\u2019s as if the water settles and the truth comes into view,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a bit strange, she adds, because she comes from a family of six siblings, which has over the years grown to a close-knit extended family of 30\u201340 people.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbIt took me many years to realise how much I appreciate being alone. I was always used to thinking that being with lots of people meant you were happy. It wasn\u2019t until I started kayaking that I discovered just how hard it is to be alone \u2014 and then, how wonderful it can be, too,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Quote","quote":"Students are under intense pressure from today\u2019s society","quotee":"Nenia Zenana, associate professor in musicology","style":"extended"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Content","content":"<p>The relatively new interest in solitude is about being curious about oneself and questioning the things one has previously taken for granted, she says. She learned to ask those questions many years ago.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbWhen I was at the Academy, I hated two things: jazz and the US. I didn\u2019t really know why. So I decided to spend an entire semester at an American jazz college to really find out whether it was because I didn\u2019t understand the language \u2014 both literally and musically \u2014 or whether my taste simply lay elsewhere,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbAnd then I discovered that jazz was just a language I didn\u2019t know. And that the US is made up of people \u2014 some of them not so great, and some of them absolutely amazing. I wouldn\u2019t have discovered those things if I hadn\u2019t dared to ask questions.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p>She hopes that students will increasingly learn to question themselves and the world around them.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbAsk questions, if you can. And if you don\u2019t have the energy to ask questions, then clear the clutter and figure out why that is. Because you\u2019ll never find answers unless you ask,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n<p>Nenia Zenana has learned a lot about herself over the years, and today she\u2019s not afraid to tell her students that she\u2019s actually not very social \u2014 even if that surprises most of them.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI always take part in the student-organised song contest \u2014 MiGP \u2014 but I no longer go to Christmas parties and that sort of thing,\u00ab she says.<\/p>\n<p>\u00bbI love being with my students. And I also love going home, closing the door, and being completely alone.\u00ab<\/p>\n<p><em>This article was first written in Danish and published on 12 August 2025. It has been translated into English and post-edited by Mike Young.<\/em><\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"Image","image":{"ID":178106,"id":178106,"title":"klippetnenia_zenana_Y9A3341","filename":"klippetnenia_zenana_y9a3341-scaled.jpg","filesize":575292,"url":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/klippetnenia_zenana_y9a3341-scaled.jpg","link":"https:\/\/uniavisen.dk\/en\/prisbeloennet-underviser-tager-imod-usikkerheder-og-fejl-paa-en-virkelig-positiv-maade\/klippetnenia_zenana_y9a3341\/","alt":"","author":"99","description":"","caption":"Nenia Zenana er uddannet Body-SDS-terapeut. Det s\u00f8rger hun for, at de studerende ved. 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