Leipzig

Leipzig

Musician and arts manager (managing director of the Schumann Association of Leipzig and the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra Leipzig)

Cello

Piano (sadly, my abilities no longer even run to Richard Clayderman’s Ballade pour Adeline)

Nuclear physicist, no idea why, it sounded good somehow.

My parents didn’t expect me to choose any specific profession. Surely my grandfather, a “Gewandhaus cellist” himself, was happy that I wanted to follow in his “footsteps”.

In one of our staged “Concerts for Curious People” at the Mendelssohn-Saal of the Gewandhaus, we, the orchestra, surrounded the audience at the end of the performance and played the Lied ohne Worte Op. 19 No. 1, spread throughout the hall. The effect was incredible, you could see it in people’s eyes. In 2019 the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra Leipzig performed Mendelssohn’s Paulus at the Gewandhaus under the baton of Gregor Meyer. The special feature was the chorus, consisting of a total of 543 amateur singers who met here for the 9th singalong concert “Leipzig singt”, singing this epochal work from all three organ lofts. This warm, mellifluous „surround-sound“ was breath-taking.

Large projects require a strong team which enjoys working together and takes pleasure in its work. I am motivated every day to ensure this, using my abilities, leadership skills and esteem for other people’s achievements to create an atmosphere in which we can achieve shared goals.

Anyone with children will understand. If my daughter felt “attacked” in the night by a spider, even the tiniest of spiders, I would hasten to save her every time…

I fondly remember the first concert of the Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra at the main hall of Vienna’s Musikverein in 2013. I was playing myself at the time, sitting on those sawed-off chairs, that venerable, worm-eaten wooden stage under my feet. Peter Bruns was playing Haydn’s Cello Concerto in D with us at the time, among other works. Knowing that the greatest of the great played here night after night, and realizing that I was performing in this hall with an orchestra I helped found and build – that was one of the greatest moments of my life.

Whether we are opening an exhibition or organizing a concert – it is important to understand that we do so mainly for our guests. They are the ones we need to convince. And we can only convince them if we are truly “on fire” for our cause, if our work is not just a job, but a calling.

The effects of the coronavirus pandemic, so horrifying for culture as a whole, have demonstrated how fragile especially classical music is. There is a chance here to reinvent ourselves, so to speak, to work on innovating performance practice with passion and a willingness to innovate – with greater visible, palpable relevance for our society.

CON SPIRITO

Leipzig is my hometown, and it is a gift to have been born here. This density of cultural riches is very special, and it makes for a rarely-found quality of life. That is not only my own impression, but also that of friends who come to visit and love to return here. I am driven to maintain this treasure and to fill it with life.