• A Quest for the Divine Spark


    Our present technological way of thinking has caused our capability to experience music to decline considerably. Over centuries music was perceived as a bridge to the divine. 50 years ago a concert could still exhibit the power of transformation. It was possible to experience a revelation of the eternal beyond the transitory. Today such experiences have become rare. Today music no longer occupies the foreground. We are concerned more or less exclusively with the external requirements of the art of music, with technique, with perfection. This is in accord with our time. But does this perfection serve music well? What do we mean by music? A vague concept, an enthusiasm, a sensory world without commitment, a drug?
    By music we mean the activation of individual musicality. Everyone is musical. How can musicality be developed in our time? The traditional methods are barely available to us any more. Every one of us is more than ever self-contained. We must therefore find the "divine spark" that opens the doors to musical reality unaided. This is possible through the individual experience of music as a phenomenon, as reality valid for everyone. A succession of notes played or sung perfectly is initially no more than a documentation of sound. It must be experienced in context, as a relationship between notes, unity in diversity. Every musically conscious person is able to carry out this process in a manner that will touch their fellow-being.
    With this background I focus on the following main topics in my musical practise :

    1. 1. The individual musical experience, conditioned for each person by musical phenomena - listening with the heart,
    2. 2. The communal musical experience on the basis of giving and taking - listening to others,
    3. 3. The development of independence in the teaching process - each participant learning to become his or her own teacher.