Who or what are the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?
Composing is for me the deepest and most natural way to share my soul with other human beings and I feel very blessed to take great inspiration from past and present composers. For me, particularly important were/are: Johann Sebastian Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Richard Wagner, Milton Nascimento, Hermeto Pascoal, Jacob Collier and last but not least my first Composition Teacher, Hans-Joachim Marx.
What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?
To balance the demands of making it through the challenges of life with the needs of my artistic work.
What are the special challenges/pleasures of working on a commissioned piece?
To balance the expectations of the commissioners with my respect for the music and musicians, while being true to myself, both artistically and personally.
I actually only work on commissioned pieces, because only then I have the guarantee that they will be performed.
I personally find great pleasure in this kind of ‘team spirit’, especially knowing, that the composers of the past did exactly that too.
What are the special challenges/pleasures of working with particular musicians, singers, ensembles or orchestras?
To be a composer is a never ending education.
Every musician/singer, ensemble and orchestra is a welcome teacher to learn more about music, psychology and human relations.
For me the work with musicians is one of the main reasons to actually be a composer.
Of which works are you most proud?
Usually the most recent one…
How would you characterise your compositional language?
Rooted in various traditions, diverse and musician friendly.
Serious but entertaining.
How do you work?
In the back of my head whenever I can, imagining particular moments of pieces that I am going to write and then in the precious moments when I am allowed to finally sit down and write it out, which sometimes last 18 hours straight through, when I work out all the details and make all necessary decisions
As a musician, what is your definition of success?
To be able to do what I want to do, to reach the heart and touch the souls of people.
What advice would you give to young/aspiring composers?
Never stop learning. Music is a great joy and a great responsibility and is greater than all of us and our egos. Don’t judge too much what you are working on today, just do it to the best of your abilities because in the future you will look back and find out that you are better than you were back then and that this journey is to be continued.
What do you feel needs to be done to grow classical music’s audiences?
Focus more on the joy of the experience then on the marketing, rituals and social recognition.
What’s the one thing in the music industry we’re not talking about but you think we should be?
I appreciate that the music industry is bringing art to the people and taking care that artists can make a living.
I would wish that apart from that, sometimes we could think about our responsibility towards the spiritual health of society. Music is such a great tool, but often times the strongest potential lies is not in the smallest common denominator, but in making musical experiences available for people who normally would not seek the unknown.
What next – where would you like to be in 10 years?
Better off than today
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Reaching the soul of someone
What is your most treasured possession?
My health
What do you enjoy doing most?
Creating
What is your present state of mind?
In a hurry
The New Four Seasons by Wolf Kerschekf appears on ‘Tipping Points’, the new album from Rachel Portman and Niklas Liepe. A compelling musical appeal for the preservation of nature, the album is released on 29th March 2024.
Artist image: Vincent Bachmann
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