2022 … an Intention
So that was the first month of this new year. I'm glad I'm not a person who makes precise New Year's resolutions, because right now planning is such a thing. Within a few hours, all plans can become obsolete again, because rules are changed, musicians fall ill, concerts are cancelled... Just like what happened to our orchestra last week with part of our tour with Valéry Gergiev. Suddenly you get three (tour) days off, which are not so free and where especially your thoughts have time to wander in all possible directions. Projects are forged, ideas are born, all with the now already familiar question mark behind them, whether they will not fall victim to circumstances again. Faintness is a feeling that I personally and many of my fellow musicians are getting to know very well at the moment. One more reason to drop the resolutions but no reason to invest one's thought power in better visions and intentions. "Imagination creates reality", according to Richard Wagner, whose potential in this respect was as inexhaustible as the possibilities that open up once one dares to immerse oneself completely in this own inner world. So, every idea, everything that is around us, every object, every piece of music, every change - begins with an inspiration created from this inner space. This is also how "Penthesilea" began, born in the first lockdown from a question that suddenly came from "somewhere" - what if you could create the ideal environment, the ideal setting, the ideal support on all levels for musicians to prepare them completely individually and comprehensively for a life in the orchestra and the ticket to it - the audition? How can I put my own experience at the service of such a cause? Which people are open to such an experience and who would I choose to accompany me on such a path? These and hundreds of other questions were answered with our first academy 2021 and became a very special experience, a very extraordinary atmosphere, and a powerful experience for all involved. I am infinitely grateful to this "idea" and to all the people who let themselves be inspired and accompanied by it. Since then, many new threads and questions have spun out of it, which are now already forming a new, even more multifaceted network (all information about this will follow in the next few weeks on our website www.penthesilea.academy and our social media channels).
So, something much more powerful, valuable, and meaningful than resolutions has emerged for me just from this time of the last two years - namely, the question of intention. Intention is something I could fill pages about here, because it became for me the basis of every new decision, the basis of the realization of every project and concert. The intention of the "Penthesilea academy" is to offer young musicians a field of possibilities for artistic and personal growth and a space in which they are not only seen as sound producers who are as flawless as possible, but are invited to grow beyond themselves in their wholeness as human beings and musicians.
The power of conscious intention can inspire us and become a source of meaning and thus a motivator for all our activities and tasks.
In this sense, I wish everyone clear visions for 2022 and the courage to put them into practice, always with the question of intention giving us the necessary wings to do so.
I look forward to comments, ideas and questions, which I will gladly answer here or in my next entries!