I can still remember clearly the day when I played – then as an 11-year-old clarinetist – in a music school instrument presentation. For fun, I went to the other presentations, trying out the different instruments, until I saw that long “thing there” – a bassoon. When I coaxed the first notes from the instrument, it was like “love at first sight”. That warm tone and pitch made something resonate deep inside me. And it still does to this day.
I studied at the Vorarlberg State Conservatory and at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. After my academy time with the Munich Philharmonic, 12 years followed as principal bassoonist with the Bern Symphony Orchestra.
Since 2021 I’ve been professor of the bassoon class at the Stella Vorarlberg Private University of Music, as it’s very important to me to pass on my knowledge and enthusiasm to students and to accompany them on this vitally important path.
I also like playing concerts with fantastic musicians, be it in an ensemble, as a soloist, in a chamber orchestra or in a symphony orchestra. I am very happy to share this energy that I experience on stage and the impulses that I can take home with me from my projects with my class.
In 2019 I fulfilled a long-desired wish and started to discover the historical bassoon for myself and to study it in Milan. Playing historical instruments opened up a new, more comprehensive view of the bassoon and music in general for me.
Through playing in period instrument ensembles, it is essential for me to play as authentically as possible with the corresponding instrument for the particular era. As a result, my attention to contemporary music has increased: I am in regular contact with composers and have commissioned works as well as having had works dedicated to me.
I used the imposed Corona-shutdowns to combine the inspiration and experiences I had gathered over the past few years to create the Klang & Raum concert series. Together with three fabulous colleagues, we organize concerts for period instrument ensembles in the Bregenzerwald at untypical locations: workshop, factory, inn, barn, or alpine pasture.
We go to places people have been familiar with for centuries and create a setting that brings listeners of all ages and professions together.
Meanwhile, I have the privilege of learning from the best teachers you can imagine. With the help of our wonderful children Katharina and Leopold, six and three years old, I learn every day and see the world with different eyes (and a lot of heart), sometimes reaching my limits, overcoming them and growing beyond myself. And when I find the time between my duties as a musician, teacher, event organizer and mother, I love to read books, visit museums, go alpine skiing, cross-country skiing and swimming in summer (whether by the sea, in the Aare, at Lake Constance or in the Bregenzerach). Ah yes, and I love to travel, too. Another reason why I love being a musician.