Breathing in – breathing out – she turns around and looks towards the castle. Her curls waving in the wind. The cool and crisp air whirls around her and some passers-by near the old bridge in Heidelberg.

“It was also windy at the Baltic Sea at that time: I was just twelve years old and had only recently switched to flute. Together with my parents, I was visiting friends whose son studied violin. His devotion and focus impressed me. During our living room duet I decided; performing will not only be my passion, it will be my life! My play attracted a pianist and he invited me to rehearse sonatas with him every Sunday.

While my family was still asleep, I took my instrument and rode my bike to go to these private lessons. His piano stood in the village next to mine, which is half an hour away – along the river Neckar, week by week, through wind and rain during any season, year after year. The applause is the wind beneath my wings carrying me home – as on clouds. “

While still at school, Kathrin Christian studied flute at the Musikhochschule Mannheim, then in Munich, later Stuttgart. Every day she spends hours practicing on the smallest details. Transitions are perfected, from one tone to another, back and forth – repetition after repetition. Her dedication is rewarded, top grades and an award by Prof. Davide Formisano. At only 23, she is the first solo flutist of Heidelberger Sinfoniker and Mannheim Mozartorchester.

Kathrin Christians is traveling a lot, suddenly she is on stage at some of her favorite festivals: MDR Musiksommer, Lucerne Festival, Palermo Classica. Guest appearances across Europe, in many parts of Asia and Africa, her career and friendships have become international. It is her great openness, coupled with a powerful play and technical brilliance, which earn her worldwide sympathies – she is also passionately committed to being an active ambassador for Musicians for Human Rights. Numerous national and international awards line Kathrin Christian’s way to the release of her first album. Recorded with the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn under the baton of Ruben Gazarian, it is released by Hänssler Classic in 2017 and was awarded the OPUS Klassik in 2018. The program includes concertos by Feld, Theodorakis, and Weinberg. It is refreshing, young and daring and the critics love it.

The debutante is especially admired for her musical depth and dazzling variety of timbres that she elicits from her instrument.

But almost simultaneously with the album´s release, she suddenly was struck by fate. “I touched my neck with my hand. The palpable tension radiated into the face – numbness shot into my arm. Was it a trapped nerve? Suddenly, I lost control of my entire body. Whether it was swallowing, breathing or seeing: nothing worked anymore. It felt like dying. Diagnosis: A heavy Stroke.

For most people, it would mean the end of their careers, for some this even would be fatal. But the morning after the stroke Kathrin´s first thoughts were driven towards music. With determination, she denies the rehab program. Step by step she finds her way back to life. As she had done before, she practices every day, transitions, back and forth – repetition after repetition, her flute is her constant companion. And in fact, she succeeds, in what hardly anyone thought to be possible: She overcomes the half-sided paralysis and is back on stage after only four months. Her drive is the irresistible pull of music, the existential enlightenment that music is her life and music gives her life.

Today Kathrin Christians is back standing strong in her life, with both feet planted firmly on the ground. The sound of the Neckar river rushing by mingles with the melodies Kathrin is humming contently, carried by the wind into the wide world.

Translation Falk Kastell