Barbara Arens

What does music mean to you personally?

It’s as important to me - and as omnipresent - as the air I breathe.

Do you agree that music is all about fantasy? Do you mean imagination?

No – music can spark the imagination, but it can also be intellectually challenging or satisfying, or purely, non-rationally emotional.

If you were not a professional musician, what would you have been?

Something to do with the graphic arts or with history, probably.

The classical music audience is getting old, are you worried about the future?

When I go to the Frankfurt Expo, I’m thrilled to see the crowds of young people there, who are willing to pay the entrance fee simply because music means so much to them. Their music generally isn’t my music – but that’s fine. I see with lots of my piano pupils: after ONLY wanting to play stuff from the charts, they develop musically to the point where they ONLY want to play classics! So I’m optimistic that many of these young people, if they’re given the chance, might “convert” to classical music...

What do you envision the role of music to be in the 21st century? Do you see that there is a transformation of this role?

Mood-setter: every computer game, every film needs its appropriate music to set the atmosphere. Every spotifier has playlists for evoking the desired mood.

Do you think that the musician today needs to be more creative? What is the role of creativity in the musical process for you?

This depends: a highly competent second violin in a symphony orchestra doesn’t really need to be creative. We keyboard people can and should bring creativity into our teaching and accompanying. As a composer, of course, I hope I’m being 100% creative, though I’m building very much on the traditions that have given music its fundament.

Do you think we as musicians can do something to attract the younger generation to music concerts? How would you do this?

I used to give lecture concerts in schools here in the German countryside, giving the children a chance to see that classical music doesn’t have to be elitist and/or dull, but expressive and fun. I was brought up on Leonard Bernstein’s wonderful Young People’s Concerts, so I’ve experienced how effective this can be!

Tell us about your creative process. What is your favourite piece (written by you) and how did you start working on it?

I‘ll take “Ophelia” from “All the World‘s a Stage – 13 Shakespeare Characters for Solo Piano”. First I re-read Hamlet , and was again struck by how, when Ophelia loses her mind, she always refers to flowers – and death. I took a few of her lines and set them to music – so I had my main theme, which I then developed in various ways, mostly in modal minor, changing keys for new colours, putting the theme in the middle voice with a death-knell on top, and ending with some very sad lines...

Can you give some advice for young people who want to discover classical music for themselves?

Try to hear some “big”music live! A full symphony orchestra playing Brahms or Beethoven or Stravinsky; an organ concert in a cathedral. Try playing some classics yourself and see how incredibly expressive they can be!

Do you think about the audience when composing?

To a great extent I’m thinking more of the performer. I take this as my major challenge as a mainly pedagogical composer: to say what I want to say in a way that is maximally playable for the non-professional musician.

What projects are coming up? Do you experiment in your projects?

Lots of chamber music! Flute + Piano, Clarinet + Piano, Cello + Piano. Further pieces for One Hand piano. And yes – I‘m constantly experimenting!