INTERVIEW

Ms. Held, is New York now your home?

I have lived here for three years. At first it was just for my studies, then the focus shifted to work. At the moment, I would describe Munich and New York as my two centres of life. I do not know for how much longer. At this age, it is difficult to predict what will happen in the next few years.

It certainly was not easy to get a place at The Juilliard School, was it?

Indeed it was not at all. I applied for the Artist Diploma. The selection process is very lengthy and cannot be compared with the one at German music conservatories, where you usually just go and play your pieces for 15 minutes. It is different here. I had to start the selection process a year before the planned start of my studies, which has been made even more difficult by the pandemic. You usually send in a few documents and a video. Only after, are you invited to the selection process and the audition. Additionally, you have to go through various interviews with different committees, many of which do not even have a single organist on the jury. This means that it is not just about musical questions; you also have to convince on other levels than just instrumentally. Therefore I am all the more grateful that it worked out. I think going to New York was one of the best decisions of my life.

After Regensburg, Detmold, Paris, Stuttgart and Milan, was New York the most important station of your training?

That is difficult to say. I have been lucky with my teachers, whom I chose for myself, so to speak. I never left any of these institutions thinking, “maybe that wasn't so good, after all“. I learned a lot — and also a lot of different things. For example, one goes to Paris with the intention of getting closer to French organ music, which is extremely important for us organists. In Italy, the focus was more on early music and playing the harpsichord. All in all, I am very happy to have passed through so many stages in my studies and, looking back, I would not consider any of these periods of my life as unnecessary.

Did the fact that you are a woman ever play a role in the course of your training? Or to put it another way: Did you always have the same opportunities as a man?

I cannot really say whether I had the same opportunities because I do not know what else I might have been able to do as a man. What I can definitely say: It was pointed out much more often that I was a female organist than I would have liked. Of course I think that we should have the same opportunities as male organists as a matter of course. But today it is often forgotten that we already had great female organists during the 20th century. There was Rolande Falcinelli, there was Marie-Claire Alain, there were so many women who were trailblazers and brought us forward.

A British colleague of yours, Anna Lapwood, once said that if you asked a child what they thought an organist was, they would say “well, that's an old man”.

I can absolutely understand that. It has often happened to me, when someone found out that I play the organ, they would say: “Oh, but you're so young!” The idea that an organist has to be old and male is strangely ingrained in most people's minds. Many people probably still remember from their childhood: “I have to go to church on Sunday, and an amateur organist plays there, and his playing isn't nice.“ You have to fight against these clichés time and time again. There are many professionally trained musicians today, and if you go to a cathedral or a large church, there is usually someone there who plays more beautifully than the organist you remember from your childhood.

You are a concert organist. Did you make a conscious decision not to become a church musician, or did that come about in the course of your training?

In fact, both are true. I knew from the start that I did not want to make church music the center of my professional life. I was told that it would be difficult to get around it, but the fact that I started studying not only the organ but also the violin meant that I was able to take a different path, although I was always told that I could study sacred music afterwards. In the end, however, things went so well with the organ that I did not need to. By the way, you have to know: Germany and Austria are the only countries where studying organ and sacred music is differentiated. I do not think this is helpful.

Do you have your violin with you in New York?

No, it lives at my parents' house in Munich. I love playing when I am there, just for myself. After my bachelor's degree, however, I made the very conscious decision to discontinue any ideas of playing violin professionally.

You played in the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra and were also concertmaster in other youth orchestras. Didn't that make the decision all the more difficult for you?

It was not easy, but it was a good decision - even though I often miss chamber music and playing in the orchestra. I was not a great soloist as a violinist, and that was also never my goal. But I always had a lot of fun playing with others. In the end, it probably even made me focus more on my organ career. After all, the organ is the only instrument on which you can imitate an entire orchestra with all its timbres. In an orchestra you need 100 people to do that, and they all have to fit in. On the organ, on the other hand, you can do whatever you want.

Can the organ replace an orchestra in its entirety?

It depends very much on the pieces. There are many transcriptions of orchestral works for the organ. However, I would never play a Bruckner symphony on the organ. I played Bruckner's Seventh and Eighth in the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, and I love these pieces more than anything. But the organ cannot replace the orchestra in such works. Originally, transcriptions were written for completely different reasons than we do today. They wanted to give the public the opportunity to hear works they would not have been able to listen to otherwise — because radio and records did not exist yet, there was no local orchestra or tickets were very expensive. Today, where the public has completely different possibilities of access, we write and play transcriptions for the fun of it, so to speak.

You are now coming to Leipzig for the second time. In 2022, you were a guest at the Bach Organ Festival at the St. Thomas Church. What memories do you have of that?

Many beautiful ones. For organists in particular, it is an honour to play in this place. I will never forget the moment when I had the church to myself at night as I was setting the registrations for the concert ahead. When the last notes fade away and you really realise where you have just played and who might have been listening — it is hard to describe in words. I remember very well how I went down from the gallery into the sanctuary after practising at midnight and stood at Bach's grave for ten minutes, not knowing what hit me. Other people probably cannot even comprehend what this means for a musician, let alone an organist. It is certainly one of those moments you will never forget for the rest of your life.

You had a conversation with Bach at witching hour. Was it a good conversation?

(laughs) Certainly, yes.

It is therefore all the more striking that you will not be playing Bach at your second guest appearance in Leipzig.

The reason lies in the Gewandhaus’ current hosting of the “Bach 2025” concert series, in which all of his organ works will be performed. This is why I was specifically asked to refrain from playing any works by Bach.

You are opening the 2024/25 organ season with your debut at the Gewandhaus. Is the program specifically tailored to Leipzig?

I will not be playing it anywhere else in exactly this form. I am generally someone who thinks about concert programs for a very long time. In this case, I have tried to select a beautiful, varied program that does justice to both, the occasion of the season opening as well as the historic location.

One can discover references to Leipzig: an organ sonata by Mendelssohn, pieces by Reger and Karg-Elert. The latter was treated with hostility in Leipzig during his lifetime. Did you choose him all the more consciously as a “Leipzig composer”?

No, not because of that, but because Sigfrid Karg-Elert is one of my absolute favourite composers. For me, he also represents the link between Germany and the Anglo-American world. He was never really recognised in Germany, whereas he was very successful abroad — especially in England and the US. This was perhaps also due to the way he composed for the organ. His ideal of an organ was not the typical German instrument of his time, but a very orchestral instrument, which was more common in the Anglo-American world at that time. Incidentally, I also draw a connection to America with a piece by Dana Suesse, who is little known in Germany.

She is the only female composer on your program — and with a work that you have arranged for organ. Are there so few original compositions by women for the organ?

There are a few, although not many. Elfrida Andrée and Jeanne Demessieux, who composed for organ, spring to my mind. Or Fanny Mendelssohn — there is a prelude by her. A lot is currently happening in the rediscovery of works by female composers. But as much as I am in favour of feminism and all that, the quality of the music and the meaning of each program are the most important factors for me. After all, 90 to 95 percent of the current organ repertoire comes from male composers, and this is reflected in the programs. In the coming years, this will certainly change little by little, and I am generally very open to it. But I do not consider it a bad thing if there are no women on an organ program, because in the end it is about the quality itself and in this case gender should not play a role.

You have already transcribed several works for organ. Have you ever thought about composing something yourself?

(smiles) I do not know why I am getting asked this question so often.

Perhaps because there are so few organ works by female composers?

I do not see myself as a composer at all. I tried to compose several times as a child, just for the fun of it. But with the knowledge I have today about the history of the organ and the repertoire, it should be all the more difficult for me. There are so many works that I have not learned yet, but that have been on my to-do list for years. I do not have to compose and add to that. I will probably stick to transcriptions for the time being. But who knows, you should never say never.

What about new works that you can encourage for your instrument?

That is something entirely different! I am actually very committed to this. For example, there is far too little repertoire for organ and trumpet. I recently spoke about this with a colleague with whom I would like to record pieces for organ and trumpet for an album. But it is extremely difficult to find contemporary repertoire that is still beautiful but equally challenges us and the audience. So I always encourage young composers to write for the organ or for organ in combination with other instruments.

The concert at the Gewandhaus will open with a premiere: A work by the English composer Alfred Hollins has never been on the program here before.

Although he might have also been in Leipzig on one of his extensive tours throughout Europe and the US. But be that as it may, Hollins was one of the first concert organists in the late 19th and early 20th century, a real pop star on the organ. And he thought of the instrument in a very orchestral manner. Before one of his concerts, which he often presented himself, he correspondingly said to the audience: “I'm not going to give you too much Bach tonight, because modern organs have so many possibilities that they should rather be used for orchestral works.” There it is again, the orchestral aspect, which can also be found in his concert overtures, the second of which I will be playing at the Gewandhaus. A friend of Hollins described he did not hear any organ music at all, but a whole orchestra. That is exactly what I like about it and what aligns with my view of organ music and the organ repertoire.

In the beginning we talked about New York. Where is it better to live as an organist, in the US or in Germany? Or is there no difference at all?

There are a lot of differences. For me, personally, having not studied sacred music, the opportunities in Germany are limited — unnecessarily so, in my opinion. Here in New York, no such restriction exists when applying for a church position. Apart from that, it is easier here to get people excited about something. There is a greater open-mindedness, especially for more unconventional programs. However, you also have to say: New York is not America. The endless possibilities you have in this fascinating city are not found everywhere in the United States.

Ms. Held, is it okay with you that we have not talked about your red organ shoes?

(laughs) I actually think that is very nice. People ask about them far too often…