The most important thing happens in the mind

Dear Felix, can you give us an insight into your everyday life?
(laughs) If there's one thing I don't have in my life, it's a daily routine ... I travel, rehearse, play, and every day is completely different.

Do you have little rituals that give you support?
No, nothing at all. I try to keep my life as simple as possible. As soon as you start to build up rituals or routines, you run the risk of something going wrong. You should be able to play even under very difficult conditions, which I often find myself in. Rituals can be a hindrance - if I resolve to eat a banana before every concert, or take a nap before the concert, and then flights are late and you can't find anything to eat, then that throws you off track. That's why I try to stay as flexible as possible.

That's an interesting way of looking at it. How do you do it with your instrument then - do you need daily practice time?
I was supposed to spend about three hours a day with the instrument, which doesn't sound like much at first. But sometimes it's difficult to get that. A few weeks ago, I flew to Mexico and my horn stand got stuck in Paris. I couldn't practise or rehearse for four days - and yet I still have to play concerts. I knew I only had one day left to prepare, so I tried to use it as effectively as possible.

That doesn't stress you out?
I try to cope with as many scenarios in life as possible. I think that's one of the things. If you can do that, many things become easier. If you can build up as broad a spectrum of possibilities as possible, you can get through difficult situations more comfortably and be more flexible.

You weren't at all flexible with your instrument. Even as a young boy, you knew it had to be the horn. Why the horn?
I was four years old at the time and went to my parents with the wish to learn to play the horn - and they didn't even know what it was. So they went to the music school in Göttingen, where I grew up, to see if there was a horn teacher. He said, my God, let's give it a try. I don't know where the horn came from. I didn't go to a concert, I never met anyone who played the horn. It's still a mystery to me to this day.

Were there moments when you thought you should have chosen a different instrument?
No, not really. It was never about making music or a career, I just wanted to play the horn. Exactly that.

You were probably a dream student - you knew what you wanted and were prepared to invest a lot. You had an iron will.
I wasn't at music school for that long, I transferred to university when I was 12. But I was anything but a dream student, I think (laughs). I was never the kind of person who just did what I was told. If the teacher told me to do something, I tried it out and tried to understand whether it was good for me or not, and if it wasn't, I didn't do it. It was often a very difficult situation for teachers.

Were there any teachers who told you that - in the sense of hey, I'm the expert here?
Yes, of course. My way of thinking and solving problems didn't fit in with the school system, where there's a path that has to be followed and if you complete it, you're doing everything right. At university, everything was much more relaxed. This also has to do with the fact that someone who is a professor at a university is very successful - and successful people are not those who imitate something, but those who are able to understand themselves and also teach themselves.

Have you ever doubted whether you're doing it right?
Of course. Doubts are the main reason why you do something in the first place. If you never doubt, you just sit on the sofa. A very specific example: when I was about fourteen, I realized that I was totally relaxed when I was practicing at home, but felt totally uncomfortable and nervous when I left my parents' house. Suddenly I discovered that this nervousness had nothing to do with stage fright, but that I only played in carpeted rooms at home. So I started playing in rooms without carpeting, in the bathroom and in the basement. You would never practice there in your life, it sounds terrible and is incredibly loud, and at the beginning I had a lot of trouble because it was exactly the kind of environment I didn't like. But after a while it stabilized. Today I can play anywhere, even in the ugliest room with the worst acoustics. Many people say that you should only practise with good acoustics. I say: if you feel comfortable in the most awful situation, you can do it anywhere. I just did my own thing, followed my own processes.

The music education scene is in a state of upheaval - we actually want students like you. You want to take them seriously and respond to them individually. But your experience was very different.
When it comes to music, I think it's important that 99.9999% and many more 9s of people learn an instrument because they enjoy it. That's how it should be. Music should be fun, you should feel good, experience something together. Very few people become professionals, and that's why you shouldn't train perfectionists, otherwise the children won't want to practise. Imagine if every time children played football on the street, you tried to improve their technique - they would very quickly lose interest and stop playing.

Do you also teach at a music academy?
At the university in Münster. It's only a small contingent, I wouldn't be able to manage a professorship at the moment, otherwise the concert calendar would have to be thinned out. I really enjoy it. Seeing different ways of life and teaching people is very exciting.

What do you want to achieve as a university lecturer? Do you have a goal?
What has helped me in life - thinking that deviates from the norm - is what I try to transfer to students. 95% of what you have to do as a musician takes place in your head. The ability, the attitude, to be free in your head. How often do you play something and then judge yourself: that wasn't good, that didn't work. That leads to you limiting yourself in your head. We have so much willpower at our disposal, but we often just stay in the broom cupboard. If someone tells you that you're a great player but you're not made for the stage because you're so nervous, that's the death blow. But if you say that we all know nervousness, it's part of the job, we don't have to fight it, we have to deal with it, then it's a completely different matter. Then you can try to create positive experiences. Others don't have a problem, they just play. Finding out what makes people tick, what they like, the things they've experienced - that's where I see my job. Where I ultimately want to try and help people.

And what would you like to achieve as a horn player?
That is, of course, a question that I cannot possibly answer. A very big question. I would never have believed that I could ever do what I'm doing at the moment. Earning a living as a horn soloist and traveling the world - I never even dreamed of that as a child because it was so unrealistic. I thought more along the lines of, a position in a good orchestra, that would be great. This trophy thinking, as I call it - if I run fast enough, I'll be an Olympic champion - I no longer have that. Or maybe I never had it. I think it's nice to make people happy with music, that's what I enjoy and what fascinates me.

Then you're not the hunted, you're just happy about what's coming.
Exactly. If you manage to be completely at peace with what you have, regardless of what you do - it doesn't have to be music, it can be in any profession or in family life - you no longer have to constantly make a name for yourself. When you no longer think, I don't have enough trophies yet, I have to show the world what I'm worth. When you are at peace with yourself, you no longer have this need.

Felix Klieser will be coming to Switzerland on January 21 - he will be Forum for music education in Baden will give a presentation. His website provides an insight into his varied concert calendar.