The Artist Lounge Podcast
By Katharina Martini
"It's Thursday, welcome back to the Artist Lounge” - that’s how we start every week in our new podcast episode. I am Katharina Martini, one of the two initiators of the Artist Lounge Podcast. Today I want to take you on a little journey through the first podcast month and the following month and how it all started.
My mom, Christiane Martini, and I are the team of the Artist Lounge Podcast. We are musicians, I am a flutist, we are authors, both teaching and initiating various cultural projects. In the Artist Lounge Podcast we are initiating talks to international artists from different fields, such as music, cultural management, literature, performing arts, film and screenwriting, I am moderating and speaking with our guests. The podcast encourages that it is possible that our "artistic love" becomes our profession and that there are many different ways to make this dream come true. Many of the guests practice several artistic activities professionally, and some of them have taken very unusual paths. Their stories are very inspiring and give the listeners a lot of motivation to follow their dreams, to find their own way and to start.
The idea came out of our observation that many do not have this courage or choose a profession they do not love. We want to encourage people to follow their hearts and choose a career path that may not be common, but that combines their talents, skills, and dreams.
As a musician, there is not only the path to the orchestra. For many, this path is perfect and I am happy for everyone who gets an orchestra job and loves it. But there are still musicians who don't love their position, or who don't love teaching for example. And that's what you have to find out and ask yourself some of the following questions: I love music, but what else do I love? Do I need structure or freedom? Do I need consistency or variety? Do I need activity or passivity? Do I want to be creative or do I prefer to interpret? There are a lot of these questions brining us closer to our self.
For many people it is not easy to answer these questions. Maybe you sometimes do not have the courage to admit what you really want, you listen too much to others with negative opinions... In the Artist Lounge Podcast there is time to listen and be heard. Inspiration comes to us when we realize that others have also achieved what we sometimes do not dare to dream of. Everything is possible.
We have decided to unite different art styles in our podcast. It's interesting that so far everyone has told me that music plays an important role in their lives, many tell me about special projects that combine different art forms, music with dance, music with sculpture, music with photography, there are endless possibilities. We can learn so much from each other and develop together, form a community. The feedback to the first podcast episodes was terrific.
At the moment many of the podcast episodes are in german, only a few in English. Let me tell you about the first ones.
Amadeus Templeton was one of the founders of TONALi. It is a very large cultural project in Germany, with the aim of reaching young audiences already in schools. TONALi has also developed an app that allows you to participate in concerts, give a speech, take care of the audience or the artists, or take care of the technology or lighting, for example. In this way, the concert becomes incredibly close to the audience.
Leon Eisenbach is a young film composer currently studying in the netherlands. He tells us about his fascination for film music and how he came to study in this field. He talks about how he learned the piano very late in life and gained the confidence to pursue a creative career, how film music studies are going and what he dreams of. One of the podcast listeners was thrilled and wants him to be a film music composer for his next film.
Heikedine Körting originally studied law and always wanted to work creatively. She initiated many legendary radio plays, and has been directing the largest radio play productions in Germany for many years. She has also dedicated herself to the promotion of young musicians and renovated an old mansion together with her husband to house the largest collection of keyboard instruments in the world.
All flutists know Marina Piccinini. The conversation with her was very special. We talked about her journey in the music business as flutist on concert tours or as a teacher around the world. The Gramophone called her “The Heifetz of the Flute” playing with orchestras around the world, winning the Avery Fisher Career Grant and the Concert Artists Guild International Competition in New York. She told us about her personal philosophy of always moving forward and shared her secret to success with us. Go and listen directly. This was a feedback of a listener: “(…) your conversation together was delightful. Your thoughtful questions gave Marina the chance to describe her interests, motivation, philosophy, and so much more. (…)it is terrific that your interview gives listeners the chance to hear her spark.”
The April will close with Podcasts with Lilian Genn, one of her skills is to design concert concepts for big orchestras such as Vienna Philharmonic, and Florian Graf, an internationally successful sculptor and painter. As a little preview, the May episodes will include Morgan Pappas, who studied the flute and found her personal way in artist management, Peter-Lukas Graf – the flutist from Switzerland you will know, and Bettina Bermbach, the director of the German music foundation “Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben”.
The podcast has quickly become a community, a platform for exchange. Become part of the Artist Lounge community and connect with creative and courageous artists to initiate new cultural projects.
@artistlounge.podcast
Katharina Martini studied flute with Thaddeus Watson in Frankfurt, Germany and finished her studies with distinction and received the MicroMaster of Cambridge University.
She was masterstudent of Emmanuel Pahud, Sir James Galway, Denis Bouriakov and Peter-Lukas Graf and is part of the Galway Flute Academy.
She won several national and international competitions, such as "American Protégé: International Woodwind Competition” (New York), “Grand Prize Virtuoso” (Amsterdam) and „International Young Musician Competition Città di Barletta“ (Italy), followed by debuts at Carnegie Hall and Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
2018 she published her solo debut CD „Meisterwerke für Flöte“, 2022 the CD “Diamonds of Flute”.
Katharina is scholarship holder of German Music Foundation, DAAD and the culture foundation of Hessen.
Concert tours regularly take her through Europe and the United States and she performs as soloist and chambermusician in famous festivals (e.g. Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival) and concert halls, e.g. Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Berliner Philharmonie.
Furthermore she is as a juror at competitions, gives masterclasses in Europe and US and writes books for wellknown german publishing companies.
@katharinamartini_flute