About me

I'm Kristina, bagpipe player, composer and I love to improvise.

The world in which we live is becoming more and more out of balance. It is getting faster and faster, be it in the media, in our own daily routine and the general hustle and bustle around us. One appointment chases the next. Higher-faster-further seems to be a mantra of society. We humans have to process more and more impressions and real floods of information every day. It is often not so easy to stay in your own center and to be at peace with yourself, to make your own light shine. Where is there still time to really look at the little things that make life more beautiful? Where do you still treat yourself to the peace and quiet that is necessary to get really deep insights? Where is the eye for what is really important in life?

LIVING IN THE MOMENT

My wish is a world in which all living beings treat each other and nature with care and respect and take time for the essentials. With my music I want to give a little peace, clarity and light, the basis for more peace and mindfulness. 

I want to give inner peace, with an instrument as a means of expression, with which it seems contradictory at first glance. The bagpipes, because this instrument gives me peace, lets me rest completely in myself when I play and when I improvise, then I feel completely connected to my surroundings. The bagpipes are much more than they seem and so they almost invite you to take a closer look, behind the obvious and just take time to get involved. The instrument has so many facets and appearances, it can be lovely, ecstatic, melancholic, joyful, spirited, contemplative and much more and is therefore the ideal means of expression for me.

But how did I get into bagpipes in the first place? I've been making music for as long as I can remember, recorder, classical guitar, trombone, didgeridoo… But none of this was really my instrument and I was looking for it because I always wanted to make music. My guitar-playing girlfriend said to me at some point: "Kristina, bagpipes suit you". I was not really convinced at first but also not completely averse, so I went to the nearest bagpipe maker and just tried an instrument. Although I didn't produce a nice sound, I was immediately in love. Deep down, I knew: this is my instrument.

And so in the first years of playing bagpipes I acquired and expanded my skills autodididactically and on various workshop weekends with a wide variety of lecturers from all over Europe. These spa concerts were always exciting for me, because I suffered a lot from stage fright at that time. Thank God this has now subsided and a very healthy portion of excitement is coming up before the concerts. Soon the first bands came, in which I played permanently or as a temp. One of the most exciting times for me was certainly the summer with shame, something you don't experience too often as a bagpipe player. Over time, I also started teaching and have been booked as a lecturer for workshops myself for several years.

But then came the year 2020, for me in my musical sense and being very challenging. Because when suddenly everything was cancelled, for which you yourself had done some preparatory work for years and the topic of systemic relevance was so present in the public media, that pulled the floor from under my feet. I seriously thought about hanging the bagpipes on the wall.

Fortunately, however, some concerts took place in the summer of 2020. And what you then experienced as a musician: the gratitude, the joy of the music, on the part of the audience, on the part of the fellow musicians, simply from all those involved …. That showed me: Kristina, it's damn right what you're doing, and it's very relevant to all of our souls. And so I am happy every time anew, some joy, some peace, some information and knowledge and just to bring a good time. And with that, a big big thank you to everyone I can delight with my music.

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Past projects
2012Schandmaul – Pregnancy Representation for Birgit Muggenthaler-Schmack
2013 – 2015KlangRauschTreffen – Orgateam
2014 – 2015Filia Irata – Assistant Musician
2012 – 2016Noorder light
2012 – 2017La Compania Los Dilettantos