Hans Christian
// Cellist, Musician & ProducerHANS CHRISTIAN is a German-born cellist, musician, and producer now based in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. His versatility as performer, recording artist, and producer for over twenty-five years has created a legacy of concerts and recordings that have touched people’s hearts around the world. Hans has toured extensively with RASA, GuruGanesha Band, Deva Premal and Miten with Manose, among many others. His albums “Undefended Heart” (2010), “All Is Well” (2011), Andrew Harvey and Hans Christian’s “Rumi Symphony” (2011), Hans Christian and Harry Manx’s “You Are The Music Of My Silence” (2012) are all available from Allemande Music.
Websites: www.allemandemusic.com, www.recordingstudio330.com, and www.rasa-music.com
Photo: Hans Christian / Allemande Music
Interview:
Music has been a powerful transformational tool in my life ever since I first took up the cello at an early age. But what exactly is being transformed, and how? Well, I noticed that as soon as I picked up the bow and started to draw it across the string, an internal shift occurred, and still occurs: a fusion of opposites into singularity, a melting of jagged edges into wholeness, a single- minded state where creator and observer become one. This transforming has often left me deeply moved, with a profound sense of releasing inner blocks, judgments, and tensions.
Through the years and decades I have probed through improvisation into deeper layers of my inner world, starting with a single note, a single melody, and a single phrase, repeating, repeating, and again repeating to create a flow that slowly transforms the critical mind into the magical mind. Player and instrument become one in these moments, and a deep heart opening occurs. This is the key to the whole process. Does it open our heart or not? Do we have moments of transformation when we play? These key moments have defined my musical expression and have been captured on several live CDs that I recorded during my artist in residency with Wisdom University in Chartres, France, between 2008 and 2012.
Sancta Camisia (Allemande Music, 2008) was recorded in the Chartres Cathedral on solo cello, in the crypt underneath the cathedral, and in a chapel adjacent to the cathedral. The experience of playing in these profound places, with their amazing acoustics, was so deep, so sacred, and so honest, that I decided to release the material as a CD.
Undefended Heart and All Is Well (Allemande Music, 2010 and 2011) are two more CDs that were recorded in Chartres at a conference center, formerly a monastery next to the cathedral. I employed a technique called “live looping,” where I was selectively recording music phrases into a loop device and layering musical phrases to create repetitive but organically flowing textures and harmonies. It was completely improvised and offered as a daily morning meditation for a retreat. This music was not only a profound experience for me to bring forth, but also for the listeners to experience. Somehow our sense of individuality was expanded into a collective consciousness of love and appreciation of each other without judgment or limitation during these musical moments. So I know that music can have these effects on our emotional bodies.
As a producer I encourage artists to reflect on their artistic choices: Are you finding your own authentic voice or are you emulating what has been done before? If you find your own unique non-egoic expression, you are in the flow of divinity, of magical creativity. Audiences will resonate with your experience, whether it is onstage, on video, or on a recording, and you will become a true healer with your craft.
“Music has been a powerful transformational tool in my life.”
– Hans Christian, Cellist, Musician & Producer
