For Lea-Luisa Häfner, making music means much more than playing a series of notes. “Learning notes is still the easiest thing, my teacher always says,” says the 15-year-old woman from Grasbrunn. “But then you have to play with three other people and that’s where the real challenge begins, because for the perfect harmony you have to merge so much that you even breathe together.” You have to feel the music, that’s what makes an ensemble and in the national competition of “Jugend musiziert” makes the difference between playing well and being awarded a maximum of 25 points. And that is exactly what Lea-Luisa Häfner has achieved together with her dulcimer ensemble. The quartet, which consists alongside her of twelve-year-old Maria Eisner and Annika and Elisabet Ebel, 16 and 13, delivered a brilliant performance in Oldenburg on June 7th.
Lea-Lusia Häfner discovered the dulcimer at the age of eight.
(Photo: Claus Schunk)
“The jury was so enthusiastic that they couldn’t resist an interlude of applause, although that’s actually forbidden,” says Lea-Luisa’s mother Kristina Häfner and laughs. The jury not only praised the perfect performance of the four young girls, but also their charisma and even their shared breathing. They were not just four soloists, but a real ensemble. The interaction was “perfect”, absolutely “concert-ready”https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/landkreismuenchen/.”This group can represent Germany,” it said in the evaluation.
Award from the highest authority. The student at the Humboldt High School in Vaterstetten is rightly proud of this. The daily practice, the high level of concentration in addition to school stress and sport – it paid off. And the joy of her success can be seen in the conversation. With sparkling eyes, she tells of her love for an underestimated instrument.
Alpine parlor music? Are you kidding me? Are you serious when you say that. She also plays John Lennon
For a year, Lea-Luisa and her mother drove to Eggstätt on Lake Chiemsee almost every Saturday to rehearse with the other three girls at the house of their music teacher Günter Ebel. “It was a very intense time and really welded us together,” says Lea-Luisa. “We’ve become real friends.”
But how do such young girls actually come to play an instrument that is otherwise associated with alpine parlor music played by older gentlemen with white beards? When Lea-Luisa fell in love with the dulcimer, she was eight years old – and it was an open day at the Vaterstetten music school. “Actually, I didn’t want to learn an instrument at all. We were there because of my sister, who was interested in the piano,” she says. But then she saw Günter Ebel on the dulcimer and was immediately fascinated by the delicate sounds that he produced with light strokes on the numerous strings.
Since then she has been taking lessons from him. And there can be no question of cozy parlor music. Because Lea-Luisa’s ensemble plays demanding classical or even modern pieces. Her award-winning program at “Jugend musiziert” consists of Georg Philip Telemann’s “Concert in D major”, Michael Rüggeberg’s “Concertino” and John Lennon’s “Day Tripper”.
And when the girls scurry across the many strings with their mallets to conjure up the filigree tones from the instrument, it quickly becomes clear that its name actually sounds far too brutal. “I don’t understand at all how the dulcimer got its name,” says Lea-Luisa. “It just doesn’t match the beautiful music you can play with it.” In fact, there are far more euphonious names for the instrument in other languages. In Italian, for example, it is Salterio and in Spanish Dulcimer. “The sweetness of the sound is already in the word dulce,” agrees Kristina Häfner.
Lea-Luisa would like to clear up all these prejudices – and her recent success is a good start. The state competition of “Jugend musiziert” was the first joint concert that the young ensemble from Chiemgau played.
The ensemble of Annika and Elisabeth Ebel, Lea-Luisa Häfner and Maria Eisner (from left) was awarded first prize at the national competition by “Jugend musiziert”.
(Photo: private)
As a soloist, Lea-Luisa took part in “Jugend musiziert” last year and won first prize with 23 points, but without going on to the national competition. “It wasn’t quite enough,” she says. “But then Mr. Ebel asked me if I would like to play with his daughters and niece.” And this ensemble harmonized immediately. At the state competition in Ingolstadt they received full points and at the national competition they were able to maintain their level. “It couldn’t be better,” says Lea-Luisa.
And the concert could have gone wrong at the last second. Lea-Luisa’s dulcimer suddenly sagged because one side of the stand gave way. That got my pulse racing. Everyone was ready and about to begin, eyes on her as she screwed the leg back on. Then she straightened up and looked at the others, all of whom raised their mallets to inhale together and strike their first blow. And from then on it ran like clockwork. The nervousness went away and at some point they just played and of course felt a lot.