Andreas Scholl Interview 2002

Interview with the famous singer 2002

(in German only)

ANDREAS SCHOLL: I started singing with the Kiedrich Chorbuben at the age of seven. This is a boys' choir with more than 650 years of tradition, as far as I know the second oldest choir in Germany. This choir has a tradition of singing Gregorian chant, and so every Sunday for 650 years they have sung a Latin high mass, in the so-called Mainz dialect. So that's a special form of Gregorian chant that sounds a little more joyful and less monkishly meditative, if you can put it in layman's terms like that, but that's pretty close to the point. And there was a singing lesson every day in the choir and every week an individual lesson of voice training, and I think that is very important for a voice development, that has not yet been so established in singing, with the instruments you know when they start at the age of 4 5 years to play an instrument, learning is very instinctive, the perception very fast, you imitate very quickly, and if the teacher just has a good influence, then a child can make very good progress. And that's how it was with us in the boys' choir, so at the age of 8-9 years, of course, to enjoy serious voice training, that's of course a great thing, and so I believe that the technique that I use instinctively today was also formed during that time, with much less effort, much less effort than is necessary today, when I teach myself today and see that there are somehow problems correcting things for a 23-year-old singer, that's very difficult. Whereas if people have sung well and healthy in childhood, then they profit from it all their lives.

interview