In contemporary music, the challenge for me is to make the recorder sound as naturally expressive as, for example, the violin - without doing it too much and forcing the instrument. It is very easy to be overly expressive on the recorder, and finding the balance is quite difficult.

Michala Petri

Categorized in : Challenges Too Much Balance

My father is a violinist and my mother is a pianist, so I've been hearing music all my life. I started playing at three and had my first music teacher at five.

Michala Petri

mother teacher father

I have always personally preferred to think of what is more difficult for my instrument, and not what is the most natural or the easiest. I enjoy the challenges - especially those that come with composers who have written contemporary music for the recorder.

Michala Petri

challenges natural thinking

Each composer has their own language, and I try to meet the challenges, even if at first sight, they appear impossible.

Michala Petri

challenges sight trying

You need to express things stronger today, more so than in the Baroque time, and you need to expand the expressiveness of the instrument.

Michala Petri

stronger today needs

Looking for inspiration in expression, I have actually always looked to singers and violinists. I have never really looked only at the recorder as a remedy for my expressions.

Michala Petri

singers inspiration expression

I've always been very inspired by people who can make their instrument sound very natural.

Michala Petri

inspired sound people

If you ask me about music and how things should be played, I believe that music-making is the combination of having learned how to do something right, what one feels is right to do in the moment, and the way the audience is listening.

Michala Petri

listening believe way

It is important to note that the world changes and that perception of music changes as well.

Michala Petri

perception important world

It is not very natural to make dynamic changes with the recorder. When you play a long note and want to make a diminuendo, the pitch will fall, and vice versa. So you need to adjust these with your fingers.

Michala Petri

play long fall

Of course, the recorder will never have the repertoire of the piano or the violin.

Michala Petri

recorders violin piano

Denmark is, of course is very much like Germany: in terms of culture, the same kind of thinking, etc.

Michala Petri

germany culture thinking

When I was very young, Denmark was a very small country, and we still are, but it was then very provincial and everybody knew everybody. Now, we are very much like the rest of the world, especially with the arrival of the internet.

Michala Petri

denmark country world

Many people used to call me a child prodigy, but I never thought that. I knew that I had learned everything, that I had very good circumstances.

Michala Petri

used children people

It was quite unusual to use the recorder as a concert instrument. But my mother, a pianist, actually helped me a lot by assuming that anything done on the piano can easily be done on the recorder! She helped me with technique and was just as critical about my playing as she was with her own. I think that has been one of my fortunes.

Michala Petri

piano mother thinking

To me, the advantage of the recorder is that it is so natural. I love the fact that it is just a piece of wood, that there are almost no mechanics involved.

Michala Petri

woods pieces facts

When you play the oboe, the flute or other wind instruments, there is something between you and the breath; there is the embouchure, the reed, etc. But with the recorder, I receive an immediate response from the instrument. This is something that attracted me to the instrument, that I could immediately feel the response of what I was doing.

Michala Petri

oboes play wind

Composers often think in terms of music and not of an instrument itself.

Michala Petri

composer instruments thinking

I think that today, in Europe at least, people don't tend to think so much about the instrument that is producing the music; they are more interested to see if the musician actually has something to say.

Michala Petri

europe people thinking

In concert, I often try to feel the audience and feel their way of hearing. If I feel that there is no contact between the audience and the music, I try to look stronger within myself, hoping that this will lead to a better contact.

Michala Petri

stronger trying looks