Favorable circumstances and the art of using them

The quotes are listed in alphabetical order of first names. Hanspeter Künzler asked the musicians in the spring about «sliding doors moments» where chance and luck gave important new impetus to the path.

Gini Jungi (Annie Taylor)

Cool topic ... one that accompanies me almost every day, because I actually always have an incredible amount of «luck».

I've had a few thoughts on this and somehow I always end up with the same thing: Happiness is very often just around the corner, but you also have to be ready for it, see it and accept it.

Many moments when I was probably «lucky» also had to do with a lot of resilience, work and persistence. After all, it's not said for nothing: «Every man is the architect of his own fortune.» Because nobody was waiting for you, and you have to be proactive in order to take advantage of opportunities that could also be declared as «luck».

For example: When I really wanted a US booking, I wrote to my current agent that I would be in L.A. next week and asked if he would go for a coffee with me. I didn't have a ticket to L.A. and no vacation planned. When I got lucky and he wrote «Yes, why not», I booked myself a ticket and flew to L.A. ... We've now played three US tours - lucky, but also proactive.

Otherwise, I would say that my «sliding moment» was as follows:

A friend asked me if I could draw a banner for the kebab stand where he was helping out in the summer. The stand with the banner was set up at the Zurich Openair and I was given Openair tickets as payment. So I stood there, not knowing that this evening would set everything in motion. I went to see a few bands and finally ended up at a concert by a band I had discovered a few weeks earlier on KEXP. Wolf Alice. After the concert, I knew I had to form a band so that one day we could support Wolf Alice. That looks like fun, that's what I want to do. And so it was.

On May 22 is the new album by Annie Taylor published.

Janine Cathrein (Black Sea Dahu)

I would like to answer without thinking it through to death: I came home from summer camp, where I had learned a few guitar chords for the first time. I was pissed off and just a few days later my dad came home with a guitar in his hand that he had seen by chance at a street flea market for 50 francs when he was on an assembly job, he was an interior decorator. What a stroke of luck that was for me, what an inspiration, and how nice that my dad immediately fed my passion for playing the guitar without hesitation.

Joana Aderi (composer, musician)

Personality-wise, I tend to immediately accept the reality on the other side of the sliding doors as the new normal. In retrospect, it then seems completely obvious to me that I slipped through these doors and everything turned out that way ... So no concise feelings of coincidence on my part.

However, there was an absolutely key moment in the process of prolonged psychotherapy. Namely, when my whole body deeply understood that self-worth and music can be decoupled. Since that day, I have really enjoyed exposing myself musically; before that, it was often associated with suffering.

Nicole Johänntgen (saxophonist)

In mid-August 2025, I was invited to give a talk on happiness. I had been working intensively on happiness and its meaning for around six months. I often use the phrase «But now I've been lucky in everyday moments. For me, there are different moments of happiness. I relate it to my vocation. I am a jazz musician and I love exploring my instrument and being able to pass on my love of music to other people through music.

I'm currently on tour in the south of France and Andalusia and the feedback to all my fellow musicians is that we look so happy, but we're also doing a balancing act between our socio-political situation and the lightness in our playing. We «succeed» in taking people with us. I experience this happiness at every concert. We practise and practise, but there is an energy that you can't practise, but which runs through the room like a magical thread. That's what I call luck and what is due will come to you at some point. Something I can't describe in words.

Nevertheless, I had two key experiences that brought me closer to this happiness, to feeling the power of music, the art of it and passing it on. I was still studying when I was invited to take part in the IASJ (International Association of Schools of Jazz) as a saxophonist in Helsinki. Under the direction of David Liebman, many jazz musicians came together, were divided into groups and played together. And then there was this one moment. I was playing in a band with the US drummer Brandon Lewis. We were playing a jazz standard and that's when it happened. I fell into a trance. I can only remember when I suddenly woke up. That was the end of the saxophone drum solo. I don't remember what happened in those two or three minutes? But it was so breathtaking that I realized I wanted to do that. For me, that was a very strong and concrete feeling of happiness in the music.

The same thing happened to me five years later. Again in the improv bath with drums and saxophone. And then I realized that something was happening. That's when I knew it was no longer a coincidence, it was meant to be. And this energy that was building up was reflected in the audience. A pure trance state.

Nik Bärtsch (Ronin, Mobile, solo piano)

 I would like to quote bandleader Pepe Lienhard: «When luck comes, you have to be ready.» I can't think of a moment that was pure luck. Fate is more likely, the interplay of preparation, intuition and forces beyond my control. We also often confuse fate and luck. Who knows what these forces are, whether they are real at all? Defensive people call luck privilege and creative people call luck opportunity.

Richard Köchli (blues musician, author)

I would start by saying that, as a devout Christian, there are two levels to this for me - it doesn't sound very spectacular or sexy: I am completely convinced and have experienced time and time again that «sliding doors moments» happen every day, even at work and especially on stage - the epitome of acting in the here and now. I have experienced so many such moments where I felt carried, inspired and free on stage, even though there was not the slightest reason for this (such as so-called «self-confidence»), only fear and uncertainty. So luck and coincidence in heaps; every successful, touching note (on guitar as well as vocals) is - I never play songs the same way twice - basically luck and coincidence. And just ... it's not my own merit.

Three examples from my career where, due to lucky coincidences - and because of wonderful people who orchestrated it - there was a real jolt:

Example 1)
Polo Hofer. I came to Polo's attention in the late 1990s (I think it was a recommendation from Hank Shizzoe) and we met two or three times on stage and in the studio. Polo made me understand that I was an «artist» in his eyes (a good portion of honey, I enjoyed it); he also mentioned my name a few times in the media - and at some point in the early 2000s, in an interview for the renowned cultural supplement of a major daily newspaper, he had to answer various smart-aleck questions. One of them was: «Züri West or Patent Ochsner?» Polo, quick-witted as he was, answered: «Richard Koechli» ... That was the accolade for me in the scene.

Example 2)
At a blues concert in Lucerne, I think at the end of the 1990s, I was given the opportunity to spontaneously play slide guitar for one or two songs with renowned US bluesman Larry Garner. Larry said to me on stage afterwards: «I won't remember your name or your face - but I'll never forget your slide guitar.» That was my personal accolade in the blues scene; from then on I knew: «With the slide guitar (and only with it) you can play freely on any stage and in any context in the world at eye level. It's your joker.»

Example 3)
Especially at the beginning of my career - when I wasn't yet a singer and «only» worked instrumentally - I always dreamed of getting interesting jobs in the film music scene. I didn't have the slightest idea how I could open a door there (virtually every slide guitar job in the film and advertising industry at the time went to Max Lässer, and rightly so), and nothing at all happened for me in that direction. Almost 20 years later (2012), when I had long since stopped thinking about the film music dream, I suddenly received a request from Peter Von Siebenthal (ex-Züri West) - Peter was now a renowned film music producer and he was looking for blues music for a feature film. The project wasn't concrete yet; I sent him a few recordings of mine, then heard nothing more for a year - and then, I had already forgotten about the whole thing, I got the promise: you're playing guitar music for the film adaptation of Pedro Lenz's successful novel The goalie is ig. That in itself was a highlight for me - working with Peter was so relaxed, inspiring and free that I felt almost outrageous: I improvised to running movie scenes and had never before (and never since) earned such good money in such a playful way. But the real scoop came afterwards - when this film won the Swiss Film Awards in 2014 and we also received an award for the film music. By the way, one of us had to give the acceptance speech; Peter didn't want to under any circumstances, and I - as a stutterer - resorted to the trick of giving the speech in song (https://www.srf.ch/play/tv/kultur-extras/video/beste-filmmusik-peter-von-siebenthal-und-richard-koechli?urn=urn:srf:video:3c6a76a8-3e78-4061-84df-306493765c63). That became the attraction of the evening - everyone thought the Koechli was an incredibly original guy, haha, when it was just a (prepared) makeshift solution. Conclusion: I had long since given up on the movie music dream. If you give up on dreams, don't want to force anything and don't expect anything from fate - doors can suddenly open unexpectedly and you can, for example, win the Swiss Film Music Award with your first film music job. So for me, the formula «never stop dreaming» is definitely not true ...

All three examples show that these Sliding Doors moments are always and without exception made possible by people who do something for other people and give them a chance or «just» constructive feedback. This is human free will - God can only work through people and open doors. People don't have to play the game if they don't want to. However, every happy person tries to play this role - because they know that their happiness was only made possible by it.

Simon Borer (Long Tall Jefferson, Dandelion Honey)

Fai Baba and I knew each other more or less in passing from the music scene, having played at the same festival here or there over the years and briefly said hello, etc.

In late fall 2021, we got to know each other a little better at Till Ostendarp's big «BlauBlau Alle Sterne» in the attic of the Reitschule Bern. And then we arranged to meet in my studio on December 21, 2021 to hang out and play guitar. When we went down to the basement together, I quickly realized that my studio partner Paul Märki was stupidly already there - I had forgotten to make a reservation in our studio calendar, so stupid!

A little embarrassed, I introduce Paul and Fai to each other. While Paul packs up his things, Fai starts playing his guitar and we make small talk. Somehow the idea arises that the three of us could spontaneously record something together. Paul sits down on the drums, I take the bass and off we go. A few hours later, we walk out of the studio excited and a little incredulous with a finished instrumental tune called Winter Solstice.

Over the Christmas period, we proudly showed this music to our family and friends and they were delighted with it. So we had to get together again and see if it would work again - and it did! That's how our debut album came about Dandelion honey. We couldn't imagine what was still to come.

Next week we're going on another European tour with our second album Cherry blossom boogie, this time all the way to England. The show in London has been sold out for weeks. None of this would have happened if I had made a reservation in the studio calendar in December 2021.

Valeria Curti (solo bassoonist, lecturer)

I often ask myself why I am where I am in my career: lecturer at the Bern University of the Arts and solo bassoonist at the Musikkollegium Winterthur. Where would I be today if other doors had been opened to me?

I invested a lot in my training, especially between the ages of 14 and 25, I spent many hours with my instrument, the bassoon, filming, analyzing and improving myself every day.

Today I know that this investment alone would not have been enough. In mathematics there is right or wrong - in classical music, in art in general, it's all a bit more complicated ...

When I was 19 years old, I auditioned for the internship at the Musikkollegium Winterthur and was «lucky» that my playing suited the musical taste of the jury - especially that of the solo bassoonist at the time. I think he heard something in my playing that touched him. Of course, you shouldn't forget that I wasn't shortlisted for several other auditions before and after that moment.

I immediately felt very comfortable in the woodwind section of the Musikkollegium and was able to blend in well - the chemistry was right! And so it happened that I was able to develop musically and personally at the Musikkollegium Winterthur alongside my mentor. Three years later, the orchestra's second bassoonist, who had held the position for more than 30 years, «fortunately» retired and I managed to beat all the others at the audition.

Although I felt comfortable in the second bassoon position, I clearly felt that I wanted to show the world more of myself and my musical personality, and I auditioned for solo bassoon positions in Lugano and Munich - without success.

My career stepping stone was the result of a very sad event: My colleague, my mentor and role model, fell seriously ill and died the following year. He was not only the solo bassoonist at the Musikkollegium Winterthur, but also a lecturer at the Bern University of the Arts. And so it happened that I was able to follow in his footsteps after various procedures, both in Bern and in Winterthur. Sometimes it's difficult for me to play in his place because, depending on the piece, memories of him come up that make me sad. But now and then it happens that I don't play short passages like «me», but unconsciously like «him», for example in Brahms symphonies, which I have played alongside him several times and have unconsciously absorbed his style of playing. These moments then slip out of my mouth, so to speak. That often makes me smile.

I wish he was still sitting in his chair in Winterthur today and inspiring us all with his playing. I would simply have taken a different path and would probably be making and/or teaching my music somewhere else today, because I invested enough in it in my youth and today I have resources to fall back on, also thanks to my parents, who made this path possible for me.

Addendum from May 18: Just two days ago, my CV changed. I won an audition and will be playing as a solo bassoonist in the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome from next season.

Veronica Fusaro (singer, songwriter - recorded before her ESC performance)

I'm sitting in the make-up chair right now and have a minute to answer you 🙂 I don't believe in the one decisive sliding-doors moment when everything suddenly tips over. Looking back, it's more the sum of many small decisions, encounters and experiences that have shaped my path. These individual steps have gradually confirmed and strengthened me in what I do today. But what's exciting is that right now I have the feeling that a lot of things are condensing and suddenly becoming clearer, as if these developments are now coming together to form a bigger picture.