Joana Aderi

What did it take in your case for you to develop so beautifully as a musician?

I needed an environment that "let me do it". The freedom of a foreigner came in handy.
Grundsätzlich bin ich neugierig und sehr fleissig. Ich erschrecke mich manchmal selber mit meiner Selbstdisziplin. Aber die Motivation muss zu hundert Prozent von mir herkommen. Mein ganzes Lernsystem fällt sofort in sich zusammen, wenn mir von aussen etwas aufgezwungen wird. (suffering punk soul stellt sich quer.) Darum war eine Schweizer Musikhochschule für mich viel zu eng.

An der Schule in Trondheim, Norwegen, habe ich dann den für mich essenziellen Freiraum gefunden. Ich bin unmittelbar aufgeblüht. Mein spätpubertäres Dasein erhielt im Norden oben die Möglichkeit, sich kompromisslos auszuprobieren, das heisst auch mal vollständig zu scheitern, um die eigenen Grenzen zu fühlen, mich kennenzulernen. Das hätte hier nicht in dieser Weise geklappt. Ich habe acht Jahre in Norwegen gelebt und hätte auch durchaus noch viel länger bleiben können. Für mich war es wichtig, mich ganz von der Schweiz abzumelden, um wirklich das Gefühl zu haben, ich falle ins Unbekannte hinein. Ein Atelier-Stipendium hat mich nie gereizt.

Are the conditions in Switzerland conducive or detrimental to musical development?

The Swiss way: Crabs in a bucket mentality!!! I almost couldn't stand it. You don't even have to show action, it's enough to think a little bigger and you'll be told off. I already knew in my first year of music studies that I wanted to be on the experimental stages of Europe, I never wanted to be a music teacher. In Switzerland, my young dream was always perforated, castles in the air were immediately brought down. So I went abroad and just did it. And it worked.

In Trondheim, we often met among female singers, presented our different voices to each other and checked things out together. In a fundamentally benevolent atmosphere, where we enjoyed each other's differences. We pushed each other. No more crabs. I think crabs are really bad and it was one of the main reasons why I had to leave.
Now I'm back in Switzerland and I really like being here. I think it has changed a bit. Or maybe it feels different when you have consolidated your inner attitude towards music and are no longer so dependent on your surroundings?

Is it essential for musical self-realization to go abroad?

I know wonderful musicians who have hardly ever left their small town. I really admire it when people can go through a huge development in the same place, in the same environment. How do they do that? I really needed the friction of the unknown, where I am unknown, in order to feel myself.