What difference can you make in two weeks? Our new flute professor this year, Dr. Dieter Flury answers the question.

[Interview with Prof. Flury]
Academy: We would like to ask what kind of skills are necessary to succeed as a musician. If you have any story that you could share with us throughout your carrier as a performer and a teacher, we love to to hear about that.
Prof. Flury: If you want to become a professional performer of music you firstly have to be interested in music in a deeper way than just to like it. You have to be eager to learn music as a language to express thoughts and feelings you cannot express by means of spoken language. You have to be willing to follow the composers on their way to their truth. Of course you need quite many technical skills depending on how you want to express the music you will have found inside yourself while studying compositions. Developing your instrumental (or vocal) skills is like learning a new language. Once you master the new language you still have to find what to say in this language.

Academy: Kusatsu Academy runs Masterclass for two weeks within the belief of this relatively long period is very important not just taking a lesson or two in a short term. We would like to ask what can be achieved in two weeks if you were a student.
Prof. Flury: Not only students but every true musician wants to proceed, no artist will lean back saying I reached my goal. The difference between the teacher and the student lies in the experience of the teacher who already for decades has been struggling to get beyond. The teacher will listen to the student and sometimes recognize problems he encountered himself on his way. Sometimes he will feel confronted with problems he has not known before. Hopefully the way the teacher deals with such a situation will inspire the student.

Academy: What means (or meant in the past) to you to study Classical music, becoming a professional musician and a member of Vienna philharmonic. (I bet you have asked these kind of questions throughout your career but as a message for potential student who is seeking their musical career, it would be very helpful.)
Prof. Flury: Privilege is the word, privilege to deal daily with classical music and even making one’s living from it and privilege to have been a member of Vienna Philharmonic for forty years.

Academy: Is there anything that you are looking forward to encounter and experience at Kusatsu Academy and Festival?
Prof. Flury: I heard already quite a lot about the Kusatsu Academy and Festival. The combination of performing together with great musicians and teaching promising young musicians provides me with the opportunity of showing and explaining what matters most to me in music.

Best wishes, Dieter