The 2025 Fanny Mendelssohn Förderpreis winner invites listeners, with her debut album intimacy, into an extraordinary encounter between early and new music — and into an exploration of the many layers of intimacy. At its heart is Bach's Cello Suite No. 6 in D major (BWV 1012), arranged for alto zither: the suite's polyphonic lines and harmonies unfold here in an entirely new way. It is complemented by new compositions on physicality and touch, created specifically for this project, which stand in close dialogue with Bach's music — breaking it open, condensing it, and weaving it together with the Baroque movements into a coherent musical narrative — featuring Mongolian yatga, close-miking, live electronics and contemporary poetry.
As our society changes, the question arises of how sensitive listening and openness to the unfamiliar can succeed. In a time of growing polarisation, music can be a place of encounter and openness to being touched.