Rising Stars: Romina Lischka at Palace of the Arts

If anyone ever had an unconventional musical career, it is the Austrian Romina Lischka. Initially she studied guitar but, not caring to play solo, she longed to play music with others. Because her guitar teacher played the cello-like viola da gamba, she too chose this instrument. In the meantime, she made a slight detour, spending a year learning traditional singing styles in Northern India, where she later returned to perfect her skills with a noted guru. “I wanted to learn how to improvise,” she explains. “Compared to European music, the performer has a huge amount of freedom in Indian music: when playing, you’re possessed of a certain sense of timelessness.” And so the path led to Bach. However strange it may seem, Lischka is able to perfectly meld the skills she has acquired in practice as a North Indian vocalist with the historically informed performance traditions of European classical music. The result is extraordinarily exciting: a kind of primal directness even in the performance of great works of European music that have been written down note for note.

Lischka’s knowledge of her instrument likewise rests on solid foundations, thanks to her education at the Schola Cantorum in Basel, a citadel of early music performance. She went on to graduate from the Royal Conservatory in Brussels, attending courses under Kuijken and Savall, and has also played in the famed ensemble of Philippe Herreweghe. She has taken part in unusual projects such as performances of Baroque music with South Indian dance, and has also given remarkable concerts where she simultaneously sings and improvises on her instrument. As Lischka says, in the West they tend to teach music “in the head,” while in India learning is a way of life. Interestingly, the latter’s style of teacher-pupil relationship recalls the European Baroque period, for example in the way that the “father” of the viola da gamba, Marin Marais, practically lived together with his most famous student.