Leisure and music – when passion wins

Hannah Caroline Rau has closed her eyes. She sits with her back upright on a wooden stool in the middle of the living room. The cello is in front of her and the fingerboard is on her left shoulder. The 17-year-old holds the bow in her right hand. The young cellist grabs the strings, puts on the bow and begins to play. The sounds of the old cello warm the living room.

Music is in the blood of the whole family

Around five months ago, Hannah Caroline Rau from Neubrandenburg won first prize with her music at the national competition “Jugend musiziert” in Zwickau. But on this Friday afternoon she only plays a short sequence of sounds on the cello at home. At the dinner table, the cellist explains that music has accompanied her from an early age. “When I was three or four years old, I started playing the violin a little and trying it out,” remembers the musician.

The passion for music runs in her family. Her mother and younger brother play the viola, her father and her older sister play the violin, and her younger sister also plays the cello. The 17-year-old originally wanted to learn the violin first. But her older sister already played the instrument, so her parents suggested the cello as an alternative.

“I really liked it straight away,” says the cellist. She began learning and playing the cello when she was almost five years old. She quickly found her passion for the instrument. At the age of 10, she was a young student at the “Hanns Eisler” University of Music in Berlin. What fascinates her most is the sound of the cello. The tone is not as high as a violin or as low as a double bass, but is in the middle. “I think the cello sound is most similar to the human voice, and I love that,” says the 17-year-old.

Once a week to the university in Leipzig

Her passion for music takes up a lot of time in her daily routine. The 17-year-old is currently in the 12th grade and will soon be graduating from high school. After school she goes straight to practicing at home. She usually plays for several hours, but it varies greatly, she says. “Due to the impending high school diploma, I of course also have to learn a lot for school, plus I have to practice – which leaves relatively little time for anything else,” says the student. Once a week she takes the train to the University of Music and Theater in Leipzig, where she has been a young student since 2022. Practice and music are her priority. “On the weekend, when I don’t have any other appointments, I often plan entire days to practice – that’s wonderful,” she says.

The young cellist has been playing a special instrument for a short time. Through the “Autumn Award” of the German Musical Life Foundation, Hannah Caroline Rau received a cello from the 19th century on loan. “It has always been a dream for me to play an old instrument,” says the cellist. The age of the cello from the 19th century can not only be seen, but can also be heard in the sound. “My cello comes from a German violin maker’s workshop and was built around 1850 – it has a wonderfully warm sound,” says the young person.

My dream job is to be an orchestra musician

In the future, the daughter wants to follow a similar career path as her parents. Her mother is a viola player at the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic and her father was concertmaster there as a violinist for 20 years. “My greatest wish would be to become an orchestra musician, but it’s not that easy to get a job,” says the student. In order to have a chance of getting a job as an orchestra musician, however, she has to prepare early on. According to her She wants to start her music studies next year, preferably in Leipzig. In addition to the cello, the 17-year-old also plays the piano. “If you study a string instrument at a music college, you also have to take piano at the same time,” explains Hannah Caroline Rough.

The young cellist has already gained experience as an orchestra musician. Among other things, she played as a soloist in the Berlin Philharmonic. As a member of the Federal Youth Orchestra, she has already performed in the largest concert halls in Europe.