PATRONAGE NILS MÖNKEMEYER

GREETING

He never ventured past Northern Germany. He didn’t have to: he found his ideal artistic breeding ground in this densely populated area with its social structures that were ideal for cultural developments. All towns, which were often small, had town privilege and were centres of fine arts. Rulers, towns and small states all competed with one another in a productive way and constructed a cultural landscape of orchestras, music theatres and flourishing church music, comparable to Tuscany during the Renaissance. This area brought forth composers like Schütz, Händel or Pachelbel – and of course Johann Sebastian Bach.

It is unique in all of music history and also a stroke of luck for the project Bach by Bike that a composer of world music in the truest sense lived within such a confined area. It is of great pleasure to me to have been invited as patron of this bike tour project. On the one hand, because Bach is my absolute favourite composer (I don’t stand alone there, I know…) and on the other hand, because you can really get in touch with the past on these tours. To visit all places that made Bach who he was, to follow the trail along these memorials and historic landmarks, alive with history and music history, fills the musical experience of Bach with life in all its colour and with such vividness that I guarantee you will have a new, deeper and more intensive experience!

All the more I am delighted about the initiative of the young, creative team around Mareike Neumann and Anna-Luise Oppelt, to encounter the old master interactively via cycling (playing and listening to music together is possible!). Mount your bikes and meet the greatest of all composers on this exciting journey through this picturesque landscape!