"Making the best of it"

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Jazz guitarist Filip Dinev during the corona crisis - a portrait

Guitarist Filip Dinev has been a student on the Dr. E. A. Langner Foundation's Jazzmaster program since autumn 2019. The program, which has been offered at the HfMT since 2014 for particularly talented musicians, is a role model for national and international jazz education.

Growing up in a small town in southern Macedonia, Filip started playing the guitar at the age of 13. There was plenty of inspiration: his father and brother are professional musicians and the home studio is full of instruments. After school, he began studying engineering, but dropped out after a year. This was followed by years of training and traveling as a musician, after which he finally began his music studies in the provincial town of Štip. He then went to Budapest for a year, a city that he says still influences him today and influences his playing, which oscillates between jazz, blues, Balkan and pop. He also dedicates a track to it on his debut album Szvetlo, which was released at the end of 2020 and which he recorded with French drummer Pierre Martin and Hungarian bassist Dani Arday.

The pandemic - creative process in a roundabout way
We arranged an interview with Filip in February 2021, when teaching and events at the HfMT were largely on hold due to the restrictions imposed by the second lockdown. It therefore made sense to ask him about how he was dealing with the crisis as part of his Master's degree. "One of the most important things that the pandemic has done is that it has shifted the social dimension of the whole musical experience. And by 'musical experience' I mean the process of inspiration and creation. I think that's very important. Of course, this has a dramatic impact on studying. As social interaction changed under the pandemic, so did our practice. Normally you practice with a focus on a specific event and you try things out for specific reasons, with the main aim of sharing it with others. Nowadays, we all try to accept the situation of a 'newborn' and make the best of it."

Harmonious climate and cohesion as a pole of energy
So the exchange with other students is still a given? "Of course we are in constant contact with each other. It's very important to share your feelings and thoughts with other musicians and colleagues during these times. Mutual encouragement and support are really needed right now." What impressions and experiences did you gain during your first year on the Master's course despite the exceptional situation? "The HfMT Hamburg really is a unique, creative and diverse musical environment. One of my first impressions was how welcoming and friendly everyone is. You have to remember that I had absolutely no contacts in Hamburg and had applied for the program on my own. Then everything happened very quickly: I got on a train in Budapest and was in Hamburg hours later. Shortly after my audition, I formed a trio with HfMT graduates Tilman Oberbeck and Moritz Hamm, with whom we mainly played my compositions. Almost at the same time, the drummer Dominic Harrison invited me to join his quartet, with whom we were able to play a few concerts before the pandemic. The Master's program itself is brilliant in many ways. It allows you to expand your personal artistic vision with the teachers of your choice."

Moderate expectations, yet unabashedly bright
The corona crisis will hopefully come to an end soon. Are there any concrete goals for the "time after"? "I'm currently working on some new compositions, mainly for the trio format. At the same time, I'm involved in a few band projects at the HfMT. We recently started rehearsing with the ensemble of Lauri Kadalipp, a brilliant new Master's student from Estonia who recently moved to Hamburg. My original plan for this year, however, was to play the music from my album Szvetlo as often as possible in concerts. To what extent this wish will be fulfilled remains uncertain at the moment. The only thing we can do now is to take a deep breath, be patient and not force anything."

TEXT DIETER HELLFEUER
PHOTO: FILIP DINEV CHRISTINA KÖRTE

This article appears in "zwoelf", which is available at the start of the summer semester. The 28th issue of the HfMZ Hochschulzeitung focuses on "Heros"