Form and Function

With a rough scratch, the young cellist Valerie Fritz drenches the hair of her bow in sticky rosin. The vibrations of this ritualistic rubbing motion are amplified for the listener via contact microphones. So begins Fritz’s own work, “Additional Value” for cello bows and electronics.  

Three weeks ago, the 24-year-old Fritz won the Berlin Prize for Young Artists, performing “Additional Value” along with four other works on a program she calls “Cello 360º.” With the same focus she trained on the bow, Fritz systematically breaks down all facets of the cello, opening up entirely new perspectives on a familiar instrument. 

When she was just eight years old, Valerie’s mother wrote a piece for her called “Geisterstunde” (The Witching Hour), which was the young musician’s first experience with contemporary music. Several years later, she joined the European Union Youth Orchestra, then the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra. At the Darmstadt Summer Courses, she gained artistic experience beyond the traditional orchestral bubble. Currently, she’s in her final semester for her BA in Cello, studying with Giovanni Gnocchi at the Mozarteum in Salzburg (she’ll return there to begin her master’s this spring). With Györgi Ligeti’s Sonata, Helmut Lachenmann’s “Pression,” Simon Steen-Andersen’s Study for String Instrument No. 3 for Cello and Video, her own “Additional Value,” and Arturo Fuentes’s “Mood” for bowless cello, her performance at the Berlin Prize for Young Artists exemplified Fritz’s love of exploration and discovery. 

A week after the #BPFYA2020 Finale, I met Fritz on a Zoom call where we spoke about her artistic vision, her approach to her instrument, and her search for a fruitful relationship between musician and audience.