Elisabeth Möst A closer look

A journey through thoughts and routines, aspirations and creative philosophies,
Möst shares details of an exciting year ahead.

Renowned Flautist, Elisabeth Möst spoke to us a couple of years ago after a remarkable health recovery, which saw her return to music with full success and a range of exciting projects on the horizon. One of those projects was The Glass Window, a visual art project. 

“The Premiere took place in June 2022 in Salzburg and was a big success! I think mixing music with other arts makes my performances richer,” Möst told us. It is clear that this ethos has continued to fuel her work, as literature and spoken words are the latest art-form to weave into her creative process. 

“Spoken words can be a connecting link that force the music or explain the music. The choice of spoken words has to be done very sensitively. Preparing a sensible, reasonable concept takes lot of time and reading.”

You can call it research, but it is evident that Möst’s connection with the arts, whether it is visual art, literature or performance, moves deeper than mere research, and feeds into a subconscious of creative wealth. Perhaps with this view, it makes perfect sense that spiritual topics are currently the main source of interest for Möst: “There are especially spiritual topics that inspire me, and sometimes I get up in the morning and a new idea overwhelms me, without even having previously thought about it.”

Maintaining a healthy practice of creativity, and finding excitement in the art of others, clearly helps Möst to establish a balance within herself and her art, and nourishes a rejuvenating pool of ideas for her to draw upon.

“I will also start online-teaching at the platform i-classical music in the coming months. Students from all over the world can book intense blocks of teaching to prepare for an audition or competition, or just to improve playing the flute. Furthermore, I’ll be teaching at I-AME in Prague for 10 days, and providing master classes in Tallin (classicalhugs.com). 

Workshops on breathing and posture are my beloved favourites,” says Möst. There are two categories of teaching for this. One is a workshop created just for musicians (amateur or professionals), called ‘Free Breathing – Making Music Lively’. The other one, Möst explains, is for Non-Musicians, called ‘Breath – The Power For Your Life’.

“For me it’s is a lucky feeling to see how quickly participants change their playing or their posture, and to see the expression in their faces after an intense day of 8 hours of work. The classes are open to anyone 16 years and above.

My philosophy is: Teaching happens if there is an exchanged learning: from teacher to students and from students to teacher.”

Whether it’s between teacher and student, or Möst’s own learning vs. performing, it is beautiful to see a fluidity of movement between all disciplines. This even extends to exercise as Möst tells us she does sports every day in order to keep fit, and to maintain a healthy life balance. “The older you become the more reasonable you become and know where you can impede time-wasting”.

This goes a long way to explain why Möst is such a prolific artist, unafraid of new challenges and musical adventures, and how she keeps up with such a busy schedule.  Aside from her creative activities, being an independent artist requires a lot of admin skills and dedication, and that’s without considering the tours and actual concerts themselves. 

“This is just the love of music, and being conscious that music is a journey that leads you to deep and thrilling layers of your soul. Music challenges you to work on your psyche. I cannot live without creativity and having new ideas.”

This April, Möst performs a piece by Anne de Boysson as a duo at Carnegie Hall. “This feels like knighthood. For me it will be the highlight in 2024!” Following on from this, in June Möst will tour in Iceland, starting in Reykjavik and moving towards rural locations around the country:

“The programme is focussed on chamber music, partly from an Austrian composer, and partly from an Icelandic composer. Getting to know works from Iceland will challenge me and open up a whole new world of music.”

The tour will also be including an Icelandic Bassoon player, and will will include a masterclass and a class for younger students in Prague. “We will then meet there again in July 2024,” says Möst.

Möst is also aiming to record with Anne de Boysson, and with composer Joseph Woelfl, with CD recordings for both. Her work with Woelfl will be led by the WOELFL-Institute in Bonn and Strasswalchen in Austria. Additionally Möst expects to be perforing at TransArt in Salzburg alongside a female painter.

Möst discusses why her work is currently so important. “Dealing with female composers is “in” and earns respect.” In an industry that can be so male dominant, it is important to have strong and successful voices that are unafraid to express themselves. Möst also makes an interesting point that “dealing with young composers at the beginning of a new century is important, because every epoch has a special musical language.”

It’s a busy year ahead for Möst, fulfilling her dreams of travelling Europe and playing Carnegie Hall, teaching young students and recording her music.

“We need goals,” says Möst. “But we also need flexibility in the cases where life pushes us towards another point. Set a goal and let the coincidences be your friend. That, I think is a good philosophy. This is a very good outlook, and makes life as  a successful artist more achievable ad full , when the artist never gives up.” 

Learn more at elisabeth-moest.de