"A Kamp-Lintfort Resident on the Way to the Finals"

📖 4 min read.

original article: Ein Kamp-Lintforter auf dem Weg ins Finale by Gabi Gies 2015

Kamp-Lintfort. Eleven-year-old guitarist Jan Christopher Heßling is considered an exceptional talent. The director of the music school hasn't encountered a comparable talent in 30 years.
When Jan Christopher Heßling begins to pluck "Parazula" by the Brazilian composer Celso Machado, listeners quickly forget that an eleven-year-old boy is playing the guitar here. The music fills the room at the Kamp-Lintfort Music School with such clarity, power, and emotion that you suddenly feel as if you are sitting in a grand concert hall.

Jan says it took a little while before he realized he could move people with his music. Others noticed it much faster. "Jan is extremely talented," confirms not only music school director Martin Begall, but other experts as well. At the "Jugend musiziert" regional competition, the Kamp-Lintfort Music School student took first place in his age category and was the only participating guitarist to achieve the dream score of 25 points—a score the jury rarely awards. In March, he will head to the state competition in Düsseldorf.
How often has Begall encountered such talent during his nearly 30-year career as a music teacher? "Never a talent quite like Jan. I’ve never had a young musician where everything truly comes together like this," says Begall. "With Jan, so many factors align: he has the physical dexterity, the musicality, and not only the desire to perform, but no stage fright whatsoever."

First Guitar from a Flea Market

Jan Christopher was seven years old when he bought a used guitar for four euros while strolling through a flea market in Neukirchen-Vluyn.
"At first, I thought, 'Oh great, another item that's just going to sit around the house,'" recalls his mother, Sabine Heßling. But she and her husband, Heinz, quickly realized that the second-hand guitar had sparked a flame, and they enrolled Jan at the music school.

The Georg-Forster-Gymnasium student explains that he chose the classical guitar specifically because he loves its sound. He admires the great Paco de Lucía, the works of Latin American composers, and above all, Johann Sebastian Bach. The Heßling household gets a full dose of the latter quite often, Jan owns the complete Bach collection on 157 CDs. What fascinates him so much about the Baroque composer? "The sheer variety of the pieces," Jan says.

Music school director Martin Begall knows that Jan's musical taste isn't exactly mainstream among his peers. "It's rare for a child to be so genuinely interested in this kind of music from the inside out." Teacher and student meet twice a week for lessons, and even more frequently when a competition is approaching.

Playing Whenever He Feels Like It

At home, Jan practices whenever the mood strikes, "usually about 45 minutes a day," Jan says. When he isn't making music, he likes to read non-fiction books. Or play games on his smartphone—something that certainly qualifies as mainstream for his age group.
Regardless of how well Jan performs at the state competition in Düsseldorf in early March, it will mark the end of the line for him either way. For musical talents of his age group, the competition ends at the state level. Martin Begall often sits on the jury for "Jugend musiziert" himself and knows that Jan Christopher has a strong chance. Because: "A talent like Jan is rare, even across the state of North Rhine-Westphalia."