“When I play, I walk, I fly, I do whatever I want”

Every day, a personality invites itself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Thursday February 22, 2024: harpist Anja Linder for her album “Schubert”.

Anja Linder is one of the most popular and sought-after harpists of her generation. She is totally at one with this instrument and for good reason, it was her pillar after the terrible tragedy that occurred during a concert on July 6, 2001 at the Pourtalès park in Strasbourg. She was one of 150 victims of the plane tree which fell on the crowd following a violent storm. 15 people lost their lives and after five operations and a week spent in a coma, Anja Linder emerged paraplegic from this accident.

Since then, she has not stopped fighting to play music again and to get back on stage. On March 19, she will be in concert at the La Grange-Fleuret music library in Paris to present her album. Schubert, in trio with cellist Julie Sévilla-Fraysse and violinist Laurent Korcia. She will also perform at the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Paris on September 8.

franceinfo: In this album, you decided to enhance these Schubert scores by bringing your personality to them. Does this mean that Schubert is very important to you?

Anja Linder: I was raised in my mother’s lap and she gave piano lessons, so I had been hearing Schubert pieces since I was little. The ones on this album are really pieces that have accompanied me all my life. There is one with which I won the international chamber music competition in Arles, which was a fantastic trigger in my career. The trio that closes the album is quite simply one of my favorite pieces in the world. I’ve been listening to it forever and I always told myself that I would miss my life if I didn’t play the andante of the trio.

Hearing the news that you were never going to be able to walk again was obviously terrible. But the hardest part for you was imagining that you would never be able to play music again.

When I play, I walk, I fly, I do whatever I want. It’s so much more important for me to play.

“When I learned that I wouldn’t walk, it was terrible, but I know that if they hadn’t been able to create this instrument for me, I don’t know if I would have wanted to live.”

Anja Linder

at franceinfo

You left the hospital and for four years, you dreamed of getting back on stage. You are going to have an extraordinary encounter. In 2004, you go to a music store and there is a man who sees you and decides to find a solution to actually allow you to play again.

He had heard me when I won the international chamber music competition in Arles and after seeing him again on that occasion, he left me a message on my answering machine where he said: “Would you like to try to adapt the harp to your disability?” And it was definitely the sentence I had been hoping for for years. And so I said to him, in a sort of breath and sobs: “Yes thanks.” And then from that moment on, it was the Anjamatic adventure with these different prototypes, the tests which didn’t work, the oil leaks in my living room because at the beginning, it was hydraulic. It’s a very beautiful adventure. I’m lucky to be able to play again and I’m really aware of that.

It should be noted that there are indeed pedals and that when you are deprived of your legs, it is not possible to play. So they created a system to be able to allow you to have that assistance and play the harp. I would like you to tell me about this concert which will take place on March 19 at the Grange-Fleuret music library in Paris. I imagine all the emotion you have when you go on stage.

It’s always my favorite place, the stage. There is a notion of time that stops at concerts and these moments nourish me enormously.

“I can be unhappy for a month, but if I have an hour of happiness on stage, it nourishes me for months.”

Anja Linder

at franceinfo

There is another very important event that will happen on September 8 since you will participate in the closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games. What does this mean to you?

I dreamed of it and when it was offered to me, I really thought it was impossible. And I am truly, infinitely happy to be associated with it because these are athletes who are incredible, who forget everything and who reclaim their bodies in an extraordinary way.

When we talk about disability in general, those who are affected by it say that they experience their disability through the eyes of others. Do you have the impression that the outlook of the French changes over time?

Yes, because I have been in a wheelchair for 22 or 23 years now. I was told horrible things while I was in rehab that now no one would say to me. Ten years ago, when taxis didn’t want to take me because it would be disruptive, no one reacted. Whereas now, in the street, people are revolted and they run after the taxi, shouting.

Are there still taxis that won’t take you because you’re in a wheelchair?

Yes. On the other hand, before it happened with indifference and now it no longer happens.

Watch this interview on video: