Personal

I don't believe in coincidences.

There wasn’t much to suggest that I — the child of a top athlete (my mother, Margit Günther, née Grobe, was a GDR champion in speed skating and dressage, honoured by the state as Master of Sports, a title awarded for exceptional competitive achievement) and a craftsman (my father, Karl-Heinz, ran a second-generation printing business in Leipzig, a city renowned for its publishing industry) — would choose a path as a musician. After all, the Karl & Karl-Heinz Günther printing company was the official printer for the Gewandhaus Orchestra's concert posters, and my father's main hobby was competitive ballroom dancing. He was an international judge, and for a time I pursued both ballroom dancing and guitar simultaneously before — as you can easily guess — I opted for music.

Since my maternal grandmother was born Maria Bach in Weimar, I initially suspected a very significant connection and the fateful continuation of a great family tradition. Bach, Leipzig, Thomas — it all seemed so obvious, didn't it?
However, against all odds, my grandmother doesn't appear to have been a direct descendant of the Thuringian musical family. What a shame!

And since my three children don't show much ambition to continue the musical tradition in the family, I will probably remain a unique outlier.
But for me, it's still not a coincidence!