Apartamento - Catherine Schroeder
Catherine Schroeder and I met at Arsenic, a performing arts centre in Lausanne, where she was rehearsing for Nils Amadeus Lange’s play, Hildegard von Bingen , in which she sang a selection of Hildegard’s lyrical repertoire. Nils had referred to Catherine as his muse, and I was immediately drawn in by her bright-red hair, calm beauty, and auratic presence. Always sitting straight as a die, she looks people square in the eyes, her lined hands resting on her crossed legs. Catherine’s multiple lives have always been guided by her intuition, which led her to live across continents and work as an educator, singer, and artist until she discovered, at the age of 50, the medieval German mystic, poet, artist, composer, healer, and scientist Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), whose legacy has never ceased to inspire her. Today, Catherine is considered a specialist in medieval music and an expert of Hildegard’s repertoire. She is actively sharing the composer’s timeless music while giving workshops and singing classes all over Europe.
Catherine’s mother purchased a little house near Sant Antoni in Ibiza in the ‘50s, and Catherine has spent nearly every summer there since she was a little girl, even living on the Mediterranean outpost for periods of time. Located on the northern coast of the island, the house, known as La Galera, was once only accessible by foot. This island retreat was the setting, or rather the protagonist, of two films by Barbet Schroeder, Catherine’s older brother: 1969’s More, portraying Ibiza’s bygone hippy, drug-infused nonchalance, and nearly half a century later, Amnesia, inspired by the story of his mother, who emigrated from Germany shortly before the Second World War.
The idyllic space has offered a sense of permanence to Catherine’s multi-faceted life. Most importantly, it’s a place that allows her to spend days contemplating the surrounding natural elements, grasping the profound impact of nature on the creative process—once described by Hildegard as "the life-giving force that is inherent in creation".
Text by Elise Lammer, read the full story here
Photographed for Apartamento in Ibiza
