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Who or what inspired you to take up the piano and pursue a career in music?

I had this little toy keyboard-glock thing when I was little and, apparently, I would relentlessly play Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on repeat on it…using only fingers 4 and 5. My parents weren’t musicians but suspected it would be sensible to find a teacher for me before I got into any strange habits!

Who or what have been the most important influences on your musical life and career?

My parents were incredibly supportive for which I will be eternally grateful. We also had a wide variety of musical genres playing in our home. I also had a primary school music teacher who encouraged me to be broad from the very start. He let me start an ensemble of children blowing across pen lids and he gave us a slot in a concert!

What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?

Self-doubt is my biggest enemy. I received some pretty damning assessments of my pianism and musicianship from some teachers along the way advising me to search for a career elsewhere and those comments still haunt me, regardless of any success I may enjoy. On a lighter note, as I like to keep myself varied and versatile, the constant “hat changing” from role to role takes a fair amount of concentration. There’s a reason people choose to specialise and I am endeavouring to match each person’s standard in each of their home territories! But I wouldn’t change it!!

Which particular works do you think you play best?

I have a particular love for Debussy and French music. My very first piano teacher taught me that if I couldn’t get the sound I wanted out of a piano, that was down to me and I had to keep searching. This led to an endless thirst for finding sounds. I love contemporary music for the same reason. I also enjoy playing music which pulls on the breadth of styles I am familiar with.

How do you make your repertoire choices from season to season?

I often don’t! I am often asked to play particular programmes based around certain themes. I recently performed a programme of works written for me for piano and various micro-computers!

Do you have a favourite concert venue and why?

I do love the Wigmore Hall. As well as the beautiful acoustic, there is something about its dimensions, the stage, the lighting, which makes you feel both near enough and far enough away from the audience while having a wonderful connection with any fellow performers on stage.

Who are your favourite musicians?

I love a good explosion like Martha Argerich. And Mitsuko Uchida just oozes generosity and sincerity.

What is your most memorable concert experience?

Unfortunately, the one which springs to mind is where I had a wardrobe malfunction! I started my Scarlatti Sonata and one strap slipped down my shoulder, then the other… I could feel the audience holding their breath…for all the wrong reasons!

As a musician, what is your definition of success?

Finding the perfect connection between you, the composer and the audience (and the space and the piano) and balancing what needs to be communicated between all of these.

What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?

That you can only offer what you have to offer. Feed yourself in every way possible, work as hard as possible, and always give everything you can. You must not expect any less of yourself…but you also cannot expect any more.

Where would you like to be in 10 years time?

In 10 years time, I would like to have a life full of a whole range of musical things, some of which I don’t want to be able to guess! I’d also like to have redressed my work-life balance…!

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

My idea of perfect happiness is the above and having person/people to share that with. Moments of absolute creative activity interspersed with thoughtless silliness and some complete stillness.

What is your present state of mind?

My present state of mind is currently noisy! I find it difficult to switch off; finding internal silence is a constant endeavour.

As a multi-genre chamber musician, orchestral pianist and music director, Yshani has performed at venues including Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Barbican Theatre and various West End Theatres. She has performed at events including the Oxford Lieder Festival, Kammer Klang and Live at the London Palladium and with such varied artists as City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Mahogany Opera and Nina Conti.

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Like many other cultural venues across the UK, the London concert hall St John’s Smith Square is currently closed to the public due to the Coronavirus pandemic.  Closed doors means a drastic reduction in income.  One way of helping to ease the immediate financial pressures of lockdown is the ‘pay it forward’ model, where customers are invited to purchase goods or services in advance, to be redeemed when lockdown has ended.

Inspired by the ‘clap for our carers’ initiative and with a desire to look ahead to life after lockdown, St John’s has launched a ‘pay it forward’ campaign with a difference.  Supporters are invited to give to the campaign to fund free concert tickets for NHS staff.

With an initial target of 500 tickets, gifts received during the 4-week campaign will be used to create an NHS free tickets fund.  When St John’s is able to reopen to the public, NHS workers will be invited to register for the free tickets scheme and redeem their tickets for a concert of their choice at St John’s.

St John’s Smith Square Director Richard Heason comments:

“The current situation has left many of us feeling quite helpless yet wanting to do something positive to let NHS staff know how much we appreciate all that they are doing for us.  As an organisation that lives and breathes music, we wanted to give people a way of saying thank you through music”. 

For further information and to give to the campaign, please visit the Crowdfunder page here:

https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/free-concert-tickets-for-nhs-staff

www.sjss.org.uk

#NHSThankyou

 

Source: press release

Image: audience applauding at St John’s Smith Square. Photo by Matthew Andrews

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Advice from pianist Beth Levin

1. brew coffee

2. consider learning new repertoire

3. visualize a recital you would have given before the venues closed – imagine 4, 5, 6 encores! well with a little luck it might have gone that way!

4. imagine the dress you would have worn – consider it with different earrings

5. go to your music stacks, pick anything and start sight-reading (hopefully it won’t be Islamey!)

6. listen to a recording of yourself in recital to remind yourself that yes, you know how to play

7. brew more coffee

8. consider learning new repertoire

9. daydream about a tour of China when this is all over

10. brew more coffee

 

Brooklyn-based pianist Beth Levin is celebrated as a bold interpreter of challenging works, from the Romantic canon to leading modernist composers. The New York Times praised her “fire and originality,” while The New Yorker called her playing “revelatory.” Fanfare described Levin’s artistry as “fierce in its power,” with “a huge range of colors.”

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71iqtbpqvfl._ss500_John Ireland      Sarnia: An Island Sequence

John Ireland      The Island Spell

Tchaikovsky      The Seasons Opus 37a

Tom Hicks, piano

At first sight, pairing a twentieth-century British composer with a nineteeth-century Russian romantic seems an unusual combination, but in this debut disc by young British pianist Tom Hicks the music of these two composers sits well together, creating an enjoyable recital disc of music inspired by nature and infused with pastoralism.

The disc opens with ‘Sarnia’, whose first two movements were composed in 1940 while John Ireland was staying on Guernsey, shortly before it was occupied by the Germans. There is a nice connection between music and pianist here as Tom Hicks hails from Guernsey; ‘Sarnia’ is the Roman name for the island. This atmospheric, dramatic and expansive work portrays aspects of the island and Hicks’ sensitive attention to detail and understated bravura brings this music fully to life with colour, spacious expression, pungent sonorities, and a tender poignancy when required.

‘The Island Spell’, inspired by Jersey and the earliest of Ireland’s Channel Islands pieces, is evocative and impressionistic, redolent of Debussy’s perfumed harmonies and filigree traceries (Ireland was described as an “English Impressionist”), its delicate textures rendered with grace and clarity.

Tchaikovsky’s ‘The Seasons’ follow, a suite of 12 miniatures which encapsulate the composer’s distinct style in microcosm. These characterful, contrasting works are the perfect canvas for Hick to paint a full palette of colours and expression, capturing their intimacy and wistfulness, with a keen ear for details and textures.

Overall, an enjoyable and engaging debut recording from this impressive young pianist.

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