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This post marks the first birthday of the ‘Meet the Artist’ series, and to celebrate this, I am delighted to present an interview with pianist Lara Melda, winner of the 2010 BBC Young Musician of the Year.

Who or what inspired you to take up the piano and make it your career?

I originally started playing the piano after my sister began taking lessons. I was always trying to learn as she was practising! And from the moment I began lessons myself, I knew that I wanted to be a pianist.

Who or what are the most important influences on your playing?

My teacher, Ian Jones is a great influence to me; I am so grateful for his guidance and wisdom! And secondly my mother, who has stood behind me every step of the way – I would not have got to where I am without her constant support.

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

Sometimes it can be hard to balance school, a social life and the hours of practise required, especially when I was at the beginning of my journey, but now I have found ways to make it all work!

What are the particular challenges/excitements of working with an orchestra/ensemble?

It is always such a pleasure to work with orchestras, as pianists can get quite lonely on stage! Playing with others is always extremely inspiring, especially when I have been lucky enough to work with some wonderful orchestras such as the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the Aurora Orchestra, Borusan Philharmonic, Northern Sinfonia, Sinfonia of Leeds, English Chamber Orchestra, the Maidstone, Aylesbury, Royal Tunbridge Wells and Worthing Symphony Orchestras.

Which recordings are you most proud of?

At the moment I haven’t made any recordings, as I am waiting for the right time and, to try and think of an extraordinary program to make my first CD, as I want it to be really special.

Do you have a favourite concert venue?

I am a huge fan of the Wigmore Hall – I have had the pleasure of performing there once. The acoustic is wonderful, and I especially love the intimacy of the hall.

Who are your favourite musicians?

Martha Argerich is my favourite pianist; her passionate playing has always been one of my biggest inspirations.

What is your most memorable concert experience?

The finals of the BBC Young Musician has to date been the most exciting performance of my life, coupled with the fact that it was the performance to change my life forever, it was a night that I will never forget!

What is your favourite music to play? To listen to?

I love playing music from the Romantic era, especially Chopin and Rachmaninov. They are both composers who really stir something in my soul; I feel so at one with their music that it feels completely natural to play.

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

Practise makes perfect! There are always periods of difficulty, and times when you may feel like you are not getting anywhere, but with persistence and determination, anything can be achieved.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am working on a programme consisting of the following, for my next recitals in April:

BACH Prelude and Fugue in C sharp minor, Prelude and Fugue in D major from Well Tempered Clavier Part 1

CHOPIN Étude in C minor Op. 10 No. 12, Étude in F major Op. 10 No. 8 Nocturne in B major Op. 32 No. 1, Nocturne in G major Op. 37 No. 2, Scherzo No.1 in B minor

DEBUSSY Les sons et les parfums tournent dans l’air du soir Les collines d’Anacapri Des pas sur le neige La cathédrale engloutie, Minstrels from ‘Préludes, Livre 1’

LISZT ‘Les Cloches de Genève’ from Années de pèlerinage, Book 2; Concert Paraphrase on Rigoletto (after Verdi)

Where would you like to be in 10 years’ time?

I would really like to have launched my international career, and have made some recordings that I can be proud of!

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

To be with the people I love most, and doing the thing that I love most – playing the piano.

Lara Melda performs at St James’s, Piccadilly, London W1 on 10th July in a charity concert for Street Child World Cup Rio 2014. Further information here

At the age of sixteen Lara Melda won the BBC Young Musician 2010 competition, performing Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No.2 in the final round, with Vasily Petrenko and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Cardiff. The competition had an international following via television and radio broadcasts on the BBC. Since then she has also performed Mozart Concerto K466 with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and next season will return to Cardiff to play Beethoven Piano Concerto No 3.

Lara’s concerto performances last season included the Northern Sinfonia with Kirill Karabits, Sinfonia of Leeds, Watford Philharmonic, and the Maidstone, Aylesbury, Royal Tunbridge Wells and Worthing Symphony Orchestras. Previous London concerto engagements have included Mozart with the Aurora Orchestra and Nicholas Collon (Kings Place) and English Chamber Orchestra (Cadogan Hall) and the Grieg Concerto with English Sinfonia (St John’s Smith Square).

Lara Melda performs regularly in Turkey and made her debut at the International Music Festival in Istanbul in June 2011, playing the Grieg Concerto with the Borusan Philharmonic. She has also been presented by the ‘Istanbul Recitals’ piano series and performed at the Antalya Piano Festival and Bogazici University. In 2012 she received the prestigious ‘Promising Young Artist’ award from Kadir Has University.

Recital appearances have included Les Sommets Musicaux in Gstaad (Switzerland), Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival (Germany) and the Wigmore Hall. During this season Lara will perform at the Wiltshire Music Centre and many other venues in the UK.

Lara is a student at the Royal College of Music where she is a Queen Elizabeth Queen Mother Scholar supported by a Musicians’ Company Lambert Studentship. She began piano lessons with Emily Jeffrey at the age of six and currently studies with Ian Jones. Lara is also an accomplished viola player and enjoys playing chamber music on both piano and viola. In 2009 she was a finalist in the International Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Weimar, Germany.

Lara Melda is very grateful for support from Non Worrall and Richard Williams.

Lara’s biography courtesy of Askonas Holt

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How long have you been playing the piano?

36 years, with a 5 year gap!

What kind of repertoire do you enjoy playing, and listening to?

Everything classical! Whatever I’m playing at the time I love.

How do you make the time to practise? Do you enjoy practising? 

I never have enough time to practise, I work full time running my own business, but manage about 5 or 6 hours a week practise, a lot more when I’m on holiday!

Have you participated in any masterclasses/piano courses/festivals? What have you gained from this experience? 

Fantastic to meet other people interested in the same thing – its quite a lonely hobby! I organise piano masterclasses for Ulverston Music Festival: we have 3 per year in Broughton-in-Furness, Cumbria. I also attend other piano events in Cumbria.

If you are taking piano lessons what do you find a) most enjoyable and b) most challenging about your lessons? 

I love my lessons, I love learning and I love practising! There is more than enough repertoire out there for very many lifetimes, so I can never run out of things to learn!

What are the special challenges of preparing for a piano exam as an adult? 

A knowledge of The Fear of Failure. Children don’t have this! I have found it prohibitive and as a consequence have not done any further exams after grade 8 ten years ago.

Has taking piano lessons as an adult enhanced any other areas of your life? 

Yes, its given me more confidence generally, as the piano is so central to me, the feel good factor extends to everything else!

Do you play with other musicians? If so, what are the particular pleasures and challenges of ensemble work? 

I play duets with a friend – it’s magic making music with someone else!

Do you perform? What do you enjoy/dislike about performing? 

Love performing when I am in the right frame of mind and I know the piece well enough – it’s the best feeling when you know you have played something well

What advice would you give to other adults who are considering taking up the piano or resuming lessons? 

Don’t hesitate!

If you could play one piece, what would it be? 

Ravel’s Tombeau de Couperin, complete

(that’s as of today……next week could be something else!!)

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What is your first memory of the piano?

My mother played, I crawled on the floor

Who or what inspired you to start teaching?

My passion for the piano

Who were your most memorable/significant teachers?

Gyorgy Sebok. Vlado Perlemuter, Merete Soderhjelm

Who or what are the most important influences on your teaching?

The pianists above

Most memorable/significant teaching experiences?

The wordless understanding, manifested in the liberated playing of the student

What are the most exciting/challenging aspects of teaching adults?

Their high expectations, their self critical attitudes, difficulty in taking risks

What do you expect from your students?

Commitment, honesty, willingness to experiment, daring…

What are your views on exams, festivals and competitions?

Exams – I have very mixed feelings about these. Especially the early grades: is it not much better to create a learning programme suitable for each learner, instead of relying on a syllabus? Performing is part of being a musician, so I am all for non-competitive festivals, and also competitions but only if the adjudicator is someone who can be trusted to speak in a positive way to all competitors.

What do you consider to be the most important concepts to impart to beginning students, and to advanced students?

Early stages – music as expression,  physical freedom before reading notation; advanced students – music is a form of art and the text needs to come alive: technique is the means to express.  Also, memorising comes high on my list as memorising means reflecting on what you play.

What are you thoughts on the link between performance and teaching?

I could not teach performance skills without first-hand experience of performing.

Who are your favourite pianists/pianist-teachers and why?

Cannot think of anyone in particular, I have heard so many really great ones, and learn from each and every one.

HELI IGNATIUS-FLEET, ARMCM, Dip Sibelius Academy has studied the piano extensively: in addition to her music college studies (both in Finland and England) she has performed international masterclasses and worked with Austrian, American and French piano professors. During her studies she started building up her wide repertoire which covers all the main genres of classical piano music.

Now resident in Cambridge, she is a much sought after teacher. Her pupils range from professional musicians to beginners and regularly include music undergraduates. Heli creates individual learning programmes for her students: while these are not necessarily based on exams, her record of excellent exam results, including diplomas, is extensive and impressive.

A regular and popular piano course tutor at Little Benslow Hills, she aims to inspire and encourage adults, whatever their level of pianistic competence. She is also a former director and a present principal tutor of the EPTA UK Purcell School Practical Piano Teaching Course: this involvement means keeping abreast with the most recent developments in piano teaching.

Heli performs regularly: she has appeared on Finnish radio and TV and in many locations in the UK. As well as playing solo piano repertoire she has built up a reputation as a chamber music player.

Her unique lecture recitals are rooted in her life-long interest in art and her desire to illuminate musical experiences through visual parallels in paintings.  They have been well received by audiences in universities, schools and art galleries.

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The first of a series of guest posts on understanding and coping with stage fright by pianist, educator and author Charlotte Tomlinson.

Charlotte will feature in a forthcoming At the Piano interview.

Imagine this scenario: one of the world’s finest symphony orchestras is preparing to go on stage, at, let’s say London’s Barbican Centre. Musicians are tuning up, putting rosin on their bows and warming up their instruments. It seems totally normal and you would almost think that everyone was so professional and so used to giving concerts that they didn’t suffer from stage fright at all. But the reality is different.

Chris is going over his flute solo silently in his mind, his heart beating wildly and his breathing short and sharp. Despite his professionalism and years of experience, he is terrified and hardly slept the night before. Naomi, one of the second violins, doesn’t feel quite so pressurized because she is surrounded by other players and never plays solos, but try as she might, she always ends up chatting incessantly and nervously about anything at all, just before she goes on stage. It is her way of releasing excess nervous energy. And Suzy, the cello soloist, has just stopped herself from throwing up and is now pacing up and down her dressing room, breathing deeply.

These are a few imaginary examples of what can happen when professional musicians are about to go on stage. Nobody talks about stage fright, certainly not in professional performing circles. Musicians backstage at the Barbican wouldn’t have shared their anxieties to each other, for fear of losing their credibility and more significantly, their employability. Stage fright is considered taboo. It’s not only considered taboo, but also shameful. I have known many a highly successful, seasoned professional, who has confided in me, their deep, deep shame at having nerves that cause them such distress. They will lie to pretend they don’t have them, suffering in silence so that no one knows their big secret, their ‘weakness.’ And it is often the case that the greater their success, the bigger and more shameful their secret becomes.

I have given many talks about how to deal with stage fright to teenagers at schools, who are about to give recitals that will be assessed and marked as part of their final year exams. When I ask how many of them feel nervous when they are about to perform, hands go up slowly and tentatively until every hand has gone up, including my own. They look around, amazed. They have no idea that anybody else goes through the same experience as them and the relief in the room is palpable. How wonderful if we could learn from early on that having a form of stage fright isn’t taboo or shameful, and that feeling that way simply exacerbates the problem.

Stage fright happens as a result of an overdose of the body’s production of adrenalin from a perceived threat. The body interprets walking on to a stage to give a presentation as the equivalent of coming across a sabre toothed tiger in the jungle. A small dose of adrenalin can be an advantage when you’re performing. It heightens everything, keeps you alert, ready to perform at your best. But too much can have a crippling effect. The perceived threat can come from so many different directions: too much pressure, fear of looking a fool, thinking everyone will criticize you, not feeling good enough, not preparing adequately. It may be only a ‘perceived’ threat, but it is very real and can cause enormous distress.

Stage fright is more common than we would like to think. An enormous number of people are suffering from it, silently, not daring to own up to it. Understanding and recognizing this can be the first step towards letting go of its hold on your life. So what’s the next step? Maybe finding a way of sharing it with an empathetic, compassionate person, someone who respects and acknowledges your feelings – someone who just gets it! This can take the valve off the pressure cooker and begin the journey towards healthy, enjoyable performing…and free of stage fright!

Charlotte Tomlinson is a pianist, educator and a published author who specialises in helping musicians overcome issues that stop them from performing. Her book Music from the Inside Out deals with the thorny issues that can profoundly affect you as a musician, and which you may not want to face. You are encouraged to look at what lies beneath the surface and you are guided to unlock what’s holding you back.

Music from the Inside Out gives you tools that can transform your whole approach to performing music.

For more information about Charlotte, and to order a copy of her book, please visit her website:

www.charlottetomlinson.com