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

Growing up, I was an avid collector of records (even cassettes, as they existed then!). I remember the first time listening to the Rachmaninoff concerti, and falling in love with the monumental scale of the music. I was also extremely fortunate to have an inspirational mentor during my early study – Emily Jeffrey, who made it possible for me to have a career.

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

First, my teachers have been hugely important: Emily Jeffrey, as I already mentioned, and then Ronan O’Hora. I feel very lucky that both teachers allowed me to develop my own ideas. Masterclasses and performances with some wonderful masters have also been influential – in particular Richard Goode, Stephen Kovacevich, and Diego Masson. My family have also been incredibly supportive.

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

I think it is the things that affects most musicians – having to learn a great deal of repertoire at short notice, keeping your artistic integrity at the forefront, and finding time to deal with the business side of the career. On a side note, learning statistics for my doctorate (examining musical memorisation) was perhaps the most unusual challenge!

Which performance/recordings are you most proud of?

I hope that all of my performances have some kind of meaning or importance. There are a few that stand out. Performing recitals on consecutive days (with different programmes!) at the Barbican and Royal Festival Hall was an exhilarating – and exhausting – experience. At the end of my postgraduate study I also performed Messiaen’s vast tone poem Des Canyons aux Etoiles with the Guildhall Sinfonia in Milton Court – an absolute privilege!

My debut album is available now, featuring the solo works of Boulez, Dutilleux and Messiaen. It’s an exciting project supported by the City Music Foundation.

Which particular works do you think you perform best?

I have an affinity for French 20th-century repertoire: Boulez Notations, Messiaen Des Canyons aux Etoiles, Dutilleux Sonata. Beethoven Sonatas are also the works I return to the most. Variety is important!

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

There’s so much to choose! I generally try to pick one big work and try to build something interesting around it, often combining with some contemporary repertoire. Next up is Beethoven Op. 110.

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in and why?

I’m very fond of Milton Court – as it feels sort of like a second home from my study at Guildhall. The Bridgewater Hall and Wigmore Hall also.

Who are your favourite musicians?

Richard Goode, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Oliver Knussen, Paul Simon

What is your most memorable concert experience?

Performing Stravinsky’s Les Noces in a huge barn in France with some wonderful colleagues stands out. It was so cold that everyone had to wear thick coats, and there was grain and machinery everywhere. Despite this, it was a great concert!

From a listener’s perspective, Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s performance of Messiaen’s Vingt Regards at Milton Court in 2016 was indescribable.

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

Be comfortable in your own skin, and keep learning!

What is your most treasured possession?

Friends and family.

 

Praised as a pianist of “huge intensity” (The Telegraph), Alexander Soares is developing a reputation as an artist of formidable technique and virtuosity, with performances of “diamond clarity and authority” (BBC Radio 3 ‘In Tune’). In 2015, his performance in the BBCSO / BBC Radio 3 ‘Boulez at 90’ celebrations received widespread critical acclaim in the press, described as a “brilliantly unbuttoned account” (The Sunday Times) and “most memorable of all” (The Financial Times). The 2014-15 season began with a BBC Radio 3 broadcast of the rarely heard piano repertoire of John Tavener, and included Alexander’s debuts at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the latter performance applauded for its “explosive sound world, pulling out a rich array of colour and texture” (The Herald). He was awarded 1st prize and Gold Medal in the prestigious Royal Overseas League Competition, and was subsequently selected as a 2015 Artist by City Music Foundation. 2016-17 highlights include returns to Wigmore Hall, St-Martin-in-the-fields, St. James’s Piccadilly, and Alexander’s debut in the USA.

Contemporary French repertoire forms a major part of Alexander’s programming. Since a U.K. première of Tristan Murail’s work in the BBCSO Total Immersion series, he has performed this repertoire in his debut recitals in the Royal Festival Hall, the Purcell Room, and the Bridgewater Hall. In 2014, he collaborated with Diego Masson performing Messiaen’s Des Canyons aux Étoiles in Milton Court Concert Hall. The following year, he performed Boulez’s Dérive with David Corkhill in LSO St. Luke’s. He worked with the renowned recording producer Andrew Keener to record his debut album of solo works by Boulez, Dutilleux and Messiaen.

A keen chamber musician, Alexander has performed on numerous occasions in the Barbican, working with notable artists such as Boris Brovtsyn and Alexander Baillie. Collaborating with violinist Mihaela Martin, he debuted in Spain at the Palacio de Festivales, Sala Argenta. He has also toured France, in venues including Auditorium St. Germain and Opéra Rouen, performing Stravinsky’s Les Noces on Pleyel’s original double grand pianos, manufactured in the late nineteenth century. Alexander has greatly benefitted from the guidance of pianists including Richard Goode, Stephen Kovacevich, Stephen Hough, and Steven Osborne.

Alexander graduated with first class honours from Clare College, University of Cambridge. He then pursued postgraduate studies with Ronan O’Hora at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, achieving a Master’s with Distinction. In 2015 he completed a doctorate investigating memorisation strategies for contemporary piano repertoire, under the supervision of Professor Daniel Leech-Wilkinson. He is most grateful for generous support from the Guildhall School Trust, Help Musicians UK, Countess of Munster Trust, Martin Musical Scholarship Foundation, Park Lane Group and Making Music. 

www.alexander-soares.com

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Who or what inspired you to take up composing, and pursue a career in music?

Both of my parents are musicians, and while neither of them work in the classical world, I was always aware that music was a very valuable and worthwhile thing to make and listen to. I was certainly (thankfully!) never pushed, as evidenced perhaps by my deep reluctance to practice the trombone, my first instrument. This reluctance meant that my achievements on the instrument peaked at about grade six, though I was a lot more engaged with the guitar in my late teens. I had a somewhat healthier relationship with this instrument, which also, through various bands, led me into writing music of my own. As time went on, I wrote more and more progressive stuff for my band, meaning that when I started writing for classical instruments aged nineteen it wasn’t too much of a leap, stylistically or technically. I think I came to realise that writing the music was a lot more enjoyable for me than playing it, or, crucially, the practice time required to play it! As a composer you get to practice by just composing, and that seemed like much more fun to me.

Who or what were the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?

There are two composition teachers to whom I owe an enormous amount: Dmitri Smirnov, and Edmund Finnis. Dmitri was my first composition teacher, and a lot of the lessons he imparted upon me have stayed within my consciousness to this day, whether I decide to follow them or not! Using examples from Bach and Beethoven to Webern and Ligeti, he stressed the importance of balancing a logical, systematic method with a more intuitive approach. Edmund, who I studied with for two years at the Royal Academy of Music, taught me the importance of following my ears, and the importance of sound in a tactile, perhaps experimental sense. He was always keen to introduce me to the music of composers with a similar sensibility like Rozalie Hirs, James Tenney, and Jonathan Harvey.

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working on a commissioned piece?

I actually quite enjoy the strictures of a commission, especially when this means I end up with an instrumentation I never would have thought of or chosen of my own devices. For some examples, my piece ‘Zorthern’ for Sound and Music/NMC’s Next Wave 2 scheme, which was for the rather odd and somewhat imbalanced lineup of oboe, trumpet, horn, percussion, solo accordion and two violins, or my trio ‘Kalimotxo’ for clarinet, harp, and double bass for the Hermes Experiment. In both of these cases, I feel like the challenge of finding my own way into the world of the ensembles lead to some unexpected results that I ended up enjoying a lot. Often, writing for established, well known ensembles like string quartets or orchestras can lead to a certain comfortable (yet dangerous) sense of how things should be done, so usually I will try and find a way to approach a piece as if it’s a more unusual ensemble (for example, by having a string quartet that imitates howling dogs as in my piece ‘Samoyeds’).

What are the special challenges/pleasures of working with particular musicians, singers, ensembles and orchestras?

It’s really wonderful to work with players and ensembles you know well. This particularly applies to The Hermes Experiment and The Ligeti Quartet, both of whom I worked with last year and both of whom I’ve been lucky enough to see in performance many times. This kind of connection not just to the musical personalities of the players, but also to them as people, can make a world of difference in how I approach a piece. To work with such gifted professional musicians is a real privilege, but I also really enjoy getting to write for young people or amateurs. When writing music for non-professional musicians, I put a lot more thought into how much the performer will get a sense of fulfilment from what they’re playing, which of course has to be balanced with my own musical aims. I find that writing for both ends of the professional to non-professional spectrum can really inform my work as a whole.

Of which works are you most proud?

I wrote a short comic opera called ’The Man Who Woke Up’ in 2014, and I still consider that to be my earliest piece that I’m still happy to put to my name. This felt like a very big statement at the time; more than twice as long as anything I’d ever written before at thirty minutes, my first time writing for an orchestra, and I even took on the challenge of writing the libretto myself. That original version had its problems, such as some rather inelegant orchestration, but over the years I’ve refined it a bit, and the more compact version for an ensemble of six players will be getting premiered in Chicago with Thompson Street Opera Company in April this year. Across its three versions, it’s my most performed piece, which seems paradoxical as its also my longest; I can only extend the deepest thanks to Thompson Street for continuing to champion it, and Jules Cavalie and Goldsmiths Chamber Opera for commissioning it in my undergraduate years.

The other piece would probably have to be ‘In Feyre Foreste’, a piece for five recorder players that I wrote in 2016 for a project at the Royal Academy of Music. This was my first collaboration with recorder player Tabea Debus, who I’ve since written two more pieces for, ’Twenty One Minute Pieces’ and ‘Aesop’, both with the LSO’s Soundhub Scheme. I think that ‘In Feyre Foreste’ was one of the first pieces where I started to shake off some of the very serious, no-nonsense contemporary music sensibility that I think had been dragging my music down somewhat. In this piece I was finally able to get back into the fun of composing and music in general, and this is something I’ve been trying to continue in all of my pieces since, even if they sometimes do take a more serious tone. A few weeks after completing my masters degree I got news that this piece was nominated for a British Composer Award, which was a very big shock; it was even more of a surprise when I found out the piece had won a few months later!

How would you characterise your compositional language?

I would say that I have a preference for simplicity of sound, though this often manifests itself in music which is still difficult to play! I try and make my music clear in terms of what’s going on where; I have a great admiration for composers who create incredible complex textures by layering things up, but that’s not for me. My philosophy is, would there be genuine musical value in dividing the violins into eight independent parts, or could I make music that is just as good with a solo, or the section in unison? Much of my recent music has taken the form of fast dances, usually jigs; this is something that just crept into my music around 2016 when I wrote ‘In Feyre Foreste’, and it has just stuck around since. In the last year or so I’ve simplified my harmonic palette a bit to mostly triadic chords, dominant 7ths, diminished chords; essentially the makeup of common practice harmony. This is usually to try and evoke a memory of some other kind of music, which I’m really interested in. Harmony made by spinning hexachords around is great when used by great composers, but it’s difficult to use that kind of harmony to evoke anything that doesn’t relate to 20th and 21st century classical music.

How do you work?

Almost all of my composing is done on the computer, on Sibelius. A very small amount might be done on a big of loose paper; a structural diagram for example, but other than that the entire process takes place within my laptop. Sometimes my music is based on transcribing things, so I might begin by transcribing something onto Sibelius and then just mess around with the material until I find something interesting and go on from there. The actual moment to moment work once I get down to it consists of me putting things in, listening to them on playback, and then changing them until they sound or feel ‘right’. This is exactly the kind of composition process that lots of professors tell their students specifically not to do, and that is probably very good advice for someone new to composing. I’m quite happy to work like this now because I’m confident I know how it will sound played by real performers, and because I know I’ll write better music this way than I would if I was just working on paper.

Who are your favourite musicians/composers?

These days, I’m really into composers like Gerald Barry, Cassandra Miller, Richard Ayres, Sky Macklay, and Andrew Norman. These are all people whose music has a close connection to triadic harmonies, but always executed in a way that turns things upside-down somehow. I’m also really into orchestral light music composers at the

moment; David Rose, Angela Morley, Clive Richardson; it’s such joyous, spirited, rhythmically charged music for orchestra, which is not something we hear a lot of nowadays, and always wrapped up in a neat three minute package! I also have a huge admiration for the multi-genre multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier, whose music can be profoundly complex in its rhythm and harmony but always in service of an appealing sonic exterior. I really like that idea of there being so much going on “under the hood” which you can’t see, all for the purpose of (in this complex and extended automotive metaphor) making the “car” run as efficiently as possible.

As a musician, what is your definition of success?

For a piece to be successful means, to me, that I like it, and that other people like it. A lot of composers say they don’t care what anyone else thinks about their music but for me, it has almost always been about a desire to write something that people would connect with and want to listen to again. This isn’t to say that I sit there thinking “how do I appeal to this or that demographic?”, rather I write music that is as much as possible what I like, and hope that there are people out there who value what it is that I as an individual have to say.

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

Something I always try to do as a composer is think about whether the way I’m doing something is in service of the music, or a result of fitting within a certain norm of the genre. Have I used that rhythm because it’s the rhythm I really want, or just because it’s the rhythm that’s expected of me? Did I pick this chord because it’s makes the most compelling musical sense, or did I do it because it’s like the chords I’m used to writing, that I spent a lot of time analysing in my early twenties? It can be really hard to sit down and question those moment to moment decisions, and I know I should do it more, so I encourage all composers to try doing the same.

My advice for performers is, simply, to play music by living composers as much as possible! This probably is an obvious and expected piece of advice coming from a composer, but I still want to get it out there. And you don’t have to get the money together to commission new things, while that’s a great thing to do, as one of the biggest hurdles can often be raising those funds; composers have tonnes and tonnes of existing pieces which have never been played past the premiere just itching to be taken for a spin. I know if I were a performer I’d get great fun out of browsing through composers’ websites looking for interesting repertoire. With pieces like that, you have the opportunity to really put your stamp on what could be a great piece of music that you then get to introduce to your audiences as well.

Robin Haigh is a composer from London. In 2017 he became one of the youngest ever recipients of a British Composer Award at the age of 24. As well as being commissioned by the UK’s most prestigious ensembles and institutions such as the LSO, Britten Sinfonia and Sage Gateshead, he has collaborated closely with leading ensembles of his own generation including the Ligeti Quartet and The Hermes Experiment.

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

There are no musicians in my family. My parents enrolled me in a music school when I was five and there I started discovering this world from scratch. I chose the piano from the beginning because it was a magnificent instrument with a huge range of registers and possibilities.

Over the years, my interest for music kept growing and I started expanding my skills. I began playing the drums in a band, I learned how to play the guitar, I became an active member in several choirs and I composed. Although I was still pursuing my main musical studies in piano, all these new experiences enriched my relationship with music and allowed me to gain new perspectives that probably I wouldn’t have had if I had solely focused on a ‘keyboard’ approach.

Nevertheless, when I started my Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics I had to prioritise and I eventually ended up focusing on the piano. During my undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the Catalonia College of Music (ESMUC) and the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London, my personal commitment to performing became even stronger and determined my pursuit for a career as a pianist. However, if I have to say what really inspired me, I think that is becoming addicted to the excitement of creating a live performance on stage that is different every single time.

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

My musical taste has changed a lot and I have admired and worshiped artists and bands from all sorts of musical genres: rock, punk, pop, indie, funk, jazz, and of course, classical music. Playing different instruments and styles also allowed me to experience those genres from inside, and that significantly made a difference for me. With time, classical music became the main influence, but I have remained open-minded.

Glenn Gould’s distinctive recordings was one of the earliest and more determinant musical influences for me. I found it tremendously compelling that he could play so rationally, while being extremely creative and artistic. A model that pushed me to find my own voice between mathematics and music. I truly admired his originality of thought and his conviction to build a controversial but unique sound world. Another was Friedrich Gulda, and his incredible range both as a classical and jazz pianist.

However, probably the most distinctive revelation for me was to discover the masterpieces from the 20th and 21st centuries, too often neglected by the conservatoire’s tradition. A repertoire that I felt artistically closer to and that stimulated my curiosity to work and premiere new music by living composers. Each collaboration challenged and transformed my understanding of music, especially for the core repertoire.

Probably the musician that has influenced me the most and the one I’ve been studying the longest with is my piano professor at ESMUC, Jean-François Dichamp. He taught me a very solid technique and an extraordinary musicality which significantly transformed me as a performer. While studying with him, I fell in love with the music of Messiaen and Dutilleux, and, as a consequence, I started exploring further the more recent French repertoire to which I dedicated my first album ‘The French Reverie’.

My piano professors Jordi Vilaprinyó and Stanislav Pochekin were also a determinant influence and, along with Jean-François Dichamp, have been my mentors over the years.

During my Master’s at the Royal College of Music I specialised in contemporary repertoire with Andrew Zolinsky, where I had a wide range of performing opportunities that allowed me to reinforce my experience with new music. I also became acquainted with Crumb’s, Stockhausen’s and Lang’s piano music which became an important influence for me.

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

There have been many, but probably one of the craziest ones was to combine simultaneously a Bachelor’s degree in piano performance and a Bachelor’s degree in mathematics at two different universities.

Which performance/recordings are you most proud of?

My first milestone as a professional musician has been without doubt the recording of my debut album ‘The French Reverie’, featuring works by Messiaen, Dutilleux, Manoury, Escaich, Ben-Amots, Järventausta and Djambazov. It has been a risky project because I chose non-standard repertoire by mostly alive composers. However, before I recorded it, I visited and played for all of them, and precisely for this it has become an exceptional and unprecedented experience.

In addition of recording, I have also been the producer and the fundraiser of the album, which was generously supported by 208 patrons from 28 countries across the five continents! Although at the beginning it was scary, it allowed me to gain a lot of insight on the music industry and which strategies work to engage an audience and the press to promote your project.

At the moment, I’m currently planning a concert tour of the countries of the composers involved: France, Finland, Bulgaria, Israel and USA, along with Spain and the UK.

Which particular works do you think you play best?

I think that what I play best is the Contemporary Classical Repertoire, especially because it is what I enjoy the most to perform. Also, Debussy, Ravel, Falla, Brahms and Bach.

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

I have a huge predilection for rhythmical pieces, so I always try to include some in my repertoire. Above all, I focus on finding or selecting works that I’m looking forward to play and try to arrange them in terms of a story or a concept. I also try to link major works from the core repertoire with masterpieces from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in and why?

I like to play in venues in which architecture has a strong artistic component. I think it adds an additional layer of spirituality to the performance. However, any venue with good acoustics, an enjoyable piano and a receptive audience is equally special.

Who are your favourite musicians?

Miles Davis, Hayk Melikyan, Alicia de Larrocha, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Maika Makovski, Martha Argerich, Glenn Gould, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Grigory Sokolov, Daniil Trifonov, Ivo Pogorelich, Elliott Smith, Zoltan Kocsis, Malena Ernman, Valentina Lisitsa, Sviatoslav Richter, András Schiff, Bill Evans, Maria Callas, Evgeny Kissin, Belle and Sebastian, Cecilia Bartoli, Friedrich Gulda, Art Tatum, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Lennie Tristano, Arcadi Volodos, Hole, NOFX, Art Blakey, Murray Perahia, Pearl Jam, Muse, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Leonard Slatkin, William Bolcom, Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim, Anna Netrebko, Renée Fleming, Simon Rattle, Joshua Bell and Isabelle Faust.

What is your most memorable concert experience?

It is really difficult to choose a single performance because each one has something special. However, maybe one of the most distinct and unforgettable experiences I had is when I performed George Crumb’s Makrokosmos I. This is a set of twelve pieces, each one dedicated to a different sign of the zodiac, meaning that you have to portray a different character in every single one. With this work you cross all possible boundaries as a performer and you create an outstanding sound world. It literally transforms you into someone else and you discover that you’re capable of leading and communicating with the audience in ways you never suspected.

As a musician, what is your definition of success?

I think that you can consider yourself successful when you don’t need to compromise your artistic aspirations to make a living. When you are doing exactly what you want, and you get a positive response. For me, success is not about money or becoming famous. It is essentially feeling self-accomplished and to have the necessary public recognition to develop your own projects.

It is also having the certainty that with your job you’re making a difference in your field in something that you feel passionate about. To be able to communicate that to others.

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

I think it is extremely important to think about why you want to become a professional musician and what could be your contribution. In other words, to be creative, to question general assumptions in your field and to find your own voice. And above all, to be patient, proactive, persistent and determined to work hard.

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

Hopefully having an established career as a musician and with lots of ideas and projects in mind. Ideally, being able to travel and to work with inspiring people.

What is your idea of perfect happiness?

I tend to agree with Zygmunt Bauman when he states that happiness is the result of fighting and overcoming difficulties. Personally, I like challenges and absolutely love the feeling of accomplishment when I have been able to achieve my goals. Probably that’s why I have such a predilection for complex repertoire too. I think that perfect happiness is the result of having an enthusiastic and healthy ambition.

What is your most treasured possession?

Although it is not strictly a possession, I would say time. You can achieve anything with it and is something that money can’t buy. Everything I’m proud of and every unforgettable experience I have is a consequence of having had the time for it.

 

Laura Farré Rozada’s debut album The French Reverie is available now. Further information

 

Laura Farré Rozada is an award-winning pianist and mathematician specialised in contemporary music. She is currently based in London, where she recently completed her Master of Music degree with Andrew Zolinsky as an RCM Patrons’ Award Holder. She previously graduated with Distinction from her Bachelor and Master piano studies with Jean-François Dichamp at ESMUC (Catalonia College of Music), and from her Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics at UPC (Polytechnic University of Catalonia). She obtained several Distinction Awards in all her studies.

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Help Musicians ShootWho or what inspired you to pursue a career in music?

I didn’t have a lightbulb moment with deciding to follow a career in music. It was more the accumulation of many joyous and happy moments right from when I started to play the clarinet, and from there it seemed a natural thing to keep working and enjoying what I did. As I was growing up and playing more and more, nothing else appeared that seemed more attractive as a career, so I simply stuck with it!

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

My first clarinet teacher, Vanessa, who got me started on this crazy journey. After that, I had lessons with Joy Farrall who remains a wonderful colleague and friend to this day. Other than that, more generally: everything! I take great pleasure in listening to what other people have to say. I give everyone the benefit of the doubt – one of the greatest mistakes we can make is passing judgement before we form our own opinion. (This is especially true, I think, as we exist in an era where peoples’ attention spans and tolerances often seem shorter and lower than ever before.)

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

A continuous challenge is sitting with uncertainty, and knowing that you’re only as good as your last performance. Of course, we all make mistakes (and whoever created this obsession with perfection in our industry has a lot to answer for), but it can be hard to feel like you are always being evaluated, compared, ranked. On the other hand, to do a job which keeps me on top of my game constantly is a challenge that I relish. The thought of having a job where I can become stultified and get away with constantly being mediocre is frightening.

Which performances/recordings are you most proud of?

Truth be told, I don’t really listen back to many recordings I do – once I’ve done something I move on pretty quickly to the next thing. Any performance or project that I walk away from knowing I learned something or gave everything to I am proud of.

Which particular works do you think you perform best?

Anything where you get a lot from the score or the collaborators. I draw a lot on what is right in front of me in the moment – the more there is to bounce off, the more involved I become.

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

I don’t really choose a lot of repertoire myself – this often comes down to the orchestra’s schedule. With freelance work you get booked and the repertoire is always decided in advance – you just turn up and play. With The Hermes Experiment, we always look to do new and different things, be it commissioning a certain composer, playing at a certain venue, or exploring a different theme (or all three!), and so our repertoire grows around this.

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in and why?

Before Christmas I took my bass clarinet along to a pub in Stoke Newington and joined in a blues jam at the invitation of a friend. I am pretty sure I was terrible but it was by far the most fun atmosphere I’ve played in for months.

Who are your favourite musicians?

Anyone who has flair and says things in an interesting way that also make sense. I think Joni Mitchell is a genius. I am discovering Kate Bush. A friend introduced me to the wonderful music of Brad Mehldau.

What is your most memorable concert experience?

Some of my most treasured memories come from my time in the National Youth Orchestra – playing at the BBC Proms with Vasily Petrenko as the culmination of months of delving so deeply into repertoire and forging wonderful friendships is something I’ll never forget.

As a musician, what is your definition of success?

For me, success is asking the two questions ‘What do I want my life to be right now’ and ‘What do I actually have in my life right now’ and having as narrow a gap between the two as possible. There’ll probably always be a small gap, but it’s a good thing to aspire to. As a musician, as a person, it’s all the same thing. I’m not talking about wanting to own a nice car or winning the lottery or something. I’m talking about doing things that leave you fulfilled, that are true to your values. That is success. And being able to pay the rent. That’s also nice.

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

Firstly: Listen to as much music as you can. Try and get a flavour of everything, and then find what you’re passionate about and investigate it as much as you can. Be obsessed. Find what makes you happy and follow it relentlessly.

Secondly: Listen to other people. If you think they’re a moron. Listen to them. Everyone has something worth saying. Even if you walk away thinking ‘I definitely wouldn’t do it that way’, you were present and you listened and made the active decision to do things your way, rather than walking away out of close-mindedness, arrogance or laziness.

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

I still ask myself on a regular basis if I want to do this, if this is something that I want to be doing. As soon as the answer is ‘no’ I am out of here! Music is something that you do because you want to, because you are passionate about it and it brings you happiness (as well as happiness to others, of course). Why do it if these things don’t happen? To do something as personal as music for a living, but be empty or cynical inside just doesn’t make sense to me. Go and become a banker or something. Or a consultant (I still have no idea what consultants do). In 10 years’ time I will be wherever I am.

Oliver Pashley is a young London-based clarinettist and founding member of contemporary quartet The Hermes Experiment. He holds the position of Sub-Principal Clarinet with Britten Sinfonia and plays regularly with orchestras and ensembles at home and abroad, including the Philharmonia Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Southbank Sinfonia, The Riot Ensemble, Northern Ballet Sinfonia, and the Haffner Wind Octet. Highly in demand as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician, he has played guest principal with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, BBC Concert Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, London Mozart Players, and English National Ballet.

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