MEET THE ARTIST

Alison Balsom, trumpeter

Keep listening to live music and going to concerts to remind you why this is such a brilliant, powerful, relevant, important, beautiful thing in a human’s life and why you should keep on searching for those memorable, spine tingling occurrences.

Bertrand Chamayou, pianist

It’s a long quest and a process of building. You need to build your repertoire, your personality… to try to learn who you are as an artist. That all takes time. Search inside yourself, as most of what you have to say is already inside you from very early on.

Nitin Sawhney – musician, composer and producer

I create a new vocabulary for each project I work on. I don’t believe in stamping my personality all over what is required for a film’s score to compliment the narrative. However, with my own albums I tend to follow my intuition which leads me into a lot of sounds that I love.

Alice Sara Ott, pianist

My parents took me a to piano recital when I was three because they couldn’t find a babysitter that night. I don’t remember the pieces the pianist played but I was fascinated by the power of music that made the audience quiet for nearly two hours. I thought that if I learned this “language” people would also listen to what I want to say

Elin Manahan Thomas, soprano

My musical heart is definitely in baroque music – anything from Purcell to Handel to Bach makes me feel entirely at home. I’ve always been completely at one with the style and harmonies of the baroque period, and there’s nothing from that age that I wouldn’t love singing.

Ralph Thomas Williams, countertenor

June 21, 2021 The Cross-Eyed Pianist

One needs to approach music with an open mind. Do something outside of music too to stay grounded and humble and to not be voluntarily confined to an echo chamber such as conservatoire.

Sharon Azrieli, soprano

June 19, 2021 The Cross-Eyed Pianist

The biggest thrill of my life was making my Carnegie Hall debut with the Fauré Requiem; the sound of that hall is just incredible! I have sung there three times in different contexts, and it’s not only beautiful, it’s historic. The energy you feel looking out at the loges from the stage of the Isaac Stern Auditorium is just awe inspiring.

Anna Fedorova, pianist

June 17, 2021 The Cross-Eyed Pianist

What comes first is artistic satisfaction! To be able to perform the music you love, with musicians with whom you enjoy playing together, realising your own creative projects on a high level and, most importantly, to be needed and appreciated by the audience with whom you share your art.

Farhad Poupel, composer

June 16, 2021 The Cross-Eyed Pianist

I have been very fortunate to work with the musicians I like to work with, so there are no extra challenges for me. I always value their suggestions for performing issues (for example, the choreography of hands in piano writing) or even musical suggestions regarding the composition.