Who or what inspired you to take up the piano and pursue a career in music?
My parents took me to a 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 and so I went to my mother after the recital and told her that I wanted to become a pianist. She wasn’t happy about this and so it took me a year to convince her.
Who or what have been the most important influences on your musical life and career?
Definitely my teachers, but also each and every collaboration with an orchestra and a conductor has given me the opportunity to learn something new and develop myself.
What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?
Learning to say no and finding out my limits.
Which performance/recordings are you most proud of?
All of my performances and recordings are fingerprints of certain stages in my life so far, but my recent album ‘Wonderland’ means a great deal to me. There is a lot of my heart’s blood in it.
Which particular works do you think you play best?
None in particular. Of course there are days when I feel very comfortable with a work and think that I finally understand and own it – until the next day when I suddenly realise that I am still very green
How do you make your repertoire choices from season to season?
There are so many wonderful works I want to play and programme, so I usually pick one bigger work and try to build a story around it. It also depends on what the programme of my next album is. I also of course ask colleagues and people around me for advice.
Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in and why?
There are too many wonderful halls out there, so I can’t name just one or two. It’s not so much a matter of the country or hall I play in, it’s about the interaction between the audience and me. So wherever music unites me with the audience, I feel “home”.
Favourite pieces to perform? Listen to?
Always the ones I am playing at that moment.
When I am off, I don’t listen so much to classical music. I love Tom Waits, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin.
Who are your favourite musicians?
Those who are honest and take risks in the music.
What is your most memorable concert experience?
Once I played a concert in Rio de Janeiro and there was a couple sitting in the first row, eating popcorn while listening to my performance. I LOVED that.
What do you consider to be the most important ideas and concepts to impart to aspiring musicians?
To know what happiness means to you. As long as one is not happy, he/she can not make others happy.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
To appreciate the small things in life.
What is your most treasured possession?
I don’t own them, but I would say my family and my friends are the most essential things in my life. And I actually have quite a nice whisky collection that keeps growing
What is your present state of mind?
I just got out of a two month break. That was a wonderful thing and I am incredibly grateful to my friends who gave me so much energy and joy in this time. Now I am recharged and can’t wait to go back to work.
German-Japanese pianist Alice Sara Ott has gained critical acclaim for her performances at major concert halls worldwide and has established herself as one of the most exciting musical talents of today. The Guardian, commenting on her recent performance with the London Symphony Orchestra, said that she “gave the kind of gawp-inducing bravura performance of which legends are made”.
Alice has worked with the world’s leading conductors, including Lorin Maazel, Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, James Gaffigan, Sakari Oramo, Osmo Vänskä, Vasily Petrenko, Myung-Whun Chung, Hannu Lintu and Robin Ticciati.
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