Lucy Colquhoun, pianist

Who or what inspired you to pursue a career in music and who or what have been the most important influences on your musical life and career?

My parents are big time music lovers and my dad must have had classical music permanently playing at home when I was growing up, either recordings or on the radio. My parents were not musicians however so it always seemed that people who could do such a thing were distant virtually god-like beings achieving almost impossible feats. At the very beginning of my school life, I heard the piano playing for the hymn in assembly and it was like being struck by lightning. I simply couldn’t believe that one person alone could produce “the whole music”. I thought how marvellous such a thing must be and resolved there and then that I just had to learn how to do it!

Years later, becoming an accompanist/collaborative pianist was a no brainer in the end. Solo piano repertoire and solo pianists are just amazing but for me the team work of a rehearsal and being essentially “inside the music” with another person is oftentimes an extraordinary experience. I very often feel goosebumps and electricity playing in duos but rarely practising by myself. One can also learn a huge amount through some sort of bizarre osmosis process playing with others. I have had the immense privilege of performing and playing with Sir Thomas Allen. The first thirty seconds of the very first rehearsal must have contained more than an entire year’s worth of progress, experience and learning and it is like that one way or another playing with everyone.

You can always learn something. Each time you sit down and play or even listen to something I am sure it all goes into some sort of giant melting pot of experience and learning but for me personally this seems to be especially true of playing music with others. Wagner opera, especially “The Ring Cycle” is an enormous inspiration to me. In a way it seems odd as it’s not something you can quite participate in, in the same way as a pianist. Even as a repetiteur or playing a virtuosic solo piano transcription it seems it could never rival the awesome orchestral forces employed by the composer. It is however just electrifying music. Unbelievable at times and a fundamental inspiration as a musician.

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

Covid as an accompanist/collaborative pianist was pretty bizarre! Obviously playing together with anybody was impossible, though I did record a huge number of song backing tracks for singers at the Royal College of Music, which was the closest thing possible within the confines of lockdown.
Very interestingly, I later discovered if I recorded multiple song parts for the same singer and then a few months later (when things started to open up) played together with them in reality, it actually felt like we had already been playing together properly for a good long while! The same from the singer’s point of view!

Which performances/recordings are you most proud of?

One of the songs on the Champs Hill CD. Strauss’ “Lied an meinen Sohn”, which was recorded with Julien Van Mellaerts. It’s just the most incredible piece of music but unusually large for a song. So chuffed we did it on the last day of the recording. It does not seem to be widely recorded or performed.

Which particular works/composers do you think you perform best?

I would absolutely lay down my life for Lieder! I just love the music and poetry so much! There also seems to be a massive amount of repertoire here that is not widely known. Obviously all of Strauss’s songs and Schumann’s, for example, have been recorded before but only a relatively small proportion of them are performed and recorded regularly. There are tonnes of other songs by these composers and many others which are hardly ever done and just incredible. I really, really believe in this music.

What do you do off stage that provides inspiration on stage?

In 2018 I discovered running when someone drew the Couch to 5k app to my attention. It was absolutely life changing as am sure I was officially the most unsporty person in my school! I find running especially in beautiful countryside on a beautiful day to be totally inspirational. Feel closer to nature some how. Have also found it to make me considerably more aware of my body as a pianist which is hugely important as the body is what is used to play the piano so part of the actual instrument itself in a way. It profoundly changed things for me both physically and mentally. I’m sure the oxygen must do something positive to the brain. I’ve also always been a big reader of fiction. Some how it all feeds in.

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

Obviously playing with singers in duos it is not 100% up to me and the repertoire has to suit their voices and be something the other person also loves. Sometimes specific repertoire is suggested by a concert society. The song repertoire is enormous. I want to get to know and perform as much of it as possible so will always be on the look out for the opportunity to try out music I have not performed before.

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

I feel that it is more about the actual people listening to the concert rather than the venue itself, though there are of course many beautiful buildings and acoustics. It’s always wonderful to perform to an open and receptive audience that has knowledge and appreciation.

What do you feel needs to be done to grow classical music’s audiences?

What somebody like Anna Lapwood has done on social media is just fantastic. I think she has really changed things for the organ and classical music as a whole. Funding for music education in schools, education projects in schools and affordable tickets for concerts is clearly essential. You can’t make friends with someone you have never met. Group singing in schools is massively important too. I think in Hungary the use of the Kodály system for teaching singing to children from a young age is fantastic. Apparently they can sing quite difficult works when they are older. That would be incredible if it could happen more here so that more people could witness how
marvellous it can be from right inside the music. From this point am sure more people would go to classical concerts.

What is your most memorable concert experience?

A performance of Mahler’s first symphony at the Barbican by the LSO. I’ve been super lucky and have actually heard this symphony performed live quite a lot, especially at the BBC Proms over the years but this was something really special. The sort of thing you hear only once every few years – totally transcendental and overwhelming. I don’t know what it was about it but it took days to “get over” the experience. The aforementioned electricity and goosebumps in every note. It had a profound effect I won’t ever forget.

As a musician, what is your definition of success?
Would love it if the listener felt the happiness I feel when listening and playing.

What advice would you give to young/aspiring musicians?

Always believe in yourself. You can always, always improve from where you are with time, patience and work. Looking back on my own experience so far, what can look like a bad thing at the time can actually lead to something far better in the future than what one had originally envisaged. Sometimes it can take a while for things to come out in the wash.

What’s the one thing in the music industry we’re not talking about which you think we should be?

It’s wonderful that a lot of issues are become more talked about and great that the question appears right here, right now. Since Covid, there is far more discussion of mental health across all walks of life and it’s great that there is growing exposure of that that in the music industry.

What’s next? Where would you like to be in 10 years?

I just can’t imagine so far into the future but I’d like to be performing as much song as possible.

What is your present state of mind

Feeling happy and positive about the future at the moment!

Songs of the Night, Lucy Colquhoun’s debut album with Rowan Pierce and Julien Van Mellaerts, is released by Champs Hill Records on 22nd September.

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