Tomos Boyles, pianist

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

My parents always claim that it was a plastic DJ set they bought for me when I was two that inspired me to pursue a career in music. It was doughnut-shaped, so I used to stand in the middle and (pretty haphazardly) press buttons and make my own sounds. I think they confiscated it really quickly!

There was always lots of music in the house, but it wasn’t all classical – my parents are big fans of musicians and bands like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles and David Bowie, so I grew up listening to them. What really catalysed an interest in classical music, however, was being shown a record of The Rite of Spring by my grandfather – I’d never heard anything like it, and it’s one of my favourite pieces to this day. He was an incredibly important influence pianistically, too: I have really fond memories of playing Chopin preludes with him, one hand each. I’d get the tune of course.

My piano teachers have of course had an immense influence on my playing. I was lucky that my parents were willing to support me to study at the Junior Department of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama from the age of 14. Of course it didn’t feel like a privilege back then – I was giving up my Saturdays! At the RWCMD, I studied piano with Alison Bowring. She subjected me to a complete technical overhaul, stripping everything back, with the ultimate goal of allowing me to play with freedom and a big, singing sound. She had an arsenal of crazy practice tools involving various ways of desynchronising the hands; the passage we were working on could be distorted beyond recognition, yet when we went back to the passage as written it was always amazing how much freer my movements had become. As well as the technical overhaul, she gave me an incredibly broad and holistic musical education – she’d come to our lessons with cool harmonic progressions, asking me to explain them on the spot! Without Alison, I would not be half the pianist, or musician, that I am now.

I’m fortunate to now be studying with Rustem Hayroudinoff at the Royal Academy of Music. His teaching is really imaginative, and totally inspiring. I love that he’s not prescriptive – he leaves room for me to make decisions myself (though sometimes I need some redirection!). Our lessons often consist of finding lots of different ways of playing phrases and deciding whether they work or not, without setting any particular one in stone; having said that, he helps me think about how all those options can come together to make a piece coherent architecturally and emotionally, always doing so by using really vivid imagery. I feel that this explorative kind of teaching leaves students well-equipped to make their own creative decisions later in life. He’s completely changed my playing and the way I craft interpretations – I’m incredibly grateful to have studied with him for the last four years.

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

I initially found reading music academically rather than studying performance at a conservatoire quite challenging: the academic demand at Oxford was so high that I had to be extremely disciplined if I were to find any time to practice. But I soon realised how valuable the education I was getting really was. Even when practice time was limited, the course improved my playing in a way that I can’t quite explain. It changed the way I think about music and showed me how it can function and carry different meanings; I really have to thank all my tutors for making the experience so worthwhile and enriching.

Which performances are you most proud of?

I’m not sure I ever feel proud of performances, but I remember being at least happy after getting through my first ever full-length recital. The programme was unnecessarily big: Schumann’s Kreisleriana, Ravel’s Ondine, a Rachmaninoff Étude-Tableau, Beethoven Op. 110 and Shostakovich’s D minor Prelude and Fugue. I had a splitting headache afterwards! But I think I had a good time.

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

I couldn’t say! Like all pianists, however, I love playing pieces that are written pianistically, fitting the hand and the way it moves in a uniquely satisfying way. Scriabin’s music has always attracted me – I love how it lends itself to lots of different ways of touching the keys and producing different sounds.

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

I listen to recordings for inspiration. It’s so difficult to narrow down, but here’s a list of some of my favourite musicians to listen to: Vladimir Sofronitsky, Daniil Trifonov, Dinu Lipatti, Daniil Shafran, Leonard Bernstein, Flying Lotus, Frank Zappa, Lauryn Hill, FKA Twigs, and Miles Davis. Sofronitsky is a real favourite at the moment – I love the deep quality of his sound.

Aside from music, I get lots of inspiration from films. I’ve recently developed an obsession with Fellini – one that I share with my teacher, Rustem. Music doesn’t exist in a vacuum, so the other media you consume will inevitably seep into your performances; sometimes that can be really inspiring.

Do you have a favourite concert venue to perform in? 

I can narrow it down to two: the Holywell Music Room in Oxford, and St Martin-in-the-Fields. They both have unique atmospheres. As a listener, I love going to Wigmore Hall and the Southbank Centre; seeing Scriabin’s Prometheus with an accompanying light show in the Royal Festival Hall was a highlight this year!

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

I think that it’s in part a matter of making people feel more comfortable at concerts. Going to a concert for the first time can be a daunting, even alienating, experience – you might be listening to pieces you don’t know in an unfamiliar environment, written perhaps by musicians that you don’t feel you can identify with. But concert promoters and artists are doing a lot to change that. Last year, for example, I saw a fantastic concert that paired some Penderecki with Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. Before the interval there was a talk given by Jonathan Cross (incidentally one of my tutors at Oxford), exploring why the quartet might sound as it does. For me, it really enhanced the experience – he didn’t tell us how to think or how to listen, instead giving us some ideas which we could use to form our own relationships with the quartet. Having a guiding hand like that can make a concert a much more personally meaningful and comfortable experience; I always try to say something about each piece I’m playing in my own performances for the same reason. Music doesn’t speak for itself!

What is your most memorable concert experience? 

My most memorable is a recent one – a concert I did with one of my friends at the Royal Academy’s Summer Piano Festival this year. Centred around the Preludes Op. 23 and 32, the concert explored the connection between Rachmaninoff’s music and his life. We worked for weeks with director Richard Williams and actor Sarah Gabriel to compile a scrapbook of writings by and about Rachmaninoff, deliberately avoiding any overarching theme in order to be able to interweave the narration of the texts with the kaleidoscopic moods of the preludes. It was a really touching concert.

As a musician, what is your idea of success?

I don’t think about it much, but a good round of applause is always appreciated!

What advice would you give to young/aspiring musicians, and pianists in particular?

Try to play music you love. It sounds like a simple thing to say, but being forced to learn things you don’t like is a surefire way of developing a toxic relationship with music. As for pianists, try to find a way of playing the piano that allows you be free and relaxed – it’s amazing what a difference it makes.

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

Some kind of connection between music and food springs to mind… but maybe I’m just hungry!

Where would you like to be in the next ten years? 

I’d love to continue giving concerts and learning new, exciting repertoire – writing some of my own music would be nice, too.

Tomos Boyles performs music by Chopin, Ravel, Clara Schumann and Scriabin at Cowbridge Music Festival on Friday 22 September. More info/tickets

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