Who or what inspired you to take up the piano and pursue a career in music?
There was a piano in my grandmother’s place when I was growing up in Siberia and I would bash away on that. Also, my mother used to play violin when she was younger, so I was keen to play it too, but there weren’t places for violinists in the local music school. So, on their advice, I started with the piano, and it stuck.
Who or what were the most important influences on your musical life and career?
I had a great teacher in New Zealand, where we moved when I was eleven. She was called Judith Clark and she really encouraged her students to investigate unusual repertoire. So while we were brought up on a diet of Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Rachmaninov, we also played a lot of music by contemporary composers, including pieces written specially for us. Alongside that, we were introduced to neglected repertoire that deserved to be better known, for example works by women composers.
What have been the greatest challenges of your career so far?
In addition to performing myself, I’m also director of performance at Nottingham University. So it can be difficult to balance things in terms of time, and try to lead a normal life. The pace of life today is so fast: with the development of technology, we’re expected to be available all the time, and to answer things quickly. Plus I’m naturally a workaholic and it’s easy to get into the cycle of doing rather than being, simply in order to keep busy. So it’s good to fight against that.
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