RESPIRO E MOVIMENTO®

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INTERVIEW

Interview: Lisa Oshima, Violinist

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Who or what inspired you to take up the violin and pursue a career in music?

I started the violin at the age of four by the Suzuki method with my neighbour who was a friend. In my family there was no one musical. I was first inspired  to become a violinist when I went to a concert at the age of five. Or perhaps I was strongly drawn to the beautiful red dress by the soloist….

Who or what have been the most important influences on your musical life and career?

My teachers. I met the right teachers at the right time. Kenji Kobayashi, professor at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, always gave me intensive lessons, sometimes nearly 4 hours per lesson. I had to start again with him with scales, many etudes and contemporary music. Dr. Felix Andrievsky, professor at Royal College of Music, taught me the background of the music and how to create my own music. He always believed in and encouraged me; without his great support I couldn’t continue studying and working alone in Europe. Erich Hobarth, concertmaster of Concentus Musicus Wien, passed me Harnoncourt’s baroque style. We often discussed baroque and modern violin playing style and  I tried both of them.

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

Every concert, every event is always a great challenge for me.

However, an orchestral audition was one of the toughest challenges. To get a position in the orchestra was the only way for me to stay in Europe after studying at college. I was eager to get an orchestral job so auditions were extremely stressful. Failure was not tolerated at that time.

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James Acaster: ‘The Fast Show Perfected The Art of Repetition’

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The funniest TV show I’ve ever seen

The Fast Show. Many sketch shows have tried to replicate it but failed; they perfected the art of repetition.

The funniest standup I’ve ever seen

Ross Noble at the Leicester De Montfort Hall on his Randomist tour. It’s the only time I’ve hurt from laughing at a standup comedian. A routine he did about his mate having a plum removed was hysterical.

The funniest hairstyle I’ve ever had

My girlfriend at the time once cut my fringe way too short and then laughed about it for months afterwards.

The funniest book I’ve ever read

The Timewaster Letters by Robert Popper. Every single letter makes me laugh out loud.

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Interview: Nathalia Milstein, Pianist

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Who or what inspired you to take up the piano and pursue a career in music?

I was born into a musical family – my mother is a violist, my father is a pianist – and I always heard music at home while my parents were practicing or teaching pupils. I don’t remember choosing the piano consciously, I just played the keyboard whenever I could and my father finally started to give me lessons. I am often asked when I knew that I wanted to make it my profession, but I am unable to answer because it was somehow always obvious to me that I would play the piano. No other choice has ever occurred to me!

Who or what were the most important influences on your musical life and career?

Most of all are my teachers – my father, with whom I studied until I was eighteen and who still advises me, and Nelson Goerner.

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

The greatest challenge, which will probably last all my life, is trying to understand how to be completely myself on stage, how to convey my own ideas without getting distracted by anything else and be 100% into the music.

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Interview: Elisabeth Turmo, Violinist

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Who or what were the most important influences on your musical life and career?

When I was younger my biggest inspiration was Anne Sophie Mutter, who I simply adored for her temperament and colouring in her playing. In later years there have been a handful of people who have had a huge influence on my musical life and career, as well as my personal life. My experience is that being a musician is an opportunity for learning more and more about yourself, which is one of my favourite things with being a musician. It always challenges me to get to know myself on a deeper and deeper level physically, psychologically and emotionally. The more I learn, the easier it gets and I become more and more like a curious child! One of those who have had the greatest influence on my musical life and career the last few years is Timani teacher Tina Margareta Nilsen, who is an expert on how to use the body as a musician in order to reach your potential as a musician. My Alexander Technique teachers at the Royal College of Music, Judith Kleinman and Peter Buckoke also had an extraordinary influence on my playing as well as life in general. I am very grateful to these dedicated teachers who have included body and mind to music. How to use my body in a healthy, uplifting and musical way while playing is truly one of the greatest gifts and wisdom I have ever received, and every day I am exploring new things and deeper and deeper layers of it.

Another huge influence in my musical life, career and life in general is Ascension meditation. I started to practice this meditation every day one year ago. This has helped me getting back to the joy and love of playing and performing music that I had when I was younger, but somehow got somewhat lost on the way with pressure and stress associated with playing the violin. It has also helped me with creativity and being more efficient in every aspect of my life, including in the practicing room. I have never practiced as little as I do now, and never developed as fast! It has helped me become more present during performances, which is probably one of the most important aspects as a performer.

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Interview: Gail Archer, Concert Organist

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Who or what were the most important influences on your musical life and career?

While I teach organ and direct choirs at the university level now, the music that influenced me as a young musician was always sacred music in church: hymns, anthems, the Mass.

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

There is still great resistance in the organ world to women in positions of leadership. Few searches are genuine for the most prestigious positions, and highly educated women are often passed over in the application and promotion process, treated unkindly in the workplace, or dismissed.  Woman face their greatest challenges when they succeed, because the culture of the organ world generally promotes and supports male organists.

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Interview: John Metcalfe And Simon Richmond, Composers

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Who or what inspired you to take up composing, and pursue a career in music?

JM: Getting paid 2 and a half p by Vicky Sinden at primary school for playing the opening few bars of Joplin’s ‘The Entertainer’. This enabled purchase of an iced bun at break time.

SR: Mostly a curiosity about sound – combinations of melody and accidental harmonies. As a child I was always making Heath-Robinson type instruments out of bottles and bricks and bits of wood. I used to multi-track using tow cassette players and end up with these awful hissy chunks of clicks and bangs and clunks. I think part of me is still trying to get back to that.

Who or what were the most significant influences on your musical life and career as a composer?

JM: My father dying suddenly when I was a child.

SR: When I was about 22 I had a dream in which Frank Zappa and I were trying to get in to a health club resort in the Catskills. We finally made it to the recliners, sunblock cardboard shields on our noses, and Frank said: “People think that the struggle in art is to either create great works of the highest quality or to pound out poppy trash, but the true magic happens when you can combine the two.” I have been chasing that goal ever since.

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Interview: Fabio Luisi, the Florence Opera’s new Musical Director

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In an interview with the Corriere della sera’s di Giuseppina Manin, Luisi said,

In Italy, you can work, and work well. Yes, it’s true that the opera companies are in difficulty, but the number of productions are growing and the audience as well. The attitude is changing, and finally there are less political appointments and more based on competence and ability. Certainly, old habits die hard, but to restore vitality to our theatres, we must return to principles. As a Chinese proverb says, “It doesn’t matter whether the cat is black or white, as long as it catches mice”.

Much of Luisi’s work has been in the US where private sector funding is the norm.

But private sponsors don’t give the security of continuity. Many theatres in the States are suffering because the sponsors are leaving. The State must give stability to the arts.

Luisi has worked extensively at La Scala, having conducted several operas and many concerts to conduct the Filarmonica della Scala in a Strauss and Liszt programme.

With La Scala, I have very special ties. I admire the work that Chailly is doing to give the bel canto repertory its due place. Next season I will be back to conduct an opera. An Italian opera!

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