Backstage

When I was little I used to listen to my mother giving piano lessons, and wanted to learn too – I began playing as soon as I was big enough to climb onto the piano stool, aged 3. With her help, I learnt to communicate through the music early on by thinking about something which meant a lot to me; I particularly remember one of these ‘stories’ which centered around the loss of a teddy bear which I loved! For me, the seven years spent at Chethams School of Music, in Manchester, was invaluable. Studying with Murray McLachlan and Bernard Roberts, I discovered, among other things, the joys of chamber music, and my love of working with other musicians is continually growing. It’s so important in the solitary career of a pianist to rehearse deeply with others and to meet different and inspiring approaches to music.

In October 2006 I arrived at Clare College, Cambridge, where I studied Theology, and traveled regularly to London for piano lessons with Hamish Milne at the Royal Academy of Music. People are often surprised to hear that I didn’t choose to study at Music College, but for me the three years of my degree were a glorious time of musical growth and challenge. I believe that, while many hours of practice are of course essential to a career as a performer, other intellectual input is incredibly important to one’s development as a musician. I feel very lucky to have been able to learn more about the world and the way people think, especially since religion and belief are so central to creativity and identity, and therefore also to music.

I particularly enjoyed writing my third year dissertation, which was about sacred sound in Hinduism. I looked at the possibility of achieving union with the divine through music-making, with special reference to sexual energy in the Indian traditions of goddess worship. It was all very exciting, and so wonderful to bring together the two areas of my life, music and theology. I hope I’ll carry on learning and thinking about these important questions even now I’ve graduated. I now study as a postgraduate at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama but am still fascinated by theology and philosophy and absorb books whenever possible.