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!

I also spent some wonderful lesson time with the Australian composer Wendy Hiscocks, talking about how the piano and the human body work. We used to illustrate music with swirls and splashes of paint, which taught me to visualize sound and think about music’s drama. Wendy also wrote three compositions for me and it was then that I became interested in commissioning new music. It’s so exciting to play a work which no-one else in the world has heard or played before.

For me, the seven years spent at Chethams was invaluable. I discovered, among other things, the joys of chamber music, and my love of working with other musicians is continually growing. At Cambridge I played in the Pellizon Piano Trio (with a violinist and cellist who have become two of my closest friends), and also in a piano quintet and a violin and piano duo. Since the life of a pianist can be quite solitary, it’s wonderful to spend time getting to know music with friends, or even complete strangers (there’s no bond stronger than that of making music together).