Backstage

In October 2006 I arrived at Clare College, Cambridge, where I studied Theology as well as traveling 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 have been 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.