Mirrors & Echoes: Aïda Lahlou on Ravel, Risk, and Reframing Tradition

WEBVTT
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The basis for my artistry is really my humanity
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first. I would say whatever I want to achieve
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as a human comes first. And then my art, the
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fact that I happen to be a pianist and that I've
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got this technique on this instrument or I've
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got this voice that I can use on the stage and
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so on. That's just a vehicle to try and achieve
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those things. I'm really attracted to both the
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meaning behind the pieces. How do we translate
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an inert piece of musical notation into something
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that has meaning for real living humans with
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a beating heart? Impact is something I should
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chase a lot more than recognition. I wish more
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musicians fly with their ideas and actually make
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something that they own and that they can, you
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know, move the needle in a way that benefits
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artists and benefits our industry in real terms
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rather than benefits institutions. Welcome to
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another episode of Season 6 of The Piano Pod,
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everyone. our season of creativity and connection
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where we explore how artists are reshaping our
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musical landscape with bold ideas and meaningful
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storytelling. Today's guest embodies that spirit
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in every possible way. Aida Lalu, a Moroccan
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-born concert pianist, creative director, activist,
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and thinker whose debut album, Mirrors and Echoes,
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reimagines Ravel's memoir through an extraordinary
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global lens. Her album weaves together piano
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miniatures from five continents, revealing hidden
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kinships across cultures, histories, and sound
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worlds, and offering listeners a new way to experience
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classical music as interconnected, imaginative,
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and deeply alive. Aida's career spans major stages
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around the world, from Wigmore Hall to Mozart,
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but her artistry extends far beyond performance.
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artivist, and entrepreneur creating new concept
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models engaging in environmental and political
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work, directing a one -woman show blending stand
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-up comedy with classical piano, and actively
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challenging what institutional success means
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for musicians today. In this conversation, we
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dive into everything from Ravel's elemental sound
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world to artistic agency, intercultural storytelling,
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activism, curiosity, and what it means to build
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a career with purpose, not permission. Before
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we begin, thank you to our listeners and community.
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Every rating, share, and subscription helps us
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continue bringing these conversations to life.
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Here's the new episode with pianist, creative
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producer, and artivist, Aida Lalu. Mirrors and
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Echoes. a global journey through sound, storytelling,
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and artistic purpose. Please enjoy the show.
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You are listening to The Piano Pod, where we
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talk to the brightest minds in the industry about
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how they are bringing the piano into the future
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and thriving in a complex, ever -evolving world.
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Welcome to The Piano Pod, and thank you so much
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for being here today. I've been really looking
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forward to this conversation. Thank you so much.
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It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for the invitation.
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Of course. And your album, your artistic vision,
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and your work as an artivist and entrepreneur.
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I love those words. And then just so much to
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explore today. But before we dive in, I want
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to start with the foundation of your artistry.
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Your work has been described as... imaginative
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and poetic and unafraid of exploring sonority,
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color, and inner voicings. So let me begin here.
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What drives your artistic choices? What is the
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core mission or vision behind your music making
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today? Wow, what a deep question. We're really
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stopping. Throwing me off the deep end, right?
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Well, I think the basis for my artistry is really
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my humanity first. I would say whatever I want
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to achieve as a human comes first. And then my
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art, the fact that I happen to be a pianist and
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that I've got this technique on this instrument
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or I've got this voice that I can use on the
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stage and so on. That's just a vehicle to try
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and achieve those things. So that's my first
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sort of... element of an answer and in terms
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of in concrete terms on the piano what attracts
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me I'm really attracted to both the the meaning
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behind the pieces so how do we translate an inert
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piece of musical notation into something that
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has meaning for real living humans with a beating
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heart And then the other aspect that really fascinates
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me is the mechanics of sound production, making
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beautiful sounds on the piano and just the myriad
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of ways we can approach that. So that's really
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interesting to me too. Wow. Yeah, but it really,
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those really show in your playing, whether that
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is the tone color or even the selection of pieces,
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how thoughtfully curated. all the pieces into
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your album the latest album which is your debut
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album so let's dive into them so the title of
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your album is called mirrors and echoes you've
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taken ravel's miroir and set in a dialogue with
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piano miniatures from across Five continents.
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Yeah, so wonderful. And turning it into what
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you've described elsewhere as a kind of a musical
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treasure hunt. I love that. So what is this album
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about? So before we go into details, could you
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give us, our listeners, an overview of Mirrors
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and Echoes? Sure. So the best way to describe
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this album, it sounds a bit cliche, but it really
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is a journey. because normally in albums let's
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say there's maybe one overarching theme but maybe
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we're going to explore different aspects of the
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theme in a sort of ordered or sort of sectioned
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approach whereas here the themes are explored
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in a much more organic way so they're much more
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implicit there's nothing so obvious however somehow
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you do feel a connection through all the pieces
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and those connections If I were to describe the
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atmosphere behind the album, what it feels like
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listening to it, it's very introspective. There's
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a lot of space for, well, reflection, which we
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come into with the mirrors theme a little bit.
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And also about feeling things within you that
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you might have forgotten about. For example,
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old songs, old rhythms, things that you've viscerally...
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may feel connected to, even though they are very
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remote from, let's say, your everyday life, what
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you listen to on a daily basis. So it's about
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reconnecting with, well, a deeper aspect of ourselves,
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let's say. And when I listen to this album, from
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the beginning up to the end, they have to be
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in that order. Yes, it doesn't work. I've tried,
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but really the order is absolutely essential.
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which means that when I have to do slightly shorter
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versions of the recital, it's really putting
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me in a pickle because I think very carefully
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about what makes sense because I've conceived
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these so carefully from start to finish. And
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then if I have to do a 30 -minute version, I
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have to start somewhere in the middle that makes
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sense somehow, but I can't just pick and choose
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the pieces. You're starting from Beethoven, but...
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It's Polonaise. Not a lot of people play Beethoven
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Polonaise. Yeah, it's very obscure. I'm kind
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of, this is me provincializing the Western classical
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canon. I mean, if I had put any other piece by
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Beethoven, it wouldn't have fit because the point
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is to disorient the listener a little bit. And,
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you know, you look at the program and you see
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Beethoven and Brahms and you're like, okay, familiar
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territory. And actually not at all because...
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The Polonaise by Beethoven, who no one's ever
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heard of. And then an obscure motet by Brahms
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that doesn't even exist for the piano, that I've
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transcribed for the piano. So it's really, I'm
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kind of playfully putting everyone in a difficult
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situation. Yeah, and a mission accomplished,
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really. And then tell us more about... The pieces,
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so composers, right? So the second piece, so
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starting out with Beethoven's Polonaise in C
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major, then followed by... Are these French words?
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This is not actually a French word. I'm assuming
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it's either Ukrainian words or something Slavonic
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or something like that, because it doesn't mean
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anything in French. It must be the name of the
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dance itself. So yes, the Beethoven starts off
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as a sort of cartoon raiser. It's very much out
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of character with the rest. The Beethoven is
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this really jokey sort of tongue -in -cheek composition
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that I use just to put everyone in a good mood
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and act as a big contrast between that and the
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desolate sort of... very eerie atmosphere of
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the piece that comes after. And that is really
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the start of our journey. I mean, the bit of
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it is just a cartoon razor. This dance piece
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by Armenian composer Spendi Arian was followed
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by La Vallée des Cloches from Miroir by Ravel.
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Why you didn't put Ravel's pieces in order? So
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one of the reasons was in order to accommodate
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that larger narrative. The other reason is I
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feel that as a set they work really well, of
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course, one after the other. But also each of
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them is so individual and so good at setting
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its own little bubble and character that I think
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putting them out of order is not, you know, sacrilegious
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to me in a way that... you know, perhaps another
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set wouldn't have worked as well. I think for
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this particular selection of five pieces, they
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can be taken apart. So I just, yeah, I just thought
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they offered the perfect framework to build a
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larger narrative because they're each so good
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at transporting us to very different ambiences.
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Like, okay, what about just imagining a story
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that links all of these very, very distinct elements
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together? What might that? look like and sound
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like. And that's basically what the album ended
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up being. Wow. And yeah, almost like you're sharing
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your playlist. You know what I mean? What do
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you mean by playlist? Like, for example, before
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your time, there was a thing called cassette
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tape. I don't know if you've heard of it. Yeah,
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yeah. I'm not that young, you know. Okay, good.
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Well, then I would create, we call it playlist
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now, but I would have a favorite songs or favorite
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pop songs, favorite piano music into this one
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cassette in the order that I want. And I would
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give this cassette tape to someone else. That
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sort of idea. Yeah, exactly. I mean, the album,
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if you want to think of it like that, yes, the
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album is a playlist in that the order is as important
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as what's on it. So yeah, it's a nice way to
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describe it. In fact, the whole project started
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as a playlist on Spotify. I was researching,
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this is totally kind of a separate avenue of
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the album, but I was researching folk music on
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the piano. before having any idea about making
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an album or anything. This was just out of interest,
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out of curiosity. I was a little bit tired of
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always, you know, hearing the same pieces when
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we think of folk music on the piano. We think
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Bartók, Kodály, that kind of stuff. And I thought,
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how about we find other traditions? How about
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Scottish music on the piano? Or, I don't know,
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traditional... like Andalusian music on the piano
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and so on. And so I started just compiling these
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things. And actually, a lot of the pieces I found
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through that search ended up on the album. Because,
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yeah, it sounded like all of these pieces from
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very, very different traditions actually had
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some sort of spiritual connection almost it's
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like they were all tapping into something so
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deep within our humanity that it didn't matter
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where it came from it all sort of pointed back
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to something very very fundamental in our human
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nature and I thought wow how fascinating that
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you know a piece from Andalusia or a piece from
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you know like Scotland or whatever can speak
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to each other and resonate in you know in such
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a deep way that was very interesting and I thought
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there's something there and that was one of the
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sort of parts that led me to the album as it
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is today is looking at folk music and the intersections
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between these genres. I'm also curious to know,
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you've done two arrangements in this album. One
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is a piece, chorale piece by Brahms that you
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mentioned. And then at the end of this album.
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Yes, very good. Well done. Thank you. Yeah, it's
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an Arabic music, right? Yeah, absolutely. I listened
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to the orchestral vocal version of this piece
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this morning. Gorgeous. Played by Arab Symphony
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or something like that. I mean, this is a standard.
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It's like saying autumn leaves or something,
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except it's from the 14th century. So everyone
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in the Arab world would know this song. And there's
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no strict arrangement. I mean, what we have maybe
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is just the notation of the melody, but really
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it's always transmitted through oral tradition.
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And so across centuries, people have just improvised
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on it, made versions of it for their instruments,
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sung it. And so, yeah, there's not a particular
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sort of authoritative version. It's just so embedded
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in the culture. Yeah, so I made my little, I
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had a little play around with it and I ended
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up with a sort of Rachmaninoff impressionist
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infused piano version. Did you learn to do this
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sort of like a... doing your own way like arrangements
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for example or playing by ear or maybe improvisation
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as you were being trained as a musician? Yeah
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I did have quite a lot of improvisation lessons
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although they were quite formal classical improvisations
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and I think that really helped me actually to
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engage with classical repertoire a lot more than
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just doing my own improvisation. I just felt
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like I had suddenly a window into what a composer
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might think of when starting a piece of music,
00:17:09.630 --> 00:17:13.509
knowing how to create structure, how to create
00:17:13.509 --> 00:17:16.029
certain expectations, understanding the harmonic
00:17:16.029 --> 00:17:19.869
language. So I would say, yeah, ironically, my
00:17:19.869 --> 00:17:23.470
improvisation. lessons really help me understand
00:17:23.470 --> 00:17:26.329
written compositions better rather than like
00:17:26.329 --> 00:17:28.549
actually turn me into an improviser, which I
00:17:28.549 --> 00:17:31.250
wish I could be, but I'm just so terrified of
00:17:31.250 --> 00:17:35.029
doing it. However, I do enjoy playing around
00:17:35.029 --> 00:17:38.609
and I love arranging because I think in arranging,
00:17:38.670 --> 00:17:41.650
you have the freedom of expressing yourself,
00:17:41.750 --> 00:17:45.009
but it's like a little also intellectual puzzle
00:17:45.009 --> 00:17:49.849
about how do you turn this given material into
00:17:49.849 --> 00:17:52.650
something new? And you take off the pressure
00:17:52.650 --> 00:17:56.690
of having to do it in real time, which obviously
00:17:56.690 --> 00:17:58.750
you would have to do if you were improvising.
00:17:59.950 --> 00:18:02.130
So yeah, my process to write this arrangement
00:18:02.130 --> 00:18:04.869
actually was a lot of noodling on the piano to
00:18:04.869 --> 00:18:08.609
try and find interesting chords and interesting
00:18:08.609 --> 00:18:12.009
rhythms and so on, and then piece it all together.
00:18:13.980 --> 00:18:16.059
So I suppose, yeah, I did improvise some bits,
00:18:16.220 --> 00:18:19.039
but in no way did this just flow out of my mind.
00:18:19.200 --> 00:18:24.500
I don't know, Mozart would just improvise. Well,
00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:28.380
yeah, but it really, I'm very impressed with
00:18:28.380 --> 00:18:34.259
your skills as an arranger. They're both wonderful
00:18:34.259 --> 00:18:37.799
arrangements. Yeah, I wish that, are they available
00:18:37.799 --> 00:18:42.329
as a score sheet music? Not at the moment, although
00:18:42.329 --> 00:18:45.569
I would like to share them. So if you or any
00:18:45.569 --> 00:18:48.490
of your listeners are interested in having them,
00:18:48.630 --> 00:18:51.690
they can send me an email and I'll send them
00:18:51.690 --> 00:18:55.450
to them. Okay. And then your, I think the best
00:18:55.450 --> 00:18:58.750
way to be in touch with you would be your website
00:18:58.750 --> 00:19:02.730
at aidalalu .com, correct? Yeah, there's a contact
00:19:02.730 --> 00:19:05.250
form on there. I'm also very responsive on social
00:19:05.250 --> 00:19:24.640
media. So what inspired you to reimagine Ravel
00:19:24.640 --> 00:19:28.859
in this intercultural context, build these bridges
00:19:28.859 --> 00:19:31.559
across cultures, rather than just playing, you
00:19:31.559 --> 00:19:35.819
know, his pieces, five of them, and maybe other
00:19:35.819 --> 00:19:39.220
pieces by him, for example, or other composers,
00:19:39.259 --> 00:19:42.460
but in a chunk, for example, you know? Yeah,
00:19:42.480 --> 00:19:45.319
of course. Well, I'll answer in two parts. First,
00:19:45.420 --> 00:19:48.519
Ravel, I feel, was extremely cosmopolitan in
00:19:48.519 --> 00:19:53.859
his musical writing. I had a teacher who said,
00:19:54.000 --> 00:19:57.099
you know, Ravel is extraordinary in that he writes
00:19:57.099 --> 00:20:00.740
music of a certain nationality better than the
00:20:00.740 --> 00:20:03.680
people from that nationality. So, of course,
00:20:03.700 --> 00:20:06.960
he was half Spanish to his mother. So you can
00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:09.920
trace that through there. But he also wrote Greek
00:20:09.920 --> 00:20:13.859
songs. He wrote in the Romani style with Zigan.
00:20:14.200 --> 00:20:19.079
He wrote the Chanson Madagascar, which is like
00:20:19.079 --> 00:20:22.700
after Madagascar. I mean, this is just a small
00:20:22.700 --> 00:20:26.000
example, but he just wrote in so many different
00:20:26.000 --> 00:20:29.200
idioms. So I thought I was very much at home
00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:34.960
with this composer and also my love for exploration
00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:36.960
of music of different cultures. I don't think
00:20:36.960 --> 00:20:40.539
he would have disapproved at all. I think it's
00:20:40.539 --> 00:20:43.960
very much up his alley. But also within the specific
00:20:43.960 --> 00:20:48.950
opus, the miroir, I think there are so many influences
00:20:48.950 --> 00:20:54.910
that I can hear. So obviously, Alborada is in
00:20:54.910 --> 00:20:58.029
the Spanish side with a very clear Hispanic influence.
00:20:58.430 --> 00:21:02.529
But in La Valle de Cloche, for example, I personally
00:21:02.529 --> 00:21:06.009
hear quite Eastern influences. I hear sort of
00:21:06.009 --> 00:21:10.789
almost Tibetan temple bells or something ringing
00:21:10.789 --> 00:21:13.309
in the distance. I know some people think it's
00:21:13.309 --> 00:21:17.559
more Switzerland bells or... parisian bells we
00:21:17.559 --> 00:21:19.720
have different theories floating around but for
00:21:19.720 --> 00:21:24.259
me it's just so serene and so um out of time
00:21:24.259 --> 00:21:27.700
that i really imagine myself in this sort of
00:21:27.700 --> 00:21:33.119
um extremely meditative ambiences and for me
00:21:33.119 --> 00:21:36.319
that can only be somewhere very remote um switzerland
00:21:36.319 --> 00:21:39.140
perhaps but i think i'm a bit more eastern in
00:21:39.140 --> 00:21:43.880
my imagination and then um there are also other
00:21:43.880 --> 00:21:47.569
illusions things like I hear, I mean, through
00:21:47.569 --> 00:21:49.970
the harmonies that he uses in somewhere like
00:21:49.970 --> 00:21:54.269
Wasotrist, for me, this is very, very influenced
00:21:54.269 --> 00:21:59.849
by jazz and things that were coming out of, you
00:21:59.849 --> 00:22:01.930
know, the new wave of writing at the turn of
00:22:01.930 --> 00:22:05.470
the 20th century. Slightly more experimental
00:22:05.470 --> 00:22:08.670
with harmony, slightly less, say, classical.
00:22:09.670 --> 00:22:14.940
And of course, the... The two pieces that I haven't
00:22:14.940 --> 00:22:20.279
spoken about so far, the Noctuelle and Une Barre
00:22:20.279 --> 00:22:23.420
sur l 'Océan, also transport us to different
00:22:23.420 --> 00:22:27.359
locations. Even though they're not specifically
00:22:27.359 --> 00:22:31.119
named, we are very clearly in the forest in Noctuelle
00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:35.859
and Boisotrist. And we are also just on the move
00:22:35.859 --> 00:22:38.500
on a boat in Une Barre sur l 'Océan. So there's
00:22:38.500 --> 00:22:43.319
already this... idea of travel, of voyage. And
00:22:43.319 --> 00:22:47.420
also, we have also different, say, stops in different
00:22:47.420 --> 00:22:51.819
locations. So that's why I felt allowed in a
00:22:51.819 --> 00:22:56.460
way to expand on the message of this. Tell me
00:22:56.460 --> 00:23:00.900
more about other pieces as well. So Four Piano
00:23:00.900 --> 00:23:06.900
Moves by Alexandra Tansman. And then also their,
00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:10.859
oh, Scottish piece. what the fairy piper told
00:23:10.859 --> 00:23:14.720
me, Ronald Stevenson and Kaddish. Is that how
00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:16.920
you say? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's also,
00:23:17.079 --> 00:23:21.759
that was arranged by Siloti. Yeah, and there
00:23:21.759 --> 00:23:25.019
are always links to Ravel. So some things I actually
00:23:25.019 --> 00:23:27.819
found out after having done the program as it
00:23:27.819 --> 00:23:32.980
is today, I contacted the chairman of the association,
00:23:33.259 --> 00:23:36.119
Les Amis de Maurice Ravel, and he told me, oh,
00:23:36.140 --> 00:23:38.059
you know that Tanzman and Ravel were friends,
00:23:38.180 --> 00:23:40.609
right? I said, oh yeah, of course I knew that.
00:23:40.690 --> 00:23:43.130
I did it. But it turned out they were actually
00:23:43.130 --> 00:23:47.349
friends. I didn't realize that before I found
00:23:47.349 --> 00:23:50.210
this stylistic connection between Urnbach Solestien
00:23:50.210 --> 00:23:53.009
and the townsman. So what happens in my mind
00:23:53.009 --> 00:23:56.990
at this moment is we're checking the road on
00:23:56.990 --> 00:24:00.170
the boat in Urnbach Solestien. We are a bit disoriented
00:24:00.170 --> 00:24:03.250
because we've been on this mega adventure and
00:24:03.250 --> 00:24:06.869
we've been very much, you know. confronted to
00:24:06.869 --> 00:24:10.450
the elements, challenged emotionally and physically.
00:24:11.049 --> 00:24:13.869
And then the Tanzman comes as this moment to
00:24:13.869 --> 00:24:17.190
center back on yourself. It's very introspective.
00:24:17.210 --> 00:24:21.890
It's only one minute long. It's quite psychological,
00:24:21.930 --> 00:24:26.150
I would say, as a piece. So it just bridges this
00:24:26.150 --> 00:24:30.130
exteriority theme with the more interior theme
00:24:30.130 --> 00:24:33.450
of the next few pieces. So that's a nice bridge
00:24:33.450 --> 00:24:37.059
to Wasotrist and so on. which are a lot more
00:24:37.059 --> 00:24:41.720
intimate and one could say even oppressive in
00:24:41.720 --> 00:24:50.700
some ways. Ronald Stevenson is a Scottish composer
00:24:50.700 --> 00:24:55.240
with a huge output for piano. You might know
00:24:55.240 --> 00:25:01.039
him for his huge piece, Fantasy on the SCH, which
00:25:01.039 --> 00:25:05.549
is 18 minutes long. This is a solo piano piece
00:25:05.549 --> 00:25:10.589
and it lasts one hour and 20 minutes. So this
00:25:10.589 --> 00:25:14.769
guy is used to huge large scale pieces. So it's
00:25:14.769 --> 00:25:17.789
slightly ironic that my piece that I included
00:25:17.789 --> 00:25:22.349
on his album is about 50 seconds long. But I
00:25:22.349 --> 00:25:25.170
included it partly because it's an example that
00:25:25.170 --> 00:25:28.190
you can play something that sounds Scottish on
00:25:28.190 --> 00:25:32.349
the piano. And partly because... I mean in this
00:25:32.349 --> 00:25:34.730
piece we're transported to the forest there's
00:25:34.730 --> 00:25:37.450
a fairy nearby we really feel like we're in the
00:25:37.450 --> 00:25:41.170
forest and it's great in that section of the
00:25:41.170 --> 00:25:43.829
album because we are in the forest very much
00:25:43.829 --> 00:25:47.569
with Wasotrist that little piece and Noctuel
00:25:47.569 --> 00:25:51.089
it's like this supernatural forest where things
00:25:51.089 --> 00:25:53.529
happen you see little beings they're not quite
00:25:53.529 --> 00:25:57.539
sure if they're real or not So yeah, I just found
00:25:57.539 --> 00:26:00.640
it by chance again through research, and I thought
00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:03.779
this is the perfect piece for that section of
00:26:03.779 --> 00:26:08.180
the album. Wow. And then followed by Malagueña,
00:26:08.339 --> 00:26:13.339
by Lecone. No, after the Nocturne, then that's
00:26:13.339 --> 00:26:17.119
the Malagueña, right? And then followed by Cara.
00:26:18.059 --> 00:26:22.539
Cara, yeah. Yes. So should I introduce? And you
00:26:22.539 --> 00:26:26.680
asked about Kadish as well. Yes. So Kara Karayev
00:26:26.680 --> 00:26:30.099
is an Azerbaijani composer. Okay. Apparently
00:26:30.099 --> 00:26:34.480
the most famous composer from Azerbaijan. I came
00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:37.140
across his work by chance when I went to compete
00:26:37.140 --> 00:26:40.220
there. I was invited by Morocco to represent
00:26:40.220 --> 00:26:42.740
the country in a sort of international competition.
00:26:46.279 --> 00:26:49.559
I played this piece for the competition, actually
00:26:49.559 --> 00:26:51.819
because it was the easiest of the ones you could
00:26:51.819 --> 00:26:56.440
choose from to perform. We had a list of things
00:26:56.440 --> 00:27:00.619
we could choose from. And then I actually thought,
00:27:00.759 --> 00:27:06.019
hmm, this is so broody. And this is so kind of,
00:27:06.019 --> 00:27:12.559
yeah, almost like full of repressed passion in
00:27:12.559 --> 00:27:16.470
a way. And it's so... You see it, it's calm on
00:27:16.470 --> 00:27:19.369
the surface, but there's so much inner turmoil
00:27:19.369 --> 00:27:23.450
that's just repressed in there. And then I thought,
00:27:23.569 --> 00:27:26.410
well, we need some sort of link between the forest
00:27:26.410 --> 00:27:30.309
and the explosive world of Andalusia and southern
00:27:30.309 --> 00:27:34.109
Spain. And I thought, that's actually a very
00:27:34.109 --> 00:27:37.289
unlikely link, but it works exactly perfectly
00:27:37.289 --> 00:27:42.039
because you've got... yeah this seemingly broody
00:27:42.039 --> 00:27:45.960
seemingly monotonous texture but then that's
00:27:45.960 --> 00:27:49.980
the perfect link for the um the start of my laguna
00:27:49.980 --> 00:27:51.940
i don't know if you remember how it starts but
00:27:51.940 --> 00:27:55.079
it's like really dark pour it's done then like
00:27:55.079 --> 00:27:57.440
gain in intensity and before you know it you're
00:27:57.440 --> 00:28:01.559
like like full of um you know explosion virtuosity
00:28:01.559 --> 00:28:05.619
passion typical spanish stuff so Yeah, that's
00:28:05.619 --> 00:28:08.059
why it exists. It's so funny. My explanation
00:28:08.059 --> 00:28:10.579
is so much longer than the piece itself. No.
00:28:12.619 --> 00:28:16.059
It's totally like that for the album. And then
00:28:16.059 --> 00:28:19.019
we're in the Spanish section, of course, with
00:28:19.019 --> 00:28:22.799
Malanguena, Andalusia, sorry, Alborada, Andalusia.
00:28:23.180 --> 00:28:26.240
And then I thought, okay, we've had this, you
00:28:26.240 --> 00:28:30.779
know, explosion of, you know, personality fire.
00:28:33.059 --> 00:28:37.289
But then we... In the journey, we've met with
00:28:37.289 --> 00:28:40.490
our deepest emotions and we've confronted them
00:28:40.490 --> 00:28:42.890
and we've expressed them in this flamboyant way.
00:28:43.470 --> 00:28:47.029
Now, we've kind of come full circle. We come
00:28:47.029 --> 00:28:49.730
from contemplation, but then we need to kind
00:28:49.730 --> 00:28:52.930
of make sense of that and digest that and say,
00:28:53.029 --> 00:28:57.609
okay, who am I as a person in the end? And that's
00:28:57.609 --> 00:29:00.069
why the last section of the album is actually...
00:29:00.460 --> 00:29:03.259
still infused, so we're still informed by this
00:29:03.259 --> 00:29:06.359
passionate outburst, but we're now back into
00:29:06.359 --> 00:29:11.380
an interior mode where we kind of reflect on
00:29:11.380 --> 00:29:14.420
these things. So the Kaddish and then the arrangement
00:29:14.420 --> 00:29:17.839
of Lama Badai Yetetenda, you will still find
00:29:17.839 --> 00:29:22.440
reminiscences of the explosive verse of passion,
00:29:22.599 --> 00:29:27.299
but it's done in this almost like ritualized
00:29:27.299 --> 00:29:35.700
sense of Yeah, like a prayer almost. I don't
00:29:35.700 --> 00:29:38.359
know if you know the Sufi tradition of dancing.
00:29:39.000 --> 00:29:45.380
So for them, in the Sufi tradition, dancing is
00:29:45.380 --> 00:29:49.660
like a form of worship. It's a form of spiritual,
00:29:50.099 --> 00:29:54.960
almost enlightenment or meditation. And that's
00:29:54.960 --> 00:29:58.920
very much the end of the album's vibe. we are
00:29:58.920 --> 00:30:01.859
back into celebrating our body, but in a sort
00:30:01.859 --> 00:30:04.059
of connected way also to the spiritual world.
00:30:04.140 --> 00:30:07.700
So it's not just, you know, just the earthly
00:30:07.700 --> 00:30:10.339
sort of explosions of passions. We're also just
00:30:10.339 --> 00:30:14.859
coming back to what it means from a spiritual
00:30:14.859 --> 00:30:19.279
perspective. I don't know if that makes any sense.
00:30:20.039 --> 00:30:22.259
No, no, no, no, no. It just makes sense. And
00:30:22.259 --> 00:30:25.059
then the last piece, the last song, Lama Bada
00:30:25.059 --> 00:30:32.180
Yata Hanna. Yes. What does it mean? So the title
00:30:32.180 --> 00:30:36.259
is, if I translate it as something like, when
00:30:36.259 --> 00:30:41.000
my beloved was walking. And the song is just
00:30:41.000 --> 00:30:45.039
a very simple, beautiful poem about just this
00:30:45.039 --> 00:30:48.680
vision of your beloved walking and how they're
00:30:48.680 --> 00:30:53.420
far away from you. And you find it so cruel that...
00:30:53.740 --> 00:30:57.579
You know, you're not with them. And it's kind
00:30:57.579 --> 00:31:01.400
of this sort of love song. But there's also spiritual
00:31:01.400 --> 00:31:04.619
undertones about the love for God and the love
00:31:04.619 --> 00:31:10.480
for beauty. It's a beautiful little song. It's
00:31:10.480 --> 00:31:13.299
difficult to kind of translate it in a way that
00:31:13.299 --> 00:31:16.700
makes sense. But you can find some translated
00:31:16.700 --> 00:31:21.099
lyrics on Wikipedia if that helps you a little
00:31:21.099 --> 00:31:24.000
bit to understand. what a song is about it's
00:31:24.000 --> 00:31:27.819
very much an ambience but why you wanted to end
00:31:27.819 --> 00:31:32.240
with that was there those two pieces right so
00:31:32.240 --> 00:31:36.279
was there did you have some sort of yeah did
00:31:36.279 --> 00:31:42.119
you have a some sense of like a spiritual message
00:31:42.119 --> 00:31:46.160
not in the oh this is what it means but more
00:31:46.160 --> 00:31:51.279
like in a you know hint or suggestive way that
00:31:51.279 --> 00:31:55.819
you wanted to include the spiritual message or
00:31:55.819 --> 00:32:01.440
spirituality of who you are definitely so i mean
00:32:01.440 --> 00:32:03.880
there's a very big spiritual element in the whole
00:32:03.880 --> 00:32:08.640
album and um also i think different spiritual
00:32:08.640 --> 00:32:11.380
traditions are referenced throughout it so of
00:32:11.380 --> 00:32:13.940
course we've got the christian tradition with
00:32:13.940 --> 00:32:17.069
the motet we've got the Jewish tradition and
00:32:17.069 --> 00:32:20.210
we've got also the sort of Islamic tradition
00:32:20.210 --> 00:32:25.490
with that song. It's kind of, yeah, a journey
00:32:25.490 --> 00:32:27.309
through spirituality but in a way that's not
00:32:27.309 --> 00:32:29.910
particularly attached to any tradition. Perhaps
00:32:29.910 --> 00:32:32.950
in a way to just show how much similarities,
00:32:33.309 --> 00:32:37.470
how many similarities there are between the essences
00:32:37.470 --> 00:32:42.670
of all these traditions. Yeah, so I guess we
00:32:42.670 --> 00:32:45.940
start... the album in a contemplative space and
00:32:45.940 --> 00:32:48.859
we finished the album in a contemplative space
00:32:48.859 --> 00:32:53.880
as well. To me, I mean, my relationship with
00:32:53.880 --> 00:32:55.980
spirituality, let's say, is something that's
00:32:55.980 --> 00:33:01.819
very practical and very embodied. So I think
00:33:01.819 --> 00:33:05.059
of the album very much as also a reflection of
00:33:05.059 --> 00:33:10.019
how we use spirituality, which is very much embedded
00:33:10.019 --> 00:33:13.769
in the world we live in. you know, feeling at
00:33:13.769 --> 00:33:17.190
one with nature, feeling at ease within yourself
00:33:17.190 --> 00:33:20.450
and connected with the broader world or your
00:33:20.450 --> 00:33:26.250
fellow human beings. Yeah, it's kind of my sort
00:33:26.250 --> 00:33:31.329
of relationship to spirituality. And it may be
00:33:31.329 --> 00:33:34.269
that some people view the end of the album as,
00:33:34.450 --> 00:33:37.970
well, a way to bridge different traditions together
00:33:37.970 --> 00:33:43.140
or just a way to celebrate. this part of spirituality
00:33:43.140 --> 00:33:46.940
that is attached to beauty and attached to love.
00:33:48.059 --> 00:33:51.240
So there's no one way to see it, but yeah, this
00:33:51.240 --> 00:33:54.500
is what I have to say on this topic. No, but
00:33:54.500 --> 00:33:56.559
you know, there's no one way to see it. Exactly.
00:33:56.720 --> 00:34:01.299
That's why just, that's why there's music exists
00:34:01.299 --> 00:34:03.960
and that we can see it in a different ways and
00:34:03.960 --> 00:34:07.799
everybody has different ideas or feelings from
00:34:07.799 --> 00:34:12.059
listening to this one album. Right. Yeah. So
00:34:12.059 --> 00:34:14.760
you're also deeply engaged with environmental
00:34:14.760 --> 00:34:18.119
issues, using music as a way to think, respond
00:34:18.119 --> 00:34:20.920
and act within the larger conversation around
00:34:20.920 --> 00:34:24.239
climate change. Well, I think the root cause
00:34:24.239 --> 00:34:30.059
of climate change is that we've lost our feeling
00:34:30.059 --> 00:34:32.800
of being connected to nature. Because if people
00:34:32.800 --> 00:34:36.250
were really... still had this connection, there's
00:34:36.250 --> 00:34:38.710
no way they would hurt the natural world in the
00:34:38.710 --> 00:34:41.510
way that we do. The problem now is they don't
00:34:41.510 --> 00:34:43.309
understand that they're actually hurting themselves.
00:34:45.050 --> 00:34:49.369
For me, climate change is a psychological issue
00:34:49.369 --> 00:34:51.710
to start with. It's the fact that we've become
00:34:51.710 --> 00:34:55.889
alienated from a part of ourselves, which is
00:34:55.889 --> 00:35:00.199
nature. So yeah, I guess that's just my two cents
00:35:00.199 --> 00:35:04.239
on this issue as an artist. And that then manifests
00:35:04.239 --> 00:35:08.320
itself in all the forms of destruction that we
00:35:08.320 --> 00:35:11.860
see on an economic scale with exploitation, on
00:35:11.860 --> 00:35:15.300
an ecological scale with deforestation, habitat
00:35:15.300 --> 00:35:21.360
loss, exploitation of animals, industrial farming,
00:35:21.539 --> 00:35:25.389
all of that. um and just the way we eat the way
00:35:25.389 --> 00:35:29.289
we travel i mean all of that is just for me it
00:35:29.289 --> 00:35:32.050
stems from the basic sort of lost connection
00:35:32.050 --> 00:35:36.429
between us and nature so yeah there is a lot
00:35:36.429 --> 00:35:41.869
of nature themes in the album um which also connects
00:35:41.869 --> 00:35:44.190
to spirituality because as i said for me climate
00:35:44.190 --> 00:35:46.809
change is first and foremost the let's say spiritual
00:35:46.809 --> 00:35:51.639
psychological problem it's it's just a very subtle
00:35:51.639 --> 00:35:55.579
but powerful message that is included in this
00:35:55.579 --> 00:35:59.679
album yeah so congratulations it came out a few
00:35:59.679 --> 00:36:04.449
months ago right Yes, just it's going to be about
00:36:04.449 --> 00:36:07.050
two months in a couple of days. Yeah. Oh, wow.
00:36:07.349 --> 00:36:12.469
Today is November 13th. By the time this episode
00:36:12.469 --> 00:36:15.570
will come out, it will be February 2026. But
00:36:15.570 --> 00:36:19.989
wonderful. And so far, what sort of feedback
00:36:19.989 --> 00:36:23.969
did you receive? Yeah, a lot of positive feedback,
00:36:24.070 --> 00:36:26.550
actually. I've been very lucky with the reception.
00:36:27.449 --> 00:36:31.250
I didn't expect anything like that as a first
00:36:31.250 --> 00:36:36.969
album from a relatively unknown artist. I was
00:36:36.969 --> 00:36:42.010
told that I'd be lucky if I got one review or
00:36:42.010 --> 00:36:46.110
something. But then I got two radio features
00:36:46.110 --> 00:36:49.789
from BBC Radio 3. It got selected for record
00:36:49.789 --> 00:36:52.210
review as well as one of the host's favourite
00:36:52.210 --> 00:36:56.650
albums of the week, which is crazy. Then I got
00:36:56.650 --> 00:37:00.250
invited to podcasts like yours. I was very fortunate
00:37:00.250 --> 00:37:03.530
to have these invitations and share my vision
00:37:03.530 --> 00:37:06.869
and my, you know, this work that I've done. A
00:37:06.869 --> 00:37:10.289
couple of articles as well. So it's been great.
00:37:11.349 --> 00:37:15.750
I was certainly very surprised. Oh, but, you
00:37:15.750 --> 00:37:20.670
know, obviously you well deserve and well done.
00:37:20.829 --> 00:37:24.079
So congratulations. Thank you. For listeners
00:37:24.079 --> 00:37:27.019
who want to explore this album, and which you
00:37:27.019 --> 00:37:32.219
all should, please go to any music streaming
00:37:32.219 --> 00:37:36.000
services. And the title of the album is called
00:37:36.000 --> 00:37:40.800
Mirrors and Echoes. And the physical copies are
00:37:40.800 --> 00:37:44.179
available also? Yes, you can order them on the
00:37:44.179 --> 00:37:47.300
label's website. So that's Resonance Classics.
00:37:47.780 --> 00:37:50.940
And I'm pretty sure they ship worldwide. But
00:37:50.940 --> 00:37:53.849
I'll have to check that. Okay. Yeah, and then
00:37:53.849 --> 00:37:58.269
I will make sure to insert that into the show
00:37:58.269 --> 00:38:34.630
notes as well. Now that brings me to a different
00:38:34.630 --> 00:38:38.230
but connected question, understanding who you
00:38:38.230 --> 00:38:40.550
are behind all of this. So because listening
00:38:40.550 --> 00:38:42.949
to Mirrors and Echoes, it's clear that your artistic
00:38:42.949 --> 00:38:46.050
choices come from a very specific sensibility
00:38:46.050 --> 00:38:48.710
shaped by where you come from and the people
00:38:48.710 --> 00:38:52.570
who guided you. So you were born in Casablanca
00:38:52.570 --> 00:38:55.809
and started piano at age five. What do you remember
00:38:55.809 --> 00:38:58.869
about your earliest connection to music? Really
00:38:58.869 --> 00:39:02.219
listening. was my first connection to music I
00:39:02.219 --> 00:39:07.239
think. You know, to my mom sing songs and teach
00:39:07.239 --> 00:39:11.039
songs to me but also in the car I was just bombarded
00:39:11.039 --> 00:39:14.239
with recordings of like Marta Argerich playing
00:39:14.239 --> 00:39:16.539
the Schumann concerto or Tchaikovsky concerto
00:39:16.539 --> 00:39:20.039
or Glenn Gould play all the inventions and symphonies
00:39:20.039 --> 00:39:23.239
of Bach. These are the sort of core memories
00:39:23.239 --> 00:39:27.849
I have as a child growing up. I very much loved
00:39:27.849 --> 00:39:32.409
listening even before I even started piano. I
00:39:32.409 --> 00:39:35.710
just had this connection with the material but
00:39:35.710 --> 00:39:39.550
also I guess the social connection that my mom,
00:39:39.670 --> 00:39:43.010
you know, she used this to deepen her connection
00:39:43.010 --> 00:39:45.809
with me so we shared this. I think it really
00:39:45.809 --> 00:39:50.860
anchored that love even more. My dad also likes
00:39:50.860 --> 00:39:53.519
music very much, although it's not so much classical,
00:39:53.579 --> 00:39:56.300
but we also, again, in the car, I've got my classics
00:39:56.300 --> 00:40:00.139
that my dad always plays. So that's super nice,
00:40:00.159 --> 00:40:03.639
you know. Every now and then I just put on a
00:40:03.639 --> 00:40:09.239
playlist and it's like a time machine. So yeah,
00:40:09.320 --> 00:40:11.900
that was my earliest connection to music, I would
00:40:11.900 --> 00:40:15.840
say. And then I started piano lessons. Actually,
00:40:15.940 --> 00:40:18.900
I had sort of classes to introduce music to children.
00:40:18.980 --> 00:40:21.260
I think you have that in the States a lot, probably.
00:40:22.480 --> 00:40:25.960
Just, you know, basic children's group with like
00:40:25.960 --> 00:40:28.420
a teacher with like basic musical instruments
00:40:28.420 --> 00:40:31.519
and we clap and sing songs, whatever. And then
00:40:31.519 --> 00:40:35.900
I started formal piano lessons at five with a
00:40:35.900 --> 00:40:39.780
Ukrainian teacher. I wanted to play violin, but
00:40:39.780 --> 00:40:42.820
my mom said it's harder, so I should start with
00:40:42.820 --> 00:40:45.300
the piano. And unfortunately, I never made it
00:40:45.300 --> 00:40:50.059
to the violin. Piano was hard enough, but also
00:40:50.059 --> 00:40:53.400
probably you fell in love with the instrument,
00:40:53.579 --> 00:40:56.139
right? It's a great instrument. I kind of wish
00:40:56.139 --> 00:40:58.699
I could play violin too, though. But, you know,
00:40:58.760 --> 00:41:03.880
who got one life? And a piano, with piano, we
00:41:03.880 --> 00:41:06.969
have too many repertoire, too many. piano pieces
00:41:06.969 --> 00:41:09.869
out there. You can't even accomplish all of them
00:41:09.869 --> 00:41:12.590
in one life, you know? Yeah, exactly. There's
00:41:12.590 --> 00:41:17.750
enough work for one person. Then your training
00:41:17.750 --> 00:41:22.590
took off and from Morocco to the famous Yehudi
00:41:22.590 --> 00:41:26.449
Menuhin School in England, right? Yeah, so it
00:41:26.449 --> 00:41:29.389
was created by Yehudi Menuhin, the violinist.
00:41:29.829 --> 00:41:35.210
He's actually buried there. Crazy to think about.
00:41:35.309 --> 00:41:39.670
It was his house. And he started the school in
00:41:39.670 --> 00:41:42.590
the 20th century with, I think, 10 students or
00:41:42.590 --> 00:41:45.570
so in London. And then he moved to Surrey. And
00:41:45.570 --> 00:41:48.429
at the time I was there, it only took around
00:41:48.429 --> 00:41:51.769
maybe 70 students from all over the world from
00:41:51.769 --> 00:41:57.570
age 8 to 18, 19. And I was selected to go there
00:41:57.570 --> 00:42:02.780
after an audition in the autumn of... 2013, I
00:42:02.780 --> 00:42:05.679
think. Then I was there in 2014 at the age of
00:42:05.679 --> 00:42:10.039
15. It was a very formative experience to be
00:42:10.039 --> 00:42:15.059
just surrounded by music and by extremely talented
00:42:15.059 --> 00:42:19.460
young people from all over the world. It was
00:42:19.460 --> 00:42:22.840
very demanding, but I liked that because I was
00:42:22.840 --> 00:42:29.420
there to learn. The level of teaching there was
00:42:29.420 --> 00:42:33.250
phenomenal. People there were there not because
00:42:33.250 --> 00:42:35.610
they were paid great or anything, but because
00:42:35.610 --> 00:42:37.969
they just loved to be there in this institution.
00:42:38.510 --> 00:42:42.690
And so we got the best of the best of musical
00:42:42.690 --> 00:42:45.369
teachers, from people who thought theory or composition
00:42:45.369 --> 00:42:48.570
or things like that, to piano teachers, to harpsichord
00:42:48.570 --> 00:42:51.989
teachers, improvisation teachers, chamber music.
00:42:52.110 --> 00:42:55.469
Everyone was just on such a high level. It was
00:42:55.469 --> 00:42:57.889
honestly the privilege of my life to attend that
00:42:57.889 --> 00:43:05.699
school. Wow. Such a very significant age to really
00:43:05.699 --> 00:43:11.099
learn music, right? 15, 16, 17. Well, people
00:43:11.099 --> 00:43:14.059
usually go, this is considered late because most
00:43:14.059 --> 00:43:17.260
people go there in primary school sort of age.
00:43:18.159 --> 00:43:21.340
It's the minority of students that come for sort
00:43:21.340 --> 00:43:25.460
of the finishing touch of their education. So
00:43:25.460 --> 00:43:28.599
at 15, I mean, it's quite a late age to really
00:43:28.599 --> 00:43:31.119
like. learned from scratch but I didn't obviously
00:43:31.119 --> 00:43:33.460
I didn't come from scratch like I had I had won
00:43:33.460 --> 00:43:36.079
a lot of competitions I had had serious training
00:43:36.079 --> 00:43:39.880
in Morocco but it was let's say some people like
00:43:39.880 --> 00:43:42.159
most of the school actually come there much earlier
00:43:42.159 --> 00:43:46.420
so I was one of maybe five or six people who
00:43:46.420 --> 00:43:52.559
joined at that age at that time um but yeah for
00:43:52.559 --> 00:43:56.630
me it was enough um because Yeah, it's enabled
00:43:56.630 --> 00:43:59.030
me to live my life as a kid, like a normal kid
00:43:59.030 --> 00:44:01.989
in normal school and then come there for inspiration
00:44:01.989 --> 00:44:04.429
and learning. I think that was the right balance.
00:44:04.510 --> 00:44:06.469
I'm not sure I would have liked to be there from
00:44:06.469 --> 00:44:11.070
such an early age. Wow. Then that fast forward,
00:44:11.210 --> 00:44:16.989
you got into Cambridge. Yeah. And then later
00:44:16.989 --> 00:44:20.650
to Guildhall, which is a very, very prestigious
00:44:20.650 --> 00:44:23.349
school with and graduated with distinction. So
00:44:23.349 --> 00:44:28.400
how did these two. environment shape you academically?
00:44:28.860 --> 00:44:32.059
Cambridge was great because I mean it's Cambridge
00:44:32.059 --> 00:44:36.780
it's like you know Hogwarts almost in terms of
00:44:36.780 --> 00:44:39.300
like I don't know I'm always a very I was always
00:44:39.300 --> 00:44:42.760
a very academically driven person so going to
00:44:42.760 --> 00:44:45.460
like such a center of academic excellence and
00:44:45.460 --> 00:44:49.000
be able to meet you know specialists in the field.
00:44:49.079 --> 00:44:52.539
All my lecturers were just so brilliant. And
00:44:52.539 --> 00:44:54.960
I could just meet them for supervisions on one
00:44:54.960 --> 00:44:58.960
-to -one. You're sat with them in a room with
00:44:58.960 --> 00:45:01.079
maybe one other student and you have to discuss
00:45:01.079 --> 00:45:03.320
their work and sometimes criticize their work
00:45:03.320 --> 00:45:08.219
to their face. And then they criticize your work
00:45:08.219 --> 00:45:13.139
with their towering amounts of knowledge. That
00:45:13.139 --> 00:45:17.579
was fantastic. Yeah, it just really broadened
00:45:17.579 --> 00:45:21.980
my... I mean, I already had such a broad idea
00:45:21.980 --> 00:45:24.760
of what music could be when I left Menuhin School.
00:45:24.880 --> 00:45:27.840
I realized that it's not just about executing
00:45:27.840 --> 00:45:32.199
a musical text. Music is so broad that almost
00:45:32.199 --> 00:45:35.719
any skill set, any personality type will fit
00:45:35.719 --> 00:45:40.079
somewhere with the music. In Cambridge, it was
00:45:40.079 --> 00:45:44.489
just even more of that. sort of idea being reinforced
00:45:44.489 --> 00:45:48.210
in that i looked also at how it fits with other
00:45:48.210 --> 00:45:52.210
disciplines um you know obviously any university
00:45:52.210 --> 00:45:55.750
now is very big on intersectional studies and
00:45:55.750 --> 00:45:57.690
things like that so you see intersection with
00:45:57.690 --> 00:46:01.829
for example music and colonialism or like um
00:46:01.829 --> 00:46:05.289
how musicology was shaped the very science let's
00:46:05.289 --> 00:46:08.480
say of musicology was shaped by ideologies that
00:46:08.480 --> 00:46:10.699
were going around in the Chinese century and
00:46:10.699 --> 00:46:12.780
how that influenced the very knowledge that was
00:46:12.780 --> 00:46:18.460
produced, all the focuses of that science. Cambridge
00:46:18.460 --> 00:46:23.920
was great to allow me to look critically on a
00:46:23.920 --> 00:46:27.960
meta level at any sort of discourse that I encounter.
00:46:28.500 --> 00:46:32.039
Not just seeing what the argument is and what
00:46:32.039 --> 00:46:34.679
it's doing, but also asking why is this argument
00:46:34.679 --> 00:46:38.539
being made in the first place? What informs that
00:46:38.539 --> 00:46:42.360
point of view etc so that was absolutely great
00:46:42.360 --> 00:46:45.119
and also I met people from other subjects which
00:46:45.119 --> 00:46:48.239
is very enriching for me so I could have conversations
00:46:48.239 --> 00:46:51.619
about politics or economics or anything because
00:46:51.619 --> 00:46:54.519
everyone is kind of there and interested in everything
00:46:54.519 --> 00:46:59.780
and then at Guildhall very different vibe obviously
00:46:59.780 --> 00:47:04.960
back to very narrow music focus but it's a fantastic
00:47:04.960 --> 00:47:07.780
group of people great connections within the
00:47:07.780 --> 00:47:12.579
music industry and yeah I think I'm happy I did
00:47:12.579 --> 00:47:16.659
it in this order because it just allowed me to
00:47:16.659 --> 00:47:19.380
take things I learned and gild her with a pinch
00:47:19.380 --> 00:47:22.539
of salt sometimes like I think if you go straight
00:47:22.539 --> 00:47:25.400
to a musical institution sometimes you can feel
00:47:25.400 --> 00:47:27.559
like what your teacher says is the end will be
00:47:27.559 --> 00:47:31.099
all and if they say something that's it that's
00:47:31.099 --> 00:47:34.139
the truth from God you know that's been applied
00:47:35.840 --> 00:47:39.460
But having had this background in Cambridge of
00:47:39.460 --> 00:47:42.300
being used to questioning everything or contextualizing
00:47:42.300 --> 00:47:46.699
everything, it was useful in sort of surviving
00:47:46.699 --> 00:47:50.320
the music profession and looking at it a bit
00:47:50.320 --> 00:47:54.760
more critically. Well, I can tell from the way
00:47:54.760 --> 00:47:57.619
you explained to me. to us about your album.
00:47:57.840 --> 00:48:00.780
So I almost wondered, your undergraduate degree
00:48:00.780 --> 00:48:03.519
in Cambridge, did you double major in anything?
00:48:03.719 --> 00:48:07.599
Or did you just focus on music? So in the UK
00:48:07.599 --> 00:48:10.460
system, there are no such things as... Oh, I
00:48:10.460 --> 00:48:13.139
think in Cambridge, you can double major. Other
00:48:13.139 --> 00:48:15.400
universities you can, but in Cambridge, I just
00:48:15.400 --> 00:48:19.559
did music. But again, it's applied in such a
00:48:19.559 --> 00:48:22.380
broad way that if you wanted... I mean, I did
00:48:22.380 --> 00:48:26.599
my... One of my essays was about ASMR. And the
00:48:26.599 --> 00:48:29.659
cultural sort of underpinnings of that and implications
00:48:29.659 --> 00:48:34.360
on classical music of the time. But other people
00:48:34.360 --> 00:48:37.440
did things to do with economics or colonialism.
00:48:38.719 --> 00:48:42.599
So you say we're studying music, but really we
00:48:42.599 --> 00:48:45.679
can study anything, just as long as there's some
00:48:45.679 --> 00:48:48.960
sort of musical link. Wow, that's brilliant.
00:48:49.360 --> 00:48:54.139
How fortunate. Then any memorable teachers you've
00:48:54.139 --> 00:48:58.380
had in the past? yeah I would like to say yeah
00:48:58.380 --> 00:49:00.460
all my teachers were memorable in one way or
00:49:00.460 --> 00:49:06.400
another um yeah I mean I can't possibly you know
00:49:06.400 --> 00:49:09.880
pick some because it would be it would feel sacrilegious
00:49:09.880 --> 00:49:13.019
to pick one or two over the others so I'll just
00:49:13.019 --> 00:49:16.059
say yeah I've had really fantastic teachers and
00:49:16.059 --> 00:49:20.059
I've put um for my most direct influences I've
00:49:20.059 --> 00:49:23.800
written an acknowledgement section um on my blog
00:49:23.800 --> 00:49:28.019
um which kind of gives personal thanks to some
00:49:28.019 --> 00:49:29.960
of them and what they've brought me and I've
00:49:29.960 --> 00:49:35.139
put into the album. Wonderful. Then, since then,
00:49:35.199 --> 00:49:38.780
you've performed everywhere, you know, to Azerbaijan,
00:49:39.480 --> 00:49:43.159
Ibiza, Morocco. Is there a concert experience,
00:49:43.639 --> 00:49:46.820
small or big, doesn't matter, that remains unforgettable
00:49:46.820 --> 00:49:49.340
for you? Something that changed or confirmed
00:49:49.340 --> 00:49:51.699
something about your relationship to performing
00:49:51.699 --> 00:49:56.289
or music? Oh, that's a big question. I think
00:49:56.289 --> 00:49:58.510
a lot of concerts are memorable just for different
00:49:58.510 --> 00:50:01.530
reasons. Obviously, Wigmore Hall is very special
00:50:01.530 --> 00:50:04.550
because, well, the piano was fantastic for one.
00:50:04.750 --> 00:50:08.349
Wigmore Hall piano is insane. The acoustics were
00:50:08.349 --> 00:50:12.329
great. And also the occasion was incredible.
00:50:12.489 --> 00:50:15.989
So it was the graduating sort of concert. And
00:50:15.989 --> 00:50:19.429
the hall is kind of the entire school watches
00:50:19.429 --> 00:50:23.510
you play. Normally, when the school watches you
00:50:23.510 --> 00:50:26.050
play, everyone's kind of in a criticising mode,
00:50:26.230 --> 00:50:29.610
like, oh, you've missed a shot there, or you've
00:50:29.610 --> 00:50:32.690
made a mistake or something. But at that moment,
00:50:32.769 --> 00:50:34.730
the whole school is just there to celebrate your
00:50:34.730 --> 00:50:37.409
achievements. And so you just walk onto the Wigmore
00:50:37.409 --> 00:50:40.190
Hall stage with a thunderous applause and people
00:50:40.190 --> 00:50:42.349
shouting and screaming. It feels like you're
00:50:42.349 --> 00:50:47.489
a rock star. So that was really fun. The stand
00:50:47.489 --> 00:50:52.920
-up comedy things I did. were also super super
00:50:52.920 --> 00:50:57.380
fun just because yeah it was such a wholesome
00:50:57.380 --> 00:51:02.179
and genuinely fun moment and one that i felt
00:51:02.179 --> 00:51:06.400
i had a big part in actually creating because
00:51:06.400 --> 00:51:10.340
i really felt like i had created a show not just
00:51:10.340 --> 00:51:12.340
played some pieces but created something new
00:51:12.340 --> 00:51:17.719
and then yeah a lot of a lot of others i mean
00:51:17.719 --> 00:51:39.849
it's too many to count Are we feeling good? Just
00:51:39.849 --> 00:51:42.090
to introduce myself, my name is Aida Lakhloo,
00:51:42.230 --> 00:51:44.449
I'm a concert pianist. The funny thing though
00:51:44.449 --> 00:51:46.429
is that I did not want to be a pianist growing
00:51:46.429 --> 00:51:48.909
up. I actually wanted to be a brain surgeon,
00:51:49.130 --> 00:51:53.489
but my parents were not supportive. They didn't
00:51:53.489 --> 00:51:55.030
want a doctor in the family, they thought it
00:51:55.030 --> 00:51:57.750
was a bit weird. I still do surgery for fun though,
00:51:57.750 --> 00:52:02.110
but on the weekends. I've got a kneecap replacement
00:52:02.110 --> 00:52:08.570
gig coming up. Did you choose the piano as an
00:52:08.570 --> 00:52:11.409
instrument? I want to talk about this stand -up
00:52:11.409 --> 00:52:16.250
comedy thing. Yes. So when I think of comedy
00:52:16.250 --> 00:52:20.130
with... So you combine comedy show with the piano?
00:52:20.670 --> 00:52:24.670
Yeah. So I think of the very famous Victor...
00:52:24.670 --> 00:52:29.769
Bourget. Yeah. And then so is that similar to
00:52:29.769 --> 00:52:33.210
his style or is it more like... No. Okay. So
00:52:33.210 --> 00:52:35.449
what he's doing is more like slapstick, I would
00:52:35.449 --> 00:52:39.780
say. Yeah. you know fun routines and kind of
00:52:39.780 --> 00:52:42.559
jokey routines to do with the act of piano playing
00:52:42.559 --> 00:52:46.320
I don't do that so the piano part is really serious
00:52:46.320 --> 00:52:50.400
piano playing and the comedy is stand -up so
00:52:50.400 --> 00:52:53.519
a lot of the material will be tangentially connected
00:52:53.519 --> 00:52:56.980
to like the music industry or what it feels like
00:52:56.980 --> 00:53:00.019
to be a pianist or making fun of that world I
00:53:00.019 --> 00:53:03.280
inhabit but it's just strictly stand -up so I'm
00:53:03.280 --> 00:53:06.800
not going to make sort of yeah fun routines about
00:53:06.800 --> 00:53:10.079
like I don't know playing piano like with my
00:53:10.079 --> 00:53:12.400
shit music upside down or something like that
00:53:12.400 --> 00:53:15.699
it's not like that it's really stand -up wow
00:53:15.699 --> 00:53:20.139
where does this love of comedy or stand -up comedy
00:53:20.139 --> 00:53:24.320
come from I love stand -up comedy watching you
00:53:24.320 --> 00:53:27.000
know do you have any favorite comedian or something
00:53:27.000 --> 00:53:30.380
someone yeah I have lots of I also I've been
00:53:30.380 --> 00:53:33.400
great fan of stand -up comedy um a lot of my
00:53:33.400 --> 00:53:35.750
favorites comedians are like french speaking
00:53:35.750 --> 00:53:39.250
so i'm not sure how okay okay for your audience
00:53:39.250 --> 00:53:41.769
but um yeah i've always loved stand -up comedy
00:53:41.769 --> 00:53:44.610
and i thought it's so i love it because it's
00:53:44.610 --> 00:53:48.570
so genuine there's nowhere to hide but at the
00:53:48.570 --> 00:53:51.329
same time there's such a craft in actually making
00:53:51.329 --> 00:53:55.530
it good and i found so many interesting similarities
00:53:55.530 --> 00:54:01.440
with music with the timing they're sort of accuracy
00:54:01.440 --> 00:54:03.760
at which you have to deliver that timing for
00:54:03.760 --> 00:54:09.099
it to work the genuineness of it so like playing
00:54:09.099 --> 00:54:12.599
with integrity and also just writing and performing
00:54:12.599 --> 00:54:16.639
with integrity as a comedian writing material
00:54:16.639 --> 00:54:20.360
that's also true to you and that's not just you
00:54:20.360 --> 00:54:24.199
know hackneyed or stolen or whatever so yeah
00:54:24.199 --> 00:54:26.159
there were interesting connections and I thought
00:54:26.159 --> 00:54:28.760
that kind of came out of a period of my life
00:54:28.760 --> 00:54:32.300
when I was a bit frustrated with my impact as
00:54:32.300 --> 00:54:35.860
a pianist because I thought I want to talk about
00:54:35.860 --> 00:54:39.199
the big issues of the day but how can I do that
00:54:39.199 --> 00:54:42.800
in a piano recital and I thought okay maybe I
00:54:42.800 --> 00:54:47.639
can actually allow myself to talk and so I did
00:54:47.639 --> 00:54:51.260
this stand -up show and I didn't hold back so
00:54:51.260 --> 00:54:53.920
I talked about all the stuff I want to talk about
00:54:53.920 --> 00:54:57.500
you know my frustrations with politicians and
00:54:57.500 --> 00:55:00.920
climate change like discourse around immigration,
00:55:01.360 --> 00:55:06.980
things like how people view artists and all of
00:55:06.980 --> 00:55:09.500
the prejudice, all of that, I really didn't hold
00:55:09.500 --> 00:55:13.659
back. But yeah, somehow I always connected the
00:55:13.659 --> 00:55:18.239
two pieces. So, for example, like for In Bartholomew,
00:55:18.460 --> 00:55:20.480
I was doing something about like, you know, how
00:55:20.480 --> 00:55:22.800
I found some of the discourse around refugees
00:55:22.800 --> 00:55:27.860
just stupid. And I thought, so this is In Bartholomew.
00:55:28.730 --> 00:55:30.750
People think it's about a day at the beach, but
00:55:30.750 --> 00:55:32.690
really it's quite terrifying when you listen
00:55:32.690 --> 00:55:35.329
closely. And I think it's about the immensity
00:55:35.329 --> 00:55:38.190
of nature and the powerlessness of humans in
00:55:38.190 --> 00:55:40.949
the face of nature. And I want to dedicate this
00:55:40.949 --> 00:55:43.730
to anyone who's tried to cross the sea for a
00:55:43.730 --> 00:55:47.070
better life. So there was some sort of link between
00:55:47.070 --> 00:55:50.590
the social commentary and the art, like the pieces
00:55:50.590 --> 00:55:54.489
I was playing. So it was kind of speaking to
00:55:54.489 --> 00:55:56.349
each other. The two components were speaking
00:55:56.349 --> 00:55:59.300
to each other. But they were very much respecting
00:55:59.300 --> 00:56:02.699
each other. So like, I wasn't trying to make
00:56:02.699 --> 00:56:06.219
the music funny. I was playing serious pieces.
00:56:07.340 --> 00:56:09.480
But I think it really helped each other kind
00:56:09.480 --> 00:56:11.940
of shine in a way, all the different art forms.
00:56:12.400 --> 00:56:16.599
So first you performed and then the comedy. Is
00:56:16.599 --> 00:56:20.119
that how it went? No, it was completely, it was
00:56:20.119 --> 00:56:23.880
like back and forth. So in total, there was 30
00:56:23.880 --> 00:56:26.710
minutes of music and 30 minutes of comedy. But
00:56:26.710 --> 00:56:30.090
it was interspersed. So I started with like a
00:56:30.090 --> 00:56:33.269
flashy piece. Then I said, you know, I always
00:56:33.269 --> 00:56:36.329
start with this piece. People think I'm legit.
00:56:36.530 --> 00:56:39.250
And then I start with my comedy routine. And
00:56:39.250 --> 00:56:42.949
then I introduce the piece linked to the comedy.
00:56:43.030 --> 00:56:45.909
And then I play it. Then again, it's the back
00:56:45.909 --> 00:56:49.530
and forth. Yeah, but you know, really, that's
00:56:49.530 --> 00:56:52.289
the spirit or the origin of comedy, right? Like
00:56:52.289 --> 00:56:55.329
when you are struggling or you have this, you
00:56:55.329 --> 00:56:57.260
want to... bring this challenge into the world
00:56:57.260 --> 00:56:59.940
but then what's the best what's better way to
00:56:59.940 --> 00:57:04.119
do it of course comedy because we can all laugh
00:57:04.119 --> 00:57:08.679
at something so wow that's very clever but also
00:57:08.679 --> 00:57:13.079
i'm sure it took a lot of courage to do it yeah
00:57:13.079 --> 00:57:18.639
i'm a bit crazy so it's fine that's so cool so
00:57:18.639 --> 00:57:21.059
i want to talk more about this you know creativity
00:57:21.059 --> 00:57:27.019
um so Because you said something about, you know,
00:57:27.039 --> 00:57:29.679
despite all the awards you collected, you have
00:57:29.679 --> 00:57:33.940
won 20 plus awards internationally. And then
00:57:33.940 --> 00:57:38.159
you said that the institutional success is often
00:57:38.159 --> 00:57:41.800
neither achievable nor even desirable for many
00:57:41.800 --> 00:57:46.119
musicians. Can you explore a little bit more
00:57:46.119 --> 00:57:49.260
of that, about that? Of course, I'm very passionate
00:57:49.260 --> 00:57:53.750
about this. I used to think that the way to be
00:57:53.750 --> 00:57:57.250
successful, whatever that means, is to win competitions
00:57:57.250 --> 00:58:00.269
or be respected by the establishment. So either
00:58:00.269 --> 00:58:03.710
being a conservator darling or win a big competition
00:58:03.710 --> 00:58:09.510
or get hired by an agent or whatever. And then
00:58:09.510 --> 00:58:13.050
I saw the results and I thought, OK, well, I
00:58:13.050 --> 00:58:15.730
see a lot of conservator darlings who are getting
00:58:15.730 --> 00:58:18.760
all the opportunities. Two or three years later,
00:58:18.840 --> 00:58:20.780
there's a new conservatoire dialing and then
00:58:20.780 --> 00:58:24.480
they're not getting anywhere because it just
00:58:24.480 --> 00:58:27.559
in terms of actual concerts and just, you know,
00:58:27.559 --> 00:58:32.579
outward signs of success in inverted commas.
00:58:33.679 --> 00:58:36.480
Competition, same thing. So you might win a competition,
00:58:36.780 --> 00:58:39.719
even a big one, and then you're still doing gigs
00:58:39.719 --> 00:58:42.119
that don't pay very much or whatever. So even
00:58:42.119 --> 00:58:45.710
for the very outward sort of basic. crass signs
00:58:45.710 --> 00:58:48.170
of success in terms of pay or number of concerts
00:58:48.170 --> 00:58:51.429
and so on it's not necessarily a panacea and
00:58:51.429 --> 00:58:56.170
then um yeah agents again um i feel like agents
00:58:56.170 --> 00:58:59.010
nowadays um with all due respect to agents a
00:58:59.010 --> 00:59:02.530
lot of them um only take you on when you don't
00:59:02.530 --> 00:59:06.469
really need an agent so i thought okay but let's
00:59:06.469 --> 00:59:09.309
say as a thought experiment and say okay let's
00:59:09.309 --> 00:59:13.199
imagine i want to be competition or I've landed
00:59:13.199 --> 00:59:16.360
one of those things, would that make me feel
00:59:16.360 --> 00:59:20.559
happier? What would I have achieved in real terms?
00:59:20.920 --> 00:59:23.960
And the only conclusion I could get from that
00:59:23.960 --> 00:59:27.579
answer is an ego boost, maybe a bit more money.
00:59:27.840 --> 00:59:31.780
But I thought, okay, do I really want that? And
00:59:31.780 --> 00:59:35.360
the answer was no. I was a lot more interested
00:59:35.360 --> 00:59:39.510
in just doing something that... like has real
00:59:39.510 --> 00:59:43.449
meaning outside of just the cloud because these
00:59:43.449 --> 00:59:46.429
sort of institutions first of all have yeah not
00:59:46.429 --> 00:59:48.869
sure they're always right but they also perpetuate
00:59:48.869 --> 00:59:50.769
a lot of the things that i think are wrong with
00:59:50.769 --> 00:59:54.909
the industry so i thought okay um first of all
00:59:54.909 --> 00:59:57.630
if i go into this and i win something in there
00:59:57.630 --> 01:00:01.429
i'm just gonna reinforce those negative aspects
01:00:01.429 --> 01:00:06.639
but also yeah even if i look at just the positive
01:00:06.639 --> 01:00:10.019
sides for me it's just not that much and I thought
01:00:10.019 --> 01:00:13.079
okay well let's look there's so many examples
01:00:13.079 --> 01:00:15.559
of people who achieve those same hallmarks of
01:00:15.559 --> 01:00:18.400
success without going through the institutional
01:00:18.400 --> 01:00:22.519
route so for example let's say there's a money
01:00:22.519 --> 01:00:25.139
price for the competition people achieve that
01:00:25.139 --> 01:00:27.679
money in other ways not winning competitions
01:00:27.679 --> 01:00:31.219
or you perform in big halls people have performed
01:00:31.219 --> 01:00:33.659
in big halls without winning competitions or
01:00:33.659 --> 01:00:35.480
being a conservator or darling so there are ways
01:00:35.480 --> 01:00:38.940
to do that and that way you're not dependent
01:00:38.940 --> 01:00:42.239
on you know the approval of one or two people
01:00:42.239 --> 01:00:46.159
who might just not like you or be biased against
01:00:46.159 --> 01:00:50.239
you and I think chasing the approval of just
01:00:50.239 --> 01:00:54.460
the establishment is such a waste of time my
01:00:54.460 --> 01:00:57.900
advice and my sort of experience is you're much
01:00:57.900 --> 01:01:00.079
better off just trying to make your objectives
01:01:00.079 --> 01:01:03.690
happen independently of whether or not someone
01:01:03.690 --> 01:01:08.909
gives you permission. And from my personal perspective,
01:01:09.190 --> 01:01:13.289
like now I feel like impact is something I should
01:01:13.289 --> 01:01:17.329
chase a lot more than recognition, if that makes
01:01:17.329 --> 01:01:21.889
sense. Yep, yep. So I'd much rather, you know,
01:01:21.909 --> 01:01:26.269
make a positive change in something that is bigger
01:01:26.269 --> 01:01:32.639
than just me, rather than be, you know... spotlighted
01:01:32.639 --> 01:01:37.679
or chosen by an establishment figure or yeah
01:01:37.679 --> 01:01:44.420
but our industry is the classical music is sort
01:01:44.420 --> 01:01:47.760
of based on that you know recognition and being
01:01:47.760 --> 01:01:57.000
admitted or nodded by or you know even since
01:01:57.000 --> 01:02:01.920
your training era does that make sense? being
01:02:01.920 --> 01:02:06.179
admitted into this studio, for example, or this
01:02:06.179 --> 01:02:10.639
school day. So that's the sort of mindset. And
01:02:10.639 --> 01:02:12.699
then everybody is sort of afraid of everybody,
01:02:12.900 --> 01:02:17.440
right? Yeah, I would say, I mean, you have to
01:02:17.440 --> 01:02:20.659
be pragmatic. I was certainly pragmatic in my
01:02:20.659 --> 01:02:23.239
approach. I said, you know, what's the minimum
01:02:23.239 --> 01:02:26.000
institutional success that I need in order to
01:02:26.000 --> 01:02:30.199
be credible? And I think, I mean, most conservatory
01:02:30.199 --> 01:02:33.380
students already have that. But then going beyond
01:02:33.380 --> 01:02:35.760
that and seeing institutional recognition as
01:02:35.760 --> 01:02:38.300
end -all, be -all, I think that's inefficient.
01:02:38.960 --> 01:02:42.360
I think just go and get some credibility that
01:02:42.360 --> 01:02:45.599
you can demonstrate. And an easy way, well, in
01:02:45.599 --> 01:02:47.900
inverted commas, an easy way is to get a diploma
01:02:47.900 --> 01:02:50.760
from someone respected. But then take that diploma
01:02:50.760 --> 01:02:53.099
and do something with it that doesn't require
01:02:53.099 --> 01:02:57.789
authorization. So for example, I mean, as an
01:02:57.789 --> 01:02:59.429
artist, you may think, you know, I've released
01:02:59.429 --> 01:03:01.909
my CD, it's going to be really easy for me to
01:03:01.909 --> 01:03:05.429
find concerts and so on. It's really hard to
01:03:05.429 --> 01:03:08.510
find concerts because the environment, at least
01:03:08.510 --> 01:03:11.429
in the UK, just doesn't pay people enough or,
01:03:11.469 --> 01:03:15.429
you know, it's saturated and so on. And competition
01:03:15.429 --> 01:03:17.869
is the same thing, the amount of money you need
01:03:17.869 --> 01:03:21.210
to just apply and then they don't even give you
01:03:21.210 --> 01:03:25.329
feedback when you're rejected and so on. So I
01:03:25.329 --> 01:03:27.690
actually made my calculations and I started my
01:03:27.690 --> 01:03:31.230
own concert series. And now I offer paid opportunities
01:03:31.230 --> 01:03:33.809
for musicians. And I started with zero budget,
01:03:33.869 --> 01:03:38.329
even though if I had, you know, gone through
01:03:38.329 --> 01:03:41.389
the route of competitions, I would probably be
01:03:41.389 --> 01:03:44.070
in the red for, you know, probably several thousand
01:03:44.070 --> 01:03:48.050
pounds between recording and lessons. And so,
01:03:48.130 --> 01:03:52.909
yeah, I think. It's actually a much more efficient
01:03:52.909 --> 01:03:56.369
way to start your own thing sometimes than wait
01:03:56.369 --> 01:04:00.349
for authorization to do something. But you have
01:04:00.349 --> 01:04:05.269
that sort of mind to do it. And also, you're
01:04:05.269 --> 01:04:08.750
very eloquent. You can express yourself, present
01:04:08.750 --> 01:04:12.289
yourself with words really well as well. So I
01:04:12.289 --> 01:04:15.349
think that's a huge advantage. But I'm sure you
01:04:15.349 --> 01:04:22.030
had your own challenges. moments where you probably
01:04:22.030 --> 01:04:26.630
you had to pick yourself up and keep going right
01:04:26.630 --> 01:04:29.590
yeah definitely but to be honest i find it much
01:04:29.590 --> 01:04:32.530
easier to be in control i'd much rather be sad
01:04:32.530 --> 01:04:36.949
or be challenged by something i own um rather
01:04:36.949 --> 01:04:40.630
than you know be at the mercy of whatever rejection
01:04:40.630 --> 01:04:44.230
is gonna be on my plate on the day because this
01:04:44.230 --> 01:04:47.710
jury or that um agent or whatever has not um
01:04:48.280 --> 01:04:50.840
wanted to work with me or something but you know
01:04:50.840 --> 01:04:53.920
enterprises like for example your podcast or
01:04:53.920 --> 01:04:59.760
any artist -led venture that creates real value
01:04:59.760 --> 01:05:03.059
like actual value and creates actual communities
01:05:03.059 --> 01:05:06.619
and creates actual you know positive change I
01:05:06.619 --> 01:05:09.119
think it's something to be so much more proud
01:05:09.119 --> 01:05:13.400
about than just being picked randomly by an arbitrary
01:05:13.400 --> 01:05:19.199
group of jury members in a way that's kind of
01:05:19.199 --> 01:05:24.320
the logic behind me trying my own thing is I
01:05:24.320 --> 01:05:26.179
want to of course build something meaningful
01:05:26.179 --> 01:05:29.880
we all want to but also hopefully in a way that's
01:05:29.880 --> 01:05:32.699
less speculative and a bit more linked to hard
01:05:32.699 --> 01:05:36.440
work rather than just circumstance I would say
01:05:36.440 --> 01:05:42.230
yeah Well, thank you for including me, my podcast
01:05:42.230 --> 01:05:45.510
into your... No, no, of course. I'm very admirative.
01:05:46.469 --> 01:05:51.789
I hope I've said that enough. I'm just very,
01:05:51.949 --> 01:05:55.170
like, I wish more musicians would, you know,
01:05:55.170 --> 01:05:57.610
fly with their ideas and actually make something
01:05:57.610 --> 01:06:01.309
that they own and that they can, you know, move
01:06:01.309 --> 01:06:04.710
the needle in a way that benefits artists and
01:06:04.710 --> 01:06:07.230
benefits our industry in real terms rather than
01:06:07.230 --> 01:06:11.219
benefits institutions. Well said. I'll quote
01:06:11.219 --> 01:06:16.119
this. Aida, you're very smart. Then you also
01:06:16.119 --> 01:06:19.820
talked about bringing back this impresario. Oh
01:06:19.820 --> 01:06:23.940
my gosh, that was a eureka moment. Because in
01:06:23.940 --> 01:06:27.199
that sense, aren't we both impresarios? Like,
01:06:27.280 --> 01:06:31.059
aren't we doing this? Because it's all about
01:06:31.059 --> 01:06:34.340
being a creative person, creative producer. So
01:06:34.340 --> 01:06:38.159
impresario meant you have to raise funds, you
01:06:38.159 --> 01:06:42.210
have to... put people together and you kind of
01:06:42.210 --> 01:06:46.909
have to sort of you know taking risks for bold
01:06:46.909 --> 01:06:50.730
new ideas shaping culture is not exactly what
01:06:50.730 --> 01:06:53.750
you're trying to do and then i'm i mean i'm trying
01:06:53.750 --> 01:06:57.650
to do the same thing so yeah absolutely i wish
01:06:57.650 --> 01:07:01.510
agents at the moment were a bit more like impresarios
01:07:01.510 --> 01:07:04.469
at the moment agents they're just extension of
01:07:05.639 --> 01:07:07.579
booking secretaries, I would say. They contact
01:07:07.579 --> 01:07:09.920
Concert Series and they try and push their artists,
01:07:10.099 --> 01:07:12.440
but they don't create Concert Series of their
01:07:12.440 --> 01:07:14.639
own. That means they don't take any financial
01:07:14.639 --> 01:07:17.360
risk. Whereas in the past, you know, if you think
01:07:17.360 --> 01:07:20.300
of the big impresarios like Diaghilev, he would
01:07:20.300 --> 01:07:23.519
actually pay for the theater. He would organize
01:07:23.519 --> 01:07:25.900
the promotion, everything. He would book artists
01:07:25.900 --> 01:07:29.730
he thought could fill the hall. And then he would
01:07:29.730 --> 01:07:33.769
pocket the earnings and then pay the artists
01:07:33.769 --> 01:07:37.809
their wage. But he was the one taking the financial
01:07:37.809 --> 01:07:41.070
risk. He was the one understanding art enough
01:07:41.070 --> 01:07:43.730
to see what would be successful and what wouldn't.
01:07:44.130 --> 01:07:46.610
And that's something we need more of. Someone
01:07:46.610 --> 01:07:49.269
to take financial risk, but also who has artistic
01:07:49.269 --> 01:07:53.829
sensitivity to make it work. At the moment, agents
01:07:53.829 --> 01:07:57.789
don't take any financial risks. They book you
01:07:57.789 --> 01:07:59.869
a concert and then they take a cut or they don't
01:07:59.869 --> 01:08:01.750
book anything and then they don't take anything.
01:08:01.909 --> 01:08:05.190
There's no risk to them at all. And I think for
01:08:05.190 --> 01:08:08.289
me, it's a bit lazy and it puts so much more
01:08:08.289 --> 01:08:13.110
pressure on the musicians. So, yeah, I wish,
01:08:13.130 --> 01:08:16.329
you know, at the end of the day, we had a bit
01:08:16.329 --> 01:08:18.630
more of a side of the industry that took financial
01:08:18.630 --> 01:08:22.170
risk to put on concerts rather than just trying
01:08:22.170 --> 01:08:24.569
again to convince the establishment to book this
01:08:24.569 --> 01:08:32.199
artist or that artist. Wow. So we're coming closer
01:08:32.199 --> 01:08:36.279
to the end of our conversation, but there's just
01:08:36.279 --> 01:08:43.840
one or two more questions for you. How do you
01:08:43.840 --> 01:08:49.699
measure success for you now that we spoke about
01:08:49.699 --> 01:08:53.960
all these things? I would say happiness doing
01:08:53.960 --> 01:08:58.220
the work and impact. So I wouldn't say, you know,
01:08:58.220 --> 01:09:01.199
sitting back and having passive income is success.
01:09:01.319 --> 01:09:03.840
I think that's not very fulfilling at the end
01:09:03.840 --> 01:09:07.319
of the day. So I'm pro working very hard, but
01:09:07.319 --> 01:09:11.399
I'm also pro like making an impact that is positive.
01:09:11.979 --> 01:09:14.600
So yeah, that's how I would do it in a nutshell.
01:09:15.439 --> 01:09:20.720
Beautiful. And what's next for you? You know,
01:09:20.739 --> 01:09:24.279
you just produced an album. Is there any new
01:09:24.279 --> 01:09:26.619
project coming up? Maybe you don't want to share
01:09:26.619 --> 01:09:30.020
the details yet, but the floor is yours. So please
01:09:30.020 --> 01:09:33.340
tell us what's next. Sure. So, of course, I'm
01:09:33.340 --> 01:09:35.899
very busy with my concert series that I've mentioned,
01:09:36.039 --> 01:09:39.600
the one I've created eight weeks ago. So that's
01:09:39.600 --> 01:09:43.340
Oxford Concert Circle. So very exciting. We're
01:09:43.340 --> 01:09:46.659
building partnership, applying for grants and
01:09:46.659 --> 01:09:49.420
hopefully growing even more into the new year.
01:09:50.060 --> 01:09:53.239
So that's a nice project. And then piano -wise,
01:09:53.439 --> 01:09:57.119
I might have some exciting masterclass and recital
01:09:57.119 --> 01:09:59.659
projects in the new year in Morocco, but that's
01:09:59.659 --> 01:10:02.880
still to be decided with the French Institute.
01:10:02.960 --> 01:10:06.260
So that's something that might happen in the
01:10:06.260 --> 01:10:11.760
spring as you listen to this podcast. And yeah,
01:10:11.819 --> 01:10:14.119
I've got a million ideas, but it's just about
01:10:14.119 --> 01:10:18.109
what am I going to do next? Prioritizing. And
01:10:18.109 --> 01:10:20.010
again, with the question of impact, which is
01:10:20.010 --> 01:10:24.170
increasingly more important to me. Wonderful.
01:10:25.329 --> 01:10:28.130
Wow. Thank you so much. This was a really fun,
01:10:28.350 --> 01:10:31.569
inspiring, really, truly inspiring conversation,
01:10:31.869 --> 01:10:34.289
Aida. So, but I didn't explain this to you, but
01:10:34.289 --> 01:10:36.090
before I let you go, we have one more segment.
01:10:36.109 --> 01:10:38.289
It's called the PianoPod Rapid Fire Questions.
01:10:38.390 --> 01:10:42.829
So we take this part very seriously. We create,
01:10:43.229 --> 01:10:45.810
you've shared so much depth and insight today,
01:10:45.869 --> 01:10:49.100
but these questions. carefully curated by my
01:10:49.100 --> 01:10:53.119
team, which is me, offer a glimpse into who you
01:10:53.119 --> 01:10:56.539
truly are. So let's do this. Please answer each
01:10:56.539 --> 01:10:59.439
question with the shortest response possible.
01:10:59.479 --> 01:11:03.199
No explanation is needed. Question number one.
01:11:03.779 --> 01:11:09.119
What is your comfort food? Chips. How do you
01:11:09.119 --> 01:11:11.960
like your coffee in the morning? I don't drink
01:11:11.960 --> 01:11:16.069
coffee. Okay. Do you like drinking tea? Not even.
01:11:16.369 --> 01:11:21.170
No? What do you drink? Water? Water. That's great.
01:11:21.529 --> 01:11:25.630
That's great. Are you a cat person or dog person?
01:11:26.189 --> 01:11:31.550
A dachshund. Oh, so cute. Sunrise or sunset?
01:11:34.569 --> 01:11:40.630
Sunset. Okay. Summer or winter? Summer. What
01:11:40.630 --> 01:11:43.550
skill have you always wanted to learn but haven't
01:11:43.550 --> 01:11:47.640
had a chance to? Maybe violin. Oh, that's what
01:11:47.640 --> 01:11:52.260
you mentioned. Now, what is your word or words
01:11:52.260 --> 01:11:58.579
to live by? Be happy. Don't take yourself too
01:11:58.579 --> 01:12:02.020
seriously. Be a good person. That's enough, I
01:12:02.020 --> 01:12:06.899
think. Great. Favorite venue you performed in?
01:12:06.979 --> 01:12:12.449
Maybe you mentioned. Or maybe dream venue. I'd
01:12:12.449 --> 01:12:15.289
love to perform in a house, like a cozy house.
01:12:16.149 --> 01:12:20.430
Yeah, it's actually trending. Yeah, especially
01:12:20.430 --> 01:12:23.029
in the States. It is trending. That's a business
01:12:23.029 --> 01:12:26.250
idea for your listeners. Yeah, that's right.
01:12:26.909 --> 01:12:29.890
Now, what is the most important quality you look
01:12:29.890 --> 01:12:35.130
for in other people? Honesty. Name a composer
01:12:35.130 --> 01:12:39.439
you wish more people knew about. This is really
01:12:39.439 --> 01:12:41.880
controversial, but Mozart. I think Mozart is
01:12:41.880 --> 01:12:47.340
underrated. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think Mozart is
01:12:47.340 --> 01:12:50.199
underrated because, yeah, I don't have to explain,
01:12:50.380 --> 01:12:53.140
but he is a genius. And it's not because he's
01:12:53.140 --> 01:12:55.760
written a few hits. He is actually such a master
01:12:55.760 --> 01:12:59.619
composer. And it's not boring. Please, it's not
01:12:59.619 --> 01:13:03.300
boring. It's actually every time he writes anything,
01:13:03.500 --> 01:13:07.000
it's... Please do not say Mozart sonatas are
01:13:07.000 --> 01:13:10.520
boring. They're not. Okay. I'm guilty. I say
01:13:10.520 --> 01:13:14.039
Mozart sonatas. Okay. I will listen carefully.
01:13:14.399 --> 01:13:19.539
Yes. All right. Then name one piece currently
01:13:19.539 --> 01:13:24.260
in your playlist. Schubert's Late Infant Fuse.
01:13:24.920 --> 01:13:28.119
Wonderful. Fill in the blank. This is the last
01:13:28.119 --> 01:13:30.500
question. Fill in the blank. Music is blank.
01:13:32.430 --> 01:13:37.149
Great. Very nice. All right. Thank you so much
01:13:37.149 --> 01:13:39.649
for joining us today and for sharing your wisdom,
01:13:39.729 --> 01:13:42.710
artistry and incredible energy. This has truly
01:13:42.710 --> 01:13:44.970
been a meaningful conversation. So to our listeners,
01:13:45.029 --> 01:13:47.029
if you would like to learn more about Aida's
01:13:47.029 --> 01:13:51.210
work, visit AidaLalu .com. Follow her on Instagram
01:13:51.210 --> 01:13:56.960
at AidaXLalu. and listen to her album mirrors
01:13:56.960 --> 01:14:00.039
and echoes wherever you stream your music all
01:14:00.039 --> 01:14:02.300
links are in the show notes and to our community
01:14:02.300 --> 01:14:05.340
thank you for tuning in please subscribe rate
01:14:05.340 --> 01:14:08.159
and share this episode your support helps us
01:14:08.159 --> 01:14:11.260
continue connecting through music story and creativity
01:14:11.260 --> 01:14:14.500
until next time this is yuki miso and you're
01:14:14.500 --> 01:14:16.520
listening to the piano part thank you so much
01:14:16.520 --> 01:14:18.739
thank you thank you so much that was a great
01:14:18.739 --> 01:14:19.220
conversation