CONTENT COURTESY MONASH LIVE
Want to sit on stage with a star from New York?
Pianist Andrea Lam will give you the opportunity as part of Monash Live. Her show Premieres, Passion and Puppets will invite 150 people to sit alongside her as she plays works by Schumann, Ginastera, and Vivian Fung.
Andrea was born in Sydney, and at just 13 years old kicked off her orchestral career performing with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. She now lives in New York and has been praised as a “real talent” by the Wall Street Journal.
Her MLIVE performance will explore the various timbres of her instrument, from percussive textures in Fung’s Glimpses, through to delicate expressions in Schumann’s Arabesque and Kreisleriana, and the rhythmic and vibrant Suite de Danzas Criollas by Ginastera.
Ahead of the June 28 show, which is featured in MLIVE’s Wood, Metal and Vibrating Air Piano Recital Series, Andrea tells us a little about herself and what to expect from the show.
MLIVE: What drew you to the piano and to classical music?
Andrea: I was lucky that my mum played the piano a little, so I heard the piano and classical music from a very young age and was curious about it. Like most kids, it was just one of the things that I did. As my relationship with music deepened, I found it fascinating on many levels. The logical part of me liked figuring out the structure of a piece and how to manoeuvre my fingers to play the notes. The unbridled child’s imagination in me loved making up stories and characters to go with the music. Even now, listening to and playing music speaks to a deeper part of me than anything else.
You hold degrees from the Yale School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. What values did your teachers instil in you, and what teachings have you found to be the most instrumental to your practice?
As a classical musician, you spend many hours with your teacher. They ideally teach you more than just notes; they teach you how to express yourself, how to understand the vastly varied worlds of composers, how to make colours and shapes, and sometimes, my teachers have acted as a close friends and advisers. All of my teachers gave me a lot of freedom in my playing and always encouraged me to find my own mode of expression rather than telling me how it should be.
You made your orchestral debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the age of 13. Were there any moments where you second-guessed your ambition to be a professional pianist?
Yes! When I made my orchestral debuts at 13, I was a very serious student and only had wild fantasies about becoming a professional pianist in the way that one dreams about being an astronaut, or Superman, or an Olympic medallist — never really thinking that would be my career.
I do love music and playing the piano, but I have to say that now I’m living the reality of being a professional pianist, being a classical musician is a very strange profession…I used to fantasise about the idea of a nine-to-five job that you could leave on nights and weekends and forget about, just because that was so foreign to me. But now I feel very lucky to play music and make a living doing it, as difficult as it is sometimes!
Who is your favourite composer and why?
There are so many amazing composers and we’re spoiled for choice. I have to admit that Schumann speaks to my soul in a way that no other composer does. There is something so intensely personal about his music—his expression of ‘innig’ and melancholy goes beyond words, and it’s tossed in there with spurts of craziness, wild imagination, flights of fantasy, and all sorts of weird and wonderful characters.
Andrea Lam will perform in MLIVE’s Wood, Metal and Vibrating Air Piano Recital Series 28 June, 7.30pm. Tickets: $15–35. Book online.
