An improvisation is a way for me to express myself in any way that I might choose to at
the instrument, whether that manner is spiritual or whether I'm exploring something musical
or mathematical.
It's just a catalyst for my personal expression and that can be a catalyst further for my
enjoyment or for my development.
It can be anything that you want it to be, but I think most importantly it's for me,
right?
When I sit at that instrument, I'm playing for myself through an improvisation.
Hello piano enthusiasts!
Welcome back to the PianoPod.
I am your host, Yuukimi Song.
Today we're diving deeper into the second installment of this season's 14th episode
with classical pianist, composer and improviser, Liam Pitcher, known for his exceptional improvisational
skills which combine classical music with electroacoustic and electronic elements.
In case you missed our captivating part 1 conversation, exploring unique aspects of
his improvisational style, don't worry, you can catch up on all the excitement on your
favorite podcast platform right now.
A warm welcome to all our new listeners and viewers, this podcast is your all-access pass
to the captivating world of piano.
In each episode of the PianoPod, I interview a guest speaker who has been breaking exciting
new ground in the industry.
Please rate the show and review it on your favorite podcasting platform because every
rating review will help people find my show.
And as for our faithful listeners, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude for your
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Since 2020, we've been exploring how to make classical music resonate in fresh ways with
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So my friends, here is part 2 of the PianoPod's Season 4 Episode 14 featuring South African
pianist, improviser, Leon Pitcher.
Please enjoy the show.
You sound like you have such great teachers in the past and mentors.
You even at the beginning mentioned that you've been really fortunate to have these teachers.
So I want to know a little bit about your upbringing, maybe how you discovered the love
for music and then also your mentors and maybe what kind of life, you know, unique life experiences
that influenced your being an artist today.
I've been very blessed with the teachers that I've had recently, but I suppose I had great
parents who were, they, you know, they've always been wonderful influences in my life
and they saw that I was musical and they bought a little keyboard that was in the house and
that cut a long story short ended up in me studying how to play the keyboard at school.
And I had great, wonderful female teachers.
I had, I can't even remember their names at this point, but I had a line of female teachers
when I was about 10 years old in Western Province Preparatory School and they just did their
job.
There was nothing extraordinary about it, but they allowed me to explore what I wanted
to explore while giving it structure, which is, I suppose more than you can ask for at
that age, or maybe it's not more than you can ask for.
I don't know, I don't know how ambitious I need to be with this response to your question,
but in a perfect world, we can get to that shortly, maybe what it would have been, but
I didn't have the great teachers that I had now back then, but everything led me to this
point.
So, you know, if anything, I have a juxtaposed extreme comparison between what things are
like in school and university and what they should be like based on what I'm learning
now.
So, in the long and short of it, yes, school, 10 years old, keyboard, study the keyboard,
study music theory from literally 10 years old in school, learn the basics, don't really
care about it, don't really understand it fully, do my grade five music theory in high
school, do a bit of percussion, do a bit of flute, do a bit of piano, meet one of the
biggest musical influences in my life, Judith Rhodes Harrison, who took me under her wing.
They refused to let me study the piano at my high school because I didn't have a qualification.
So, I then actually had to prove myself, which I didn't realize at the time, but I ended
up doing it.
I learned a very complicated piece just in my own time and performed it at an ice-ted
fit there, and then she said, I want him as my student, and she took me under her wing,
and she gave me the greatest gift of my life, that she taught me when no one else would,
the piano, which is now my greatest joy in my life.
And she was so incredible.
She gave me no, we didn't even have time to do technique.
We couldn't even begin to talk about it, but because I had to catch up, right, in terms
of repertoire, learning pieces, I think the whole syllabus at schools for music is ridiculous
as well.
I mean, that's something we can get into as well later.
But ultimately, she gave me a place where I felt like, wow, this person believes in me
and what I can do on this instrument, and just that was enough to make me practice and
to make me care about it.
Then when I got to university, there was none of that left.
I wouldn't mention any names, I was not inspired in university.
It sucked me dry of my love for music for five years.
And then I met my current teacher, Rache de Toie.
But before that, I was studying composition.
So by that point, by my final years in university, I had actually just given up on becoming a
performer, which was always my lifelong dream.
I actually ended up entering my left wrist, and I had to leave university for six months
and just redo my first year because I couldn't even play.
And that has been years of healing.
I'm still healing from that.
I mean, I still lack mobility in my left arm, but I'm starting to gain that back just due
to understanding the body, et cetera.
Anyways, but it was only in third year university that I met Hendrik Hofmeyer and sat in his
class.
And from the moment, I never cared about music theory.
I never cared about it.
I thought it was the dumbest thing ever.
I couldn't understand why we had to learn it.
It was so infinitely boring to me.
And that first class with Hendrik Hofmeyer absolutely shattered my world.
It was like it blew open the infinite possibilities of music in a two hour class.
And from that point, I became essentially obsessed with Hendrik Hofmeyer.
Like I really just wanted to know everything that he knew.
And like, I kind of modeled myself after him a little bit at that time.
And that's fine because he was a great role model.
And like, if you're going to model yourself after anyone, model yourself after someone
who's great, who had attributes that are truly good, and he was such a giving person in terms
of his wisdom, and he was so patient with me, I'd never cared truly about music theory
or about academia until that point.
And he was so patient with me in how like, I wasn't organized at that point.
You know, I wasn't necessarily accustomed to what the schooling system might expect
from a student.
And I don't know if he sensed or saw that, but he was so patient with me.
So even though I couldn't meet his expectations, I couldn't work as hard as maybe I wanted
to work because I was also DJing and producing music at the same time.
And I was playing multiple times a week in nightclubs, etc.
Parallel worlds.
And he believed in me right to the end that even though I didn't even qualify for my final
year in composition class because I was so busy and unable to perform in my examinations
and I became so ill at that time.
And a vacancy came and he said, you can have it if the student will give it to you.
Even though I didn't qualify for my final year, he saw that in me and he gave me that
opportunity to prove myself, which I did.
And I still see him to this day.
I'm actually seeing him on Thursday this week.
I can't wait to see him.
And we just go deep.
I mean, like, you don't even understand the things we talk about.
You can't even begin to find the things we talk about music, like things that he has
studied and knows.
And I'm like, I bring my little piece, two cents piece to that, but he knows things that
you just, you just can't find on the internet.
You know, you can't find them in libraries even.
He's understood music in ways that very few I'd say in history have understood.
And that's why I was so captured by him because I felt, wow, what is this whole world?
This guy really knows what he's talking about.
This guy really understands the music.
I want to understand music.
I love music.
What is this meaning behind it?
It's because he understood the meaning and he was able to explain meaning in music legitimately.
What's on the page?
What does that mean?
How do we understand and interpret that meaning?
Etc.
That's when I began in my second or third year of university to understand these things.
And then I met my current piano teacher and it was while I was still studying at the University
of Cape Town and I sat down and played for him.
And he said, your entire technique is wrong.
Everything that you do is away from the piano.
Like I'm sorry, but you just know nothing about performance at all.
And it really affected me.
I remember leaving that meeting thinking, wow, and he played and I mean, he could play
a PPPP if he wanted consistently.
You know, he could play 20 different dynamic levels between Pianississimo and Pianissississimo.
You know, and I just had no control whatsoever over my sound.
And so I was extremely talented and I, Judith Rotarason, who took me under when gave me
so much beauty in terms of how to think about phrasing and music and interpretation and she
inspired me in those ways as a teacher showed as well.
But we never had time to do technique and they certainly have no interest at my university
to try and recover poor technique.
They just say, well, you didn't learn the technique so there's nothing we can do for
you.
You've got to go learn that in your own time.
They don't actually show you what you have to do because they're lazy and they don't
actually care about their students' developments and they probably got their jobs from pals.
You know, but anyway, so I met Rache and he blasted my whole world to smithereens.
I mean, that was like, I almost felt like completely defeated because I've my whole
career as a pianist was very talented, but I completely plateaued at that point for years
because my talent only took me to a certain place.
And you know, I felt what probably most pop artists feel as well that they can't express
themselves beyond a certain point because they just don't have the understanding to
move outside of that.
Anyways, so he sent me away and I couldn't see him at that point because I was still
studying at the University of Cape Town.
When I left the University of Cape Town, then I went and performed as a DJ at his daughter's
wedding for free.
She was a friend of mine.
We studied together.
She's probably the best operatic singer in South Africa.
One of the greatest who's ever lived probably.
She is truly angelic in the way that she sings and that's because he has taught her the
Belcanto style from the second century in Italy, the true Belcanto.
And she can sing like an angel.
You just have no idea.
I mean, you hear this woman's voice.
It's like you're transported to another world.
It's truly something special and that's the effect that I'm talking about that music
can have in an audience.
So I've had the joy of singing with her, a company, her singing, playing.
We played together, you know, but I played at her wedding for free and through that gesture,
you made space for me in this class.
It's very full.
It doesn't have time for many people, but he saw me.
Like I said, please can I have a conalysm with your dad?
And I sat down with him and he said, play me anything.
And I played him a Scream in Etude.
He said, very musical, the M, but your fingers don't work.
We have to start right from the beginning.
And I literally played C major scale for six months.
In my twenties, pay thousands a month.
You know, C major scale for six months was the best thing that I've ever done because
in a year or two after I started with him, I gained good control over my sound.
And that's when the improvisations really start to sound good, like in the hall.
Like return to the backs to theater was where it kind of started, like I started getting
control and then in the hall, I had some control.
The way I play now is leaps and bounds, miles, years, decades more than that.
But I just haven't had, I haven't been bothered to record why would I, you know, I'm not,
he's going to come of that.
So I just wish to continue to cultivate my technique.
And, you know, if I can have a one day, I still see that them, as I said weekly, I'm
still learning with Rache and there's so much to learn.
Like I know nothing compared to him.
And it's such a joy to feel that like, wow, this person cares about me.
They inspire me.
They believe in me.
But also they know so much that I could almost maybe never even know what they know.
Even if I was with him my whole life, like I wouldn't be able to learn everything he
knows, but maybe I'll learn some of it, you know, and then it's my duty to maybe make
professional observation, observations as a student outside of that and to start to
learn things based on intuition, based on what I was taught.
Great master, you know, maybe then that's how I surpass the master one day when I'm
his age, when I'm 70 odd years old.
But I mean, it's lifetimes and lifetimes worth.
I mean, if you go into his website and you look at who he studied with, you will pass
out.
I'm talking students of Zoltan Kodai, students of Tovi, students of multiple students, students
of Tobias Mate, the great fundi of piano technique, who no one talks about, by the way, who has
got books that will teach you on how to play the piano.
And you won't even be able to decipher what he's talking about unless one of his students
teaches you.
It will just sound like nonsense to you unless you actually have a student of Tovi explained
to you.
What is in that?
And so he studied with these great masters and it's just such a blessing to see him on
a weekly basis and become a better artist every single week, even if I don't have time to
practice.
I'm a better pianist.
I'm a better musician every week, just from that on our class.
And like, wow, imagine all music universities like that.
And then imagine we could bridge the gap between the public and the music industry.
And imagine we were all just developing like on a weekly basis.
Can you imagine what world we live in?
I can't even imagine.
Like I think once again, a world worth living for.
So I just want to get to a point now where I can maybe play and inspire people a little
bit, maybe expand their consciousness a little bit with my performance, maybe make them think
about things a little bit.
I don't know what extent that goes to even like what is the extent of a musical performance?
What can we even achieve?
Maybe one on one, one on two, one on ten.
What can we achieve through that performance in terms of like spiritual development in
someone?
If we track like if we truly align, if they truly are able to receive us where we are,
what can we even achieve through a single performance?
I believe that you can leave a performance or struck and feeling like you're more than
you were before that performance.
And that's what every single concert should be.
I know you promote South African composers too.
I wanted to ask but.
What a beautiful thing South African music is.
It's a whole world that hasn't even really been understood fully by the outside world.
I mean like they haven't scratched the surface at all.
There's such a rich history even in Western classical art music in South African musical
composers.
And like I'm certainly not an authority there, but there are authorities that are alive.
And they have information and knowledge about music that's unusual.
That's different to what is taught globally.
Certain living composers like Hoffman, well he's a special case for sure.
His knowledge is just unsupposed in my personal view.
And I'm not biased.
I actually think that I'm quite impartial when it comes to that and that I see BS instantly.
And unfortunately the whole music industry almost is run by BS.
But you know he's so good.
But you know we have people here in South Africa who know things that aren't in history
books, aren't in textbooks.
You know we've got a world authority on Gregorian chant at the South African College of Music.
World authority.
We've got a world authority on Arnold Schoenberg who's still alive to this day.
Professor James May and I mean no one knows who that is.
I mean I could say that and like yeah I don't know.
There's a lot here to be explored and I'm certainly not an authority but I've tried
to do my part to just give back because I saw in them what the world didn't see in them.
That they have something special.
They know something special, right?
So I did my little bit to give back by making score videos, by uploading.
But South African composers we're really behind here.
You know we're still a developing country.
You know I like to call us a fifth world country because we're just that far behind
in terms of technological progress and advancements.
I mean for example data here is unbelievably expensive.
You know even to get like six gigabytes of data is like hundreds of rats.
So we're so behind in that sense that we don't even have access to the internet and technology
the way that the rest of the world does, right?
So for that reason like South African composers especially those who were born in the apartheid
era you know that have been segregated themselves now through kind of reverse apartheid.
Now well they were white Africans composers born in apartheid and therefore we should
actually ignore everything they did and wrote.
So that discrimination, Hoffmay is one of those, has cost him a career.
You know he is such a genius.
He's won the Queen Elizabeth composition award.
He is internationally renowned as a top South African composer and yet I mean he lives a
very kind of comfortable life and no one really gives him the appreciation that he
deserves.
He's never in his career been appreciated for what he truly is and I've that you know
that's definitely another reason that I'm motivated to create this platform one day
for all of these reasons.
To create a platform that actually promotes those who deserve the promotion.
Can you give us more names of the South African composers that you admire?
Sure.
Hendrik Hoffmayer one number one.
I think that he understands what came before better than anyone and therefore his music
actually develops the rich history of our Western classical art music history, right?
Like he actually develops what came before into something slightly more than that and
slightly more personal than what came before.
And his style is more kind of late you know post-romantic impressionism you might call
it like maybe slightly post-tonal post-romantic impressionism that kind of style.
It's really wonderful.
Similar to Ravel, similar to what's that wonderful Polish composer's name.
He wrote that crazy piano work.
Similatessimilowski.
So anyway, so this Hoffmayer, the late Peter Klatsow was definitely in his own way noteworthy,
I suppose he's certainly the most famous South African composer.
He didn't really understand music the same way like someone Hoffmayer did, but he had
enough intuition and understanding about it that he could kind of develop in his own
way what came before.
He's also very misunderstood.
He and Hoffmayer had a rivalry as well that's undocumented.
Hoffmayer was actually one of his students and they just didn't get on at all.
So Hoffmayer had to teach himself most of what he knows by studying the scores and the history
which is what should be done as well.
There should be both of those, the teacher that inspires and then the going through history
and actually looking and listening and seeing.
So he built his understanding on what came before.
Klatsow also had good understanding what came before.
He had fantastic relationships abroad.
He knew some of the great composers like Stockhausen for example.
He met them.
He sat in concerts.
He understood their ethos.
He had signed copies, numerous signed copies of their scores and books that were signed
by people like that.
And so he knew things that were also noteworthy although as a teacher I found that he wasn't
able to effectively translate what he knew into a student.
So that was his shortcoming and I think that his whole career people were frustrated with
him and thought that he was a bad teacher for that and maybe thought that he even didn't
know much but he certainly knew a lot.
And when I sat with him in his home and we would talk about this and that, obviously
never anything too deep in an afternoon tea conversation.
But he knew things.
He knew things about composers such as Nadia Boulanger that her sister Lily Boulanger was
a far better composer than Nadia and that her music was unknown for example.
And he was a student of Nadia Boulanger.
He sat in her classes so he told me about Nadia Boulanger.
He told me about Lily.
He told me about their ethos behind music.
So he knew these things as well but those things weren't necessarily seen by the public
so we must be careful about perceptions of people right off the bat and what they might
or might not know.
Things that might not be spoken in a university classroom even because maybe that's privy knowledge
for those who actually really want to know and who deserve it and who are respectful
of the tradition and the history.
And they had the biggest impact on me and then there are other well-known South African
composers like Arnold Funbeck, like Dubla C, Hubert Dubla C.
There's that living composer.
I can't remember his name now.
He's touring the United States but he's also an African inspired composer.
Very inspired by African traditional music but he's classical.
You can probably look him up.
There's someone living today who's actually made a good career for themselves but in a
way he kind of just, and I'm glad I haven't given a name, because he kind of just crimps
African music and just transcribes it really directly into the Western classical instrument.
There's no real flair or anything too interesting there.
And then there's just like teachers of those students and then there are other lecturers
throughout South Africa that I don't know too well that I've had a chat with here and
there on Facebook.
And it would be a shame for me to even talk about them because I would know very little
about them.
I haven't had the time to become an expert or authority on this topic but at least I've
made an effort to listen to South African Western classical art music composers from
especially the 1800s onwards, especially the 1900s onwards.
That's when Funbeck and those composers Dubla C etc. were living and they were composing
music that was African inspired.
That's when apartheid happened as well.
A lot of them are Africans so you'll hear that on Funbeck that's an African's name.
I think that Mimi Kutzer, the singer was actually South African as far as I recall.
I could be wrong though.
I think that she was one of the greatest operatic singers ever and she was South African.
Mimi Kutzer does sound, that's a South African name.
In terms of performers, I don't think we produced too much of note if I'm honest.
Because definitely because of the tradition of African music and the elements of African
music, for example in my university course we studied African music.
World music as well, what even is that, right?
We studied African music.
It's kind of like, I think it was included in the first two years as far as I recall.
I don't know if it still is and then you can actually branch off into that.
We've had that influence from native African music in our Western classical art music tradition
and so it has given us kind of like a zesty take on classical music.
I would argue that it's given us a bit of an edge actually in our understanding of
music because African music itself is so rooted in that wonderful overtone series and also
they do things that are far more rhythmically interesting in my opinion than most Western
music does.
You have to get to Stravinsky and you know, what is that 12-tone serialist's name, Shonbo?
I actually know personally the great nephew of Arnold Schoenberg.
Oh yeah?
He is a dance instructor, ballet instructor, second to none.
He's just done aliyah to Israel and I mean he is essentially my piano teacher in dance.
He is like the equivalent because he comes from that great cultural heritage, right?
So I know things about Arnold Schoenberg that I probably shouldn't say on camera.
I like to disconnect the personal from the music on.
I believe that all we need to know about the music is actually on the page or in the sound.
I encourage everyone to do that because otherwise we get this ridiculous notion that we should
even disregard that perhaps Beethoven was a great composer because he was a white male
who believed in certain like racial implications that were just around at the time and that
were probably forced on him, etc.
Like if we start to bring that into his music then it's tainted, we lose the essence of it.
So we should forget about what kind of a human being Beethoven and then were and actually
just look at the music they wrote and everything that we need to know is on the page.
And I think that the African composers, what's on their pages is pretty noteworthy.
It's pretty interesting.
Definitely African inspired.
Some of it is overly African inspired.
Some of it has no creativity.
It's just cribbed directly from African music as so much of Western civilization is.
It's just taking from native societies.
And I could see why the resentment grows in that.
But if we just remove ourselves from ethics for a moment and just see what's on the page,
I think that South African composers have South African in particular, African composers
in general, but I think South Africa is a hub for classical music like no other place
in Africa that I know of.
And they really have understood music in ways that just maintains the tradition and builds
on the tradition sometimes by drawing elements of African music into that.
And that's noteworthy for that reason.
I'd say some of the greatest composers you've ever lived are actually either living here
now or have lived here in the past.
So yeah, Van Vek, Dupluci, those are the big names, Klazzo, he's now passed away recently,
Hoffmeyer is alive.
And just be careful what other names you might see on Google, you know, because maybe they
have a name, but maybe they haven't really done anything to deserve that name.
And I'm not saying only names that I've mentioned are noteworthy, but I'd say those are really
good starting points for South African classical music.
And they're obviously worlds of music outside of classical music that are also noteworthy
and worth studying.
The fact that I even have to say that is ridiculous.
But I don't want people to be dissuaded just because I'm Caucasian and I actually am not
even technically Caucasian.
But you know, I am what appears to be Caucasian male talking about Western classical art music,
which gets a bad rap.
So that's just another layer upon layers of that we have to unravel and undo before people
can even receive what we have to say and play, right?
So I think that, you know, it is worth being careful in how we approach these topics.
And I'm not going to name and shame anyone who's actually contributed to the downfall
of South African apartheid composers.
I'm not going to do that, but they are there and they're living and they're still doing
it.
And they're trying to, a way to identify them is to identify people who are trying to say
that the music theory of the past is irrelevant and that we actually need to make new systems
now to understand music.
That is a load of nonsense because like a thousand year old rich tradition that we haven't
even begun to comprehend is certainly not worthless.
They try to attach ethics as soon as people start to attach ethics and they mix the person
behind the music with the music itself, with the page itself.
That's when you know, please just stop listening to them because they are doing you a great
disservice.
They are putting up a gate in front of you that separates you from that beautiful world
of art.
And that's just what it is.
It's just a gate.
You can walk through it.
Just ignore what they're saying.
It's just a distraction.
Don't be distracted by the propaganda of the world.
Go and listen to it for yourself.
Enjoy your own conclusions.
And if you want to know about the people behind that music and study them and that legitimately
interests you, then go for it.
And if you want to talk about whether they were good people or not and that genuinely
interests you, go for it.
But maybe don't even dissuade people from doing that exploration themselves.
Maybe just humbly give your opinion about it and like be that as it may or not be that.
But wow, people putting up gates between the population and like the divine just because
of their personal opinion.
It's borderline idolatry, honestly.
Look at me and look at my opinion.
I know it's so important.
You shouldn't listen to them.
You know, what does that have anything to do with that spirit?
That spirit is the spirit of distraction that distracts you from divine truth of this world,
of this existence.
And music is one of the best ways to start to understand that truth that no one knows
by the way, that may only begin to understand in this life, that we can comprehend as much
as we need to to gain access to new worlds and new lives after this, but that we can
never even begin to comprehend in this life.
But I think music is the closest we can get.
And many composers have said that to me.
Many great artists have said that to me, to my face.
Music is the closest that you can get.
Martin Schoenberg himself said to me, do you know which music is the closest to God out
of any music?
And he literally said the music of JS Bach.
That's the great nephew of Arnold Schoenberg, the inventor of 12-tone music, saying that
to my face.
Someone like a Schoenberg saying that to me, that JS Bach is the closest music to God
out of any music.
Wow.
That's not to be taken lightly.
And I agree with him.
We're coming to an end.
I know I wish we had more time and we can talk about this forever.
But just before we go, what's your next move?
What's your future project or vision as an artist?
So the platform is my end goal.
I will bring that about because that's my purpose here, one of them.
A platform for healing through music.
And not just through music, but music integrated with other things, other arts and cultures
and through knowledge of health, et cetera.
To do that, I have to work the land that I have now.
I own a DJ company, it does very well.
I'm expanding it, Neurisons, we just launched a DJ academy.
And that DJ academy is actually running online as well.
So you can come and join the online classes.
We're actually recording in a couple of weeks a pre-recorded DJ course.
And it will teach people how to not only mix, et cetera, those are the basics, but it will
actually teach people what we were speaking about earlier.
How to actually cultivate a meaningful gathering of people on the dance floor and have a platform
with a positive impact on their very souls and spirits through music.
And that is going to be released very soon.
Wow, it sounds like the whole interview now kind of like is a sales pitch for that, which
it's not.
So please just know that there was no knowledge of that before and it's fine.
But if you feel called to do that, I just really don't want to devalue anything we've
said here by pitching what I have next because it's tempting to do that even.
And it will be good for people.
I believe that there are people who really want to be up on that stage and they want to
be able to do that.
They want a little bit of glory for themselves for sure, but we'll reshape their perspectives
to understand that actually the glory is not for you, that you need to make sure that the
audience are the people having the best time possible.
And we'll teach them how to do that.
And because I have knowledge of music from my classical upbringing and other upbringings
of music outside of classical, and also because I have been DJing for 16 years and producing
music for almost the same amount of time, I feel like I can bring something new to the
table there and teach people how to really be excellent DJs who can make money DJing
and positively affecting people's lives.
So that's kind of like the next big move for me as we're launching this DJ Academy.
People can start registering on our website.
It's thedjcompany.co.ca and it's open.
The courses are beginning in March.
They're beginning from the 10th of March every Sunday until the end of the month and then
there'll be a monthly course.
So you get four to our lessons a month.
It's got the state of the art equipment.
We've got CDJ 3000, Pioneer A9 mixer, and we're launching this course.
And I'm going to teach people how to heal people with music on the dance floor.
What a crazy concept.
What an amazing concept.
Wow.
So that's my next big move, right?
Because that's what I can do right now.
What I can't do is sit in front of my piano and even begin to connect with an audience.
I can't do that.
Not yet.
Yes.
That's where we build the world where that's possible.
Yeah.
I'd certainly like to see that world come to light.
Thank you for having me.
I appreciated the platform to talk about these things that have been weighing very heavily
on my heart, that I speak about with my peers in private, in closed doors, that the world
is feeling and experiencing.
Oh, you're welcome.
Yeah.
I hope and pray that we can actually affect a positive change and some of the things that
we've spoken about today.
If not all of them by the time that we leave this earth.
I think that's a great conquest worth living for.
Wow.
What a way to end our episode.
Thank you.
I thoroughly enjoyed it and then I hope we can keep in touch and then I look forward to
our maybe future conversation.
Yeah.
I look forward to that.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
But before I let you go, we have to do this little silly segment.
I'm sorry.
After all these profound conversations, this is really silly, but this is a little fun
segment of rapid fire questions.
I'll ask you some silly questions and I just want you to answer them as short as possible.
But you'll be surprised that all these questions may trigger you to, I don't know.
Trigger me.
Please don't trigger me.
Okay.
I'm already in my question.
It's very, very silly.
Okay.
Question number one.
What's your comfort food?
Pizza.
Oh.
Kettle dogs.
Dogs.
Sunrise or sunset?
Sunrise.
What skill have you always wanted to learn but haven't had a chance to yet?
Playing the violin.
Okay.
What is your word or words to live by?
If you seek the truth of this world, you will find it.
What is the most important quality you look for in other people?
I just want someone who's authentic.
Name three people who inspire you living or dead.
Andrew Gaffmeier, Rachele D'Toy, Judith Rhodes-Harrison, all three from this.
Name one piece in your current playlist.
I would say zero point Rob Clout is the greatest in my opinion piece of electronic ever written
to the state.
Zero point, the full album.
You can actually hear it on my account just because I did that for him.
He didn't ask me to do it.
I just posted it because I wanted people to hear it because I believe it's noteworthy
and I get nothing from it.
By the way, I don't have a large YouTube following but really zero point Rob Clout,
that album, the full album.
Sit and listen to that with your eyes closed with a good pair of earphones and just experience
like everything that music could be.
Just experience everything that music could be if everyone was in alignment.
Go and experience it for what it is.
That will get you as close as you can get in my experience, in my personal humble view.
Okay, we'll do that.
I'll post it on the show notes as well.
Last question.
Fill in the blank.
Music is blank.
Music is live.
Beautiful.
There we go.
This concludes this episode of the PianoPod Thank You, Liam, for joining my show today
and sharing your stories and insights and expertise.
So the PianoPod listeners and viewers, please visit Liam's website at leampitcher.com to
learn more about his career, connect with him via Instagram at LiamPitcher.
You can also check out his work on his YouTube channel at LiamPitcher as well.
You can listen to his albums and including 10 CD albums of improvisations on the piano
he released simultaneously.
All the links are in the description.
Thank you to my wonderful audience and fans for tuning in today.
If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review it on whatever podcast platform
you use.
Remember to hit the thumbs up button and subscribe to my YouTube channel.
If you are watching this episode on YouTube, follow TPP on social media to get the latest
piano news.
I will see you for the next episode of the PianoPod.
Thank you, Liam.
Bye everyone.