Music is the universal language. Well, if it's
the universal language, we have a syntax problem
because most of the people just don't understand
what we do. I would say our mission as a duo
is to bridge worlds and to make the world we
connect to more beautiful. we come from very
different cultures and the fact that we come
together as a four -hand piano duo sharing one
piano and we have to make things work and making
music to share with people I think sends out
the message that music truly connects people
regardless of their background or cultures or
I think the piano in particular is one of those
unique instruments that has truly been able to
bridge so many cultural barriers. This remarkable
machine, 300 years of development, pieces of
physics and art and engineering has come to be
so beloved by so many different cultures and
peoples around the world. And that it's truly
a piece of art that helps us to find a common
voice. Happy holidays, friends. Here's a little
gift from me and the PianoPod. This bonus segment
comes from Season 6, Episode 2, with the award
-winning Mada and Hugh piano duo. Our conversation
went longer than expected, and while this part
didn't make it into the final episode, I knew
I still wanted to share it with you. It's just
too good to keep it to myself. In this excerpt,
Mada and Hugh open up about creativity in its
purest form, how hobbies and play, can recharge
us and how music connects us beyond perfection,
and how we can reclaim our humanity in a world
increasingly shaped by technology and AI. It's
an honest, thoughtful exchange that I think is
the perfect reminder for this season of reflection.
So, pour yourself a warm drink, take a pause,
and enjoy this special bonus episode. And in
case you missed the whole episode that aired
in September, be sure to catch up. You really
don't want to miss the juicy behind the scenes
of how this incredible piano duo comes to life.
Here's the bonus episode with Mara and Hugh Piano
Duo. Please enjoy the show. recall exactly the
moment that it began. I had always been curious
about painting and about the visuals. My mom
is a painter and architect, so I think I got
that from her, but I never professionally pursued
that. I chose music, right? But sometimes as
a hobby, I do like to doodle and sketch. play
with colors and textures. And I have found to
do this in a creative way, in a form of journaling
and scrapbooking. And, you know, there are so
many people that enjoy doing that. It's a lot
of people that are part of this community of
art journaling that, you know, share their experiences
online. And it's also a very recommended form
of therapy. And this is my safe space where I
go once in a while, sometimes maybe too much.
And I stay there for too long. But it is a form
of healing and it is a form of charging batteries.
And it's also a very helpful way not just to
be creative without any purpose. you know because
as professionals yes we we want to be creative
we feel the need right it's it's an intricate
need first of all um but we kind of have to get
to be creative because also this is our job this
is what we have chosen to do right we we have
to we we've transformed it into a job yeah but
by pursuing hobbies it doesn't matter for how
long It's just I feel liberated from that pressure
of being good at and getting validation from
people. Because I think that this is what stops
a lot of folks pursuing their creative. especially
classical music, right? Oh, don't get me started.
Yeah, especially that. If I may jump in, you
know, again, just kind of putting on my retail
hat, you know, one of the things, you know, because
I'm working at Cunningham Piano, you know, I
see so many people coming in, you know, and we're
there to help them bring home a piano. And I
can't tell you how many times I see people come
in and like, they feel ashamed to come to the
piano. Like, Oh, you know, I haven't played in
years or I'm not very good at this. I'm like,
and it's, it's, it's, it's sad to see people
judging themselves on an instrument where our
greatest joy is you want to learn, you have to
start. So it's wonderful, you know, and make
mistakes, try it. But I want people to experience
the joy of playing music, not to punish themselves
because. They can't play such and such a lick
quite right, or they haven't taken lessons in
years, or they quit when they were kids. The
judgment that many people come to art with is
unnecessary to some degree, right? Yeah. And
I'm talking about the general public, and I think
we need more playground art where people are
invited to be messy artists, play the piano,
hit wrong notes. enjoy the process and find a
different way to iterate from that rather than
expecting to be perfectly, have everything before
you. Of course, it depends on what level do you
want to be at, right? So again, this is a very
delicate territory. But yes, what Hugh is emphasizing
is we need, especially in this era of technology,
we need to allow ourselves to be creative outside
of technology and outside of ai and which is
great i mean you you operate with ai quite a
lot uh but um we were reading just the other
day we're reading some um a little bit concerning
news about how i started creating realistic movies
and songs. And it's so hard to tell the difference,
you know? And the question is, which I think
every single person should ask themselves, like,
well, then what's going to happen with our unique
creativity, right? Our unique voice. This is
the authentic form of creativity, not AI. So
what's going to happen? Like, how are we going
to be able to tell the difference in the future?
You know, and is it going to be even worth it?
worth expressing, worth looking for. Yeah. Well,
I think there's a tremendous, maybe it sounds
really weird. I see this huge opportunity, actually,
because I also see as AI, and I think AI is phenomenal
as a tool, as a creative partner. So many in
an efficiency booster. There are things that
I can do now with AI I couldn't even dream of
doing, which is I think is wonderful. Having
said that, when it comes really to the creativity,
the performing arts and things like that, one
of the things I believe it or not, I don't think
I ever showed you, but I was actually experimenting
with taking some of our videos and then trying
to work them through AI. And getting a different
background, seeing if AI could put us to make
us look a little bit more stylized. It failed
miserably, miserably. For now. Well, here's the
thing. I don't know. Yeah, here's the thing.
Now I'm going to say something that might sound
counterintuitive. AI is trained on the most popular
media models. There's a reason why Disney is
suing. a lot of the AI video generators because
most people want to make their characters look
like Iron Man or Superman or Bugs Bunny, you
know, the known trademark characters, you know,
or the scenes, they're all the specific kind
of sci -fi action. The creativity is, you know,
everybody's copying the creativity of giants
that have pioneered some of those things. To
be truly original, to be truly human, you know,
and playing the... Being someone who plays the
piano for a living, it's just not that economically
viable. It has never been economically viable.
And it's just not a field that AI is going to
have a lot of interest in sort of analyzing to
the degree that it's really genuinely good. The
AI videos that I generate were so laughably bad
because they don't have any models to generate
from because it's just not that much out there.
So we have this quiet little space in the piano
world where, because we're not this global, you
know, media empire in what we do, we are this
beautiful little corner of genuine human art,
you know, with still, and it still amazes me
that we have industries that create. beautiful
instruments that we get to play on that they
still make and manufacture to really high degrees
of skill and craftsmanship. We have this unique
little oasis, this crazy little eye in the storm
of technology where if people want the opportunity
to experience what it means to be genuinely human,
come play the piano, an acoustic piano. I know
this sounds strange because... But this is what
I said. I don't see AI generating piano players.
It just doesn't happen. No, really. It doesn't
really happen. AI can generate talking avatars.
AI can generate sci -fi gunfights. AI doesn't
generate pianists playing beautiful repertoire
or unique compositions, contemporary compositions.
AI is not going to start to generate George Crumb.
It's just not. No. A lot of people have been
influenced and inspired by George Crumb, obviously.
But there's a sameness to the AI content that
I see being generated. There's a similarness,
right? The creativity is starting to shrink in
terms of certain kinds of output. And this humble
discipline of being disconnected and touching
wood and metal and molding sound physically with
your own hands and ears. There's a meditative
quality in what we do and what we share. And
when the audience has the patience to sit through
a 3, 5, 10, 20 -minute song from beginning to
end and learn what that sonic adventure actually
is, guess what? You have just reclaimed a huge
bit of the human experience, the genuine human
experience where our senses and our touch. And
our creativity is directly connecting us, the
listener, ourselves, through real physical airwaves.
There's a beautiful technological oasis that
I think we create as classical pianists. Yeah,
surprisingly, I think it's happening too, because
I'm getting a lot of inquiries about piano lessons.
They're all adults. beginner students and then
they're most of them they live in around here
brooklyn williamsburg so young uh gen z you know
but they work in tech company so that's why they're
looking for disconnect of course yes but you
see so it says it's nothing quite like you know
with your own hands and create something whether
that is just the pressing the key down to create
the sound but it's nothing quite like it seems
like so they they come but they don't realize
how difficult piano can be so it's like well
yeah here's that's another aspect that's another
aspect and and we've we've been noticing in kids
i mean we we have both both taught at some point
um you know there's Especially with kids, it's
so hard to tell them, to prepare them for something
that takes a lot of work for pretty much a lifetime.
Because it's not the same as you go to law school,
you go to medical school, you have this amount
of years, four, five, six years, and then you
can start a job. No, for us, yes, you get your
diploma with master's, which is two, or bachelor's,
that's four. But it doesn't mean that your learning
process is over after you... graduate. And then
it means that next day, that's it. That's done
with school. No, I don't think so. I don't think,
I mean, at least if we talk in the context of
being an artist and continue to produce in terms
of quality, not quantity. So again, big difference
here. Let's see, there's something beautiful
about being involved with an art that is, on
the one hand, extremely easy to start. anybody
can put their fingers down it sounds great yeah
and then having an entire lifetime to always
realize there's something more that i can improve
there's something more that i can grow or or
learn or another artist or another composition
or another literally there's no end to the world
that you can explore there's something i think
that is very that can be exciting in other words
you're never going to plateau you know at some
point you know i yeah that's just my my my thinking
yeah in terms of you know if if music can be
presented in such a way where it's not so much
it's presented a way where it's an opportunity
to say here's a world easy to start but you will
never run out of things to learn grow explore,
enjoy? Well, it has to do also with the will
of the individual, right? Of course there is.
I mean, the potential is there. Everything, the
world is in front of you. Do you want to take
this trip? Do you want, are you willing to make
this effort? It's up to you. No one is going
to push you, right? Of course. You can present
to a kid, you can present to an adult. You can
say, well, this is... This is going to offer
you a lifetime of exploring and learning and
reward, but it also requires a lot of effort
and frustration quite often from you. Are you
willing to pay the price or not? I think the
choice is the individuals. Yeah, but you have
both chose that path, right? I only have $500
in the pocket, but I'm going to do it. That sort
of thing. You know what I mean? And reinventing
yourself and reclaiming your space. And I think
it's really beautiful. There was a period of
time when I was very heavily involved with Airturn.
My whole mind and concentration was on building
the small tech company. For three years. It's
a 24 -hour -a -day, nonstop job, really. When
you are an entrepreneur at that level, you cannot
think of anything else. And everything I was
doing was just poured into trying to make Airturn
survive and successful. So for three years, I
didn't play the piano. I just didn't have time.
Completely devoted myself to Airturn. My time
at Airturn, I decided to leave, sell my shares.
And the company's still going on, but I left,
got a payout, and it helped give me some time
to think about what to do next. Curiously, as
soon as I quit, Curtis had given me a call and
asked, could you help us out just to do some
accompanying? And just help us out a few hours
a week or whatever, because we have an overflow
of some students that we can't find a pianist
for. I hadn't played for three years. I'm like,
am I going to remember how to do this? I remember
coming and sitting in at the first lesson, you
know, and I think it was Mozart, you know, or
I don't remember how I was playing. I'm like,
okay, I'll put my hands in the keys. It was like
no time had passed. The music was just, everything
just came. I almost had tears in my eyes. I'm
like. Why did I stop? I remember once thinking
that I was so sick and tired of music because
I was just nonstop playing everyday concerts
four or five times a week and just rehearsals
all day long. But now coming back to it, I realized
I can't let this go. This was foolish of me to
have almost lost the music that's me. I remember
coming back from that couple of lessons and I
had tears in my eyes. I'm like, I never want
to lose that love again. And ever since that
moment, it's just like any opportunity. I don't
care. Even if it's just a simple opportunity
to play with some kid, I don't care. It's music.
I get to play it. I get to do something beautiful.
And this wonderful opportunity I have to do something
unique and creative. It's just like, I remember.
I was at a certain company and was meeting with
one of the co -founders. And this gentleman was
very impressive. If I mentioned his name to some
people, they would be like, oh, you got to work
with him? He was of that level. And I, you know,
being... new to entrepreneurship and business.
And it was like peppering him with questions
about how do you do this? How did you get started?
How do you make money? Blah, blah, blah. And
all this. And remember him looking at me like,
you know, you can learn business. Anybody can
learn business. But not anybody can play the
way you play. I would give it all up if I could
do what you do. I hope you realize what you really
have. It's not the money. It's not the business.
You have music. You can play. And to see from
this giant of a man actually yearning to do what
I do, at the time, I dismissed it. Many years
after that, I realized I think he was right.
What we do as musicians, that's precious. Very,
very precious. And something that I want to share
with other people and even other students to
help them at least understand the joy of making
music. It's not about being successful, but it's
about having the joy of knowing that I can sit
down and music is in me. And music is, even if
I just sit and listen, music is something I can
deeply, deeply enjoy. And not just that, but
also it's scientifically proved that music shapes
the character and personality of people. Is that
why I'm so crazy? Is that why I'm so crazy? In
terms of empathy, social connection, it helps
a lot, especially people that play together.
We explained this to the kids that were part
of four -hand duets. There were kids and teenagers
up to 16, 17 years old. I mean, they were going
through clearly the most delicate period of their
lifetime. And it was a time when they should
learn right now, they should figure out or start
figuring out their role in society, their role,
you know, what's going on with them in this world,
right? So I think music can have a very impactful
role in people's life. Yeah, it really shaped
that. I remember that when I started performing
chamber music seriously, and that was probably
after 17, 18, because before it was just in high
school, just before, you know, people would ask
me like, do you want to play? Like, yeah, I need
accompanist. Okay, fine. But then professionally
in terms of, you know, heavier works and in a
more professional way, I realized, boy, This
person is difficult to work with, or I'm difficult
to work with. It was this awareness on relationships
between people. And that's also transferable
outside the practice room or outside the concert
hall, in interpersonal relationships. And I think
music has a quietly but strongly major role.
if incorporated in people's lives. I hope you
enjoyed this extra holiday episode with the incredible
Mata and Hugh Piano Duo. Their honesty and creativity
are such an inspiration, a reminder of how art
can ground us, recharge us, and connect us in
meaningful ways. If you enjoyed this bonus episode,
please don't forget to hit the thumbs up. Subscribe
to the PianoPod on YouTube and share it with
a friend who loves music. And if you missed the
full episode with Mada and Hugh that aired back
in September, be sure to watch or listen. It's
packed with stories, behind -the -scenes insights,
and unforgettable performances. Thank you so
much for joining me for this holiday bonus. Wishing
you a joyful season of music, reflection, and
connection. And I'll see you in 2026.