Thank you. Welcome to another episode of The
Pianopod, everyone. This season, we are exploring
creativity and connection, highlighting artists
who are reshaping what it means to create, perform,
and imagine the future of classical music. We
are so fortunate to have Asiya Kurepanova, an
exceptional pianist, composer, visual artist,
and poet whose work defies boundaries and expands
what classical music can be. Born in Russia into
a deeply musical family, Asiya began performing
and composing at a young age and has since built
a career defined by fearless long -form projects,
interdisciplinary creation, and bold curatorial
vision. As a pianist, she is known for undertaking
monumental cycles, including the complete solo
piano works of Rachmaninoff during the composer's
150th anniversary year, lists all 24 etudes,
and box well -tempered clavier. Her artistry
extends beyond performance into transcription,
composition, poetry, and visual art, often woven
together in immersive multimedia projects. In
addition to her work on stage and online, Asiya
is deeply committed to education and access.
Through her non -profit organization, Music for
Minds, In her leadership of Festival Flatiron,
she brings classical music into schools and communities
while championing meaningful, inclusive programming.
Before we dive in, thank you to our listeners,
viewers for tuning in today and supporting The
Pianopod. Your engagement, whether through listening,
watching, sharing episodes, or leaving a review.
helps sustain this growing community of artists
and thinkers who are reimagining what classical
music can be today. Here is the PianoPod with
pianist, composer, visual artist, and poet, Asiya
Kurepanova. Please enjoy the show. You are listening
to The Piano Pod, where we talk to the brightest
minds in the industry about how they are bringing
the piano into the future and thriving in a complex,
ever -evolving world. Asya, thank you so much
for being here today. Where are you actually
joining from? Thank you so much, Hikimi. I'm
in my home in Boston area. Oh, okay. It must
be really cold. New York is freezing. It became
cold in the recent couple of days. We just got
our first snow. It looks like Christmas already.
It's very beautiful. So I want to say at first
that you're truly an exceptional pianist and
artist. And the depth, scale, oh my gosh, and
then the fearlessness of your work are really
rare. And it is a real privilege to have you
at the PianoPod. And our former guest, Eleanor
Byneman. oh yeah she's an incredible person and
she was our guest last season and spoke so highly
about you and encouraged me to reach out and
so thank you for accepting my invitation thank
you so much yeah and i saw uh watched your conversation
with her i think it was on a youtube channel
or something and it made me even more excited
for today so I have been spending some time with
your solo performances on YouTube and transcriptions,
oh my gosh, on YouTube. The breadth of repertoire
and level of production are remarkable. And of
course, your work extends far beyond the piano
into poetry, visual art, and composition. So
all that leads beautifully into my first question,
which is, what would you say is the core mission
or driving passion behind all the work you do
right now? I would say that I never thought of
a mission as a label or like what is the message
of what I'm trying to do. I would say I would
follow my vision. I always had ideas early on
about musical ideas, about visual ideas, about
language, about image in a broad sense of it.
It also helped that I was one of the earliest
projects in the realm of homeschooling. My mom
homeschooled me until I was about 10. So my first
grade class that I went was the fourth grade.
And there were some underlying family circumstances.
We were traveling quite a bit between different
cities in Russia. And so I was just learning
as I was going. And I was also a very hyperactive
child. So my poor mom was always with a suitcase
of, you know, paper and pencils and books and
things and everything in between. And so as I
was getting distracted and would become a little
bit too active, she would know how to distract
me with a new activity. So I started drawing
very, very early. I was given access to a typewriter
when I was about three and a half to four years
old. And there are some evidence of how my gibberish
gradually started to form in some thoughtful
expression. I remember that period of my life
with a lot of sweetness because it was a little
bit nomadic, but very artistic at the same time.
And I think I carried that sense into my adulthood
because, you know, today as a performing artist,
we are on the road all the time. And of course,
I have some colleagues and friends and family
who, you know, share their experiences or wondering,
like, how can you be on the road? It's so daunting.
I'm thriving on the road. I love to be on the
road. And it's so strange. I can sleep in any
position, in any moving object. I'm just, I think
I was prepared for that from early on. But also,
I also learned to go for whatever comes to mind
right away. I have an idea of transcription in
the morning. Sometimes I already would have a
few pages of that down in the evening because
I just like, I have to do this right now. Or
I have something like a poem, just I have a poem
idea and then I start working later. I have a
composition idea. And so this urge and immediacy
to fulfill that urge i think is still very childlike
in me but it works for me quite well oh yeah
well oh yes meaning i'm not saying you're childish
or anything but you know all the work you do
it just coming from you just now it really makes
sense and but i didn't realize your family was
traveling a lot well um my parents right before
i was born were postgraduate students at in moscow
they were studying in moscow conservatory and
then gnessing academy that's another big school
in moscow and but my mother was born in the city
of kazan which is south of moscow quite far and
my father was born in the city of izhevsk which
is another maybe 100 miles more south and east
uh from there and they met as students in kazan
conservatory kazan conservatory is also a big
school a wonderful a musical institution and
uh when i was born my parents at first continued
their studies and then there were some illnesses
in the family over traveling to kazan traveling
to adjust traveling to moscow traveling it was
just like this eighth that was between this three
points of this series so by the time i was about
three or four years old my parents were joking
that i spent about half of my then lifetime on
the train so uh it was just different circumstances
but also uh my mother after she graduated she
there was a period of time when she was teaching
at the gnessing academy and i was sitting at
her lessons and drawing and observing her teaching
students or performing or practicing and the
family legend says that i was about three years
old when i started pushing her uh from the piano
she was practicing and saying that is my time
to practice so Even though neither of my parents
were actively encouraging me to become a musician,
because especially around the break of Soviet
Union, it was very difficult times. And becoming
a professional musician probably was not the
wisest thing ever. Everybody says that. That's
universal. Yeah. Wow. So your mom is a pianist
and your father is... My father is a composer.
Oh, wow. Yeah. Wonderful. Now I'm going to go
back to your childhood and training a little
bit later on, but that's a really wonderful way
to start. And now I understand. So then I want
to talk about this. We're going to jump to this
extreme long form projects. Wow. Your career
is filled with. what many would consider impossible
undertakings the complete Rachmaninoff solo piano
pieces list 24 edges all of them in a Bach complete
well -tempered clavier so you've performed the
complete Rachmaninoff solo works during the composer's
150th anniversary year that was like two years
ago it was in 2023 right right so let's start
here can you tell us more about taking on his
complete solo piano works during the anniversary
year? It may sound a little maybe strange but
I decided to do that last minute. With Rachmaninoff's
project it was maybe an act of resistance on
my side because it was, I remember it vividly,
it was July of 2022. And I was watching concert
organizations in the United States and Russia
worldwide announcing their upcoming seasons.
And since Beethoven's 250th anniversary was just
a few years back, and we... were seeing Beethoven
on every corner despite the COVID and pandemic
people were doing so many projects so many pianists
played completely to Beethoven sonatas symphonies
were doing complete symphonies and you know there
were so so much work chamber music and everything
so I was kind of expecting some similar scale
to happen for Rachmaninov And then they realize
there's not. I was saying, well, Yuja Wang announced
that she's going to perform five Rachmaninoff
concertos in the same night. A few people, such
as, I think, Nikolai Lugansky and I think Mikhail
Plitnev as well, did that in Europe. And there
were different colleagues that did recitals dedicated
to Rachmaninoff music. But there was not a single
person who thought to put out a set or even series
of complete works. There was later on, last year
actually, 2024, there was a festival in Colombia
that did dedicate their entire festival to musical
Rachmaninoff, and they invited, I think, 10 or
12 pianists to... played those works over the
course of several days, but that was also much
later than the anniversary itself. And I understand
that the tragic circumstances in Eastern Europe
might have, you know, influenced the decisions
of, you know, playing Rachmaninoff's music more
broadly or, you know, we never know what's in
people's heads, but I felt offended. I felt that
this is such an injustice because Rachmaninoff
is one of the most beloved composers on earth.
If you want to sell out the house, you put Rachmaninoff's
second concerto in or his second symphony or
his symphonic dances. You know that it is something
that is immensely attractive to people and it
just really, really touches. people's hearts
across generations, across cultures, across everything.
And I know that I can learn fast and I know that
I can concentrate on things quite deeply. And
so I thought, well, I guess I need to do something
about it. In July of 2022 in my repertoire I
had Rachmaninoff first and second sonata, one
etude tableau, five morceaux opus 3 and a transcription
of daisies. That's it. That meant everything
else I had to learn from scratch. For the following
year That's what I did and that's what I did
I divided I constructed six programs out of this
body of works and I was playing one program every
two months January March May July September I
ended up getting violently sick in May and had
to postpone the series by one month a little
bit because there was one place in Miami, the
Revered Friends of Chamber Music of Miami. They
decided to carry all six programs in the same
place. That was my home series for these concerts.
while each individual concert I also played in
other places but all six I played there and so
they were incredibly sweet and they were incredibly
encouraging and excited because They felt that
this is a very special occasion and very special
moment. And they definitely never had same pianist
play six recitals in the same calendar year.
But that was an immense honor and trust that
they had. And I'm eternally grateful for them
for doing that for me. And it also meant that
I knew that I have an audience that is eager
to hear the next installment and the next installment.
uh i would definitely say uh you know like when
we see sometimes advertisements on television
and there's a disclaimer don't do this at home
i would say don't embark on something like this
on six months notice because the problem was
not just i had to learn all this music i also
was premiering on my transcription of Manfred's
Symphony in February. I was playing the same
month I was debuting my 24 -list etudes program
in Merkin Hall in New York City. I was traveling,
I played four piano concertos in different places
at the same time. I also learned another list,
almost a recital worth of program at the request
of American List Society, such as Gross's concert
solo that is a very rarely performed work, so
-called B minor Sonata 101, it's something that
he wrote right before writing. So I had a lot
of repertoire in my head and it definitely was
mentally the most unbelievably exhausting year,
but it also tested my resilience and my... faith
in completing what I decided to do and it brought
eight hours of music into my repertoire well
I had some of that the two sonatas and little
pieces but like at least six and a little bit
of of that I learned then and I continue playing
this music and it brings me so much joy When
I was a student back in Russia, in my grade school,
in my middle school and high school, I was double
major, doubling as a composer as well. And I
was studying with an incredible person who also
was a professor of my father, Albert Lemon, who
was a student of Shostakovich. oh my goodness
and i started studying with him when i was nine
even before i actually went to school and he
was very encouraging he was a fantastic pianist
himself but in in russia in central music school
where i went uh people start tackling very difficult
repertoire very early it's very competitive and
uh everyone is trying to start playing rock madness
as early as possible and he discouraged me from
doing that. He's like, you have to understand,
Rachmaninoff is a little bit like Brahms. We
tend to play Brahms better as we mature, and
the longer you wait before you play Rachmaninoff,
the better for you. I don't know what that would
mean so deeply in his words, because I sort of
violated the Brahms part heavily. I was playing
his concertos already in my teen years and some
other works, but I held off from Rachmaninoff
for a really long time. My very first Rachmaninoff
piece that I've ever played was Rachmaninoff
Cello Sonata. And I was already 19 years old
when I learned it. fell in love with the piece
and eventually wrote a solo piano transcription
of it that now I'm playing as a solo sonata but
then shortly after that I added second concerto
and then Paganini Rhapsody and then first concerto
and then later on third concerto and I even was
going to perform the fourth concerto learned
it but There was a circumstance that the concert
got canceled. So the fourth concerto is the one
that is still waiting to be performed. But I
was playing the concertos, but not the solo repertoire.
And then I came to United States and became a
pupil of Santiago Rodriguez. a fantastic Cuban
-American pianist who is a god in Rachmaninov.
His recordings of Rachmaninov are just unbelievable.
And I started listening to some of his CDs and
got completely obsessed with the first sonata.
And learned it and started playing it. And later
on... decided to learn the second one when I
discovered the original version of it because
in Russia almost exclusively people play the
second version which I never really loved it
felt kind of like I know tomatoes who's going
are going to fly into my head as I say it felt
a little bit potpourri ish hmm it's like it felt
like almost like pop music comparing to some
of Rachmaninoff works and then when I discovered
the original version I realized why because all
the gloomy and uh philosophical moments he decided
to take out and make more condensed which he
cut out six minutes of music he made a much more
condensed more flashy version and so I was like
oh and learned the original version and now I'm
playing happily the original version. But it
was a long process into Rachmaninoff. I loved
his orchestral music my entire life. I listened
to his symphonies obsessively for so many years.
But I really got to... play and learn the preludes
and etudes tableaux and Maman musical and all
these other things and discovered all of the
baby pieces he wrote when he was 14, 15, 16 that
I almost never played thanks to this project
so rounding up for that it's been a great pleasure
and fulfillment in my life to do that and it
might seem extreme but extremity of it was never
the point and it's not because I wanted to you
know let's do something unusual I just wanted
to do this because it is due diligence of a pianist
to say thank you for Rachmaninov for his crazy
life and incredible music that he brought to
our lives And following a little bit more your
question about the extreme projects in general,
if we look to times before recordings became
a norm, if we look at times of Busoni, Joseph
Hoffman, and people like that, Having a big repertoire
was not something unusual. I would say that also
in Russia, teachers who are more rigorous, they
tend to assign complete cycles to students early
on. It's not unusual to say, you're going to
learn all of the inventions and then you're going
to learn on the symphonies. When I was assigned
proletarian fugues in school, I was not assigned
one, I was assigned four or five at a time. And
Mikhail Plitnov was graduating Moscow Conservatory,
offering any of the proletarian fugues of well
-tempered clavier at the discretion of the jury
panel. People just don't talk about these things.
Joseph Hoffman, in the beginning of 20th century,
famously played this season in St. Petersburg
of 13 recitals. About every three weeks, he was
playing a recital where not a single piece was
repeated. And he practically played all of the
standard repertoire, Chopin sonatas, half of
the Beethoven sonatas, Mozart, you know, romantic
pieces, transcriptions, like... Everything under
the sun. It was partially why, when we listen
to these old masters, I think that they sound
as if the wisdom is coming through their fingers.
Because they're going through so much material,
absorbing so much of the language of the composer.
Because, let's say, I didn't play a lot of Rachmaninoff.
in my life for me the most difficult part was
to quickly figure out the very fine particulars
about his language because he's not he can be
somewhat similar to scrabbing they were living
together at some point and composing side by
side and scrapping is as dense sometimes uh in
terms of his texture but it's not the same he's
not metner either he's not you know it's it's
a very very particular idiom and the more of
the same composer you play through the more ideas
you have oh this is exactly that motive that
he used in that work in that work in symphony
concerto quartet whatever i mean in terms of
uh rock minor quartet would be a little bit of
approximation but you know you know what i mean
so i think when recordings became a thing. The
people's repertoires in general narrowed on average.
On average, I'm saying, because of course we
have Marc -André Hamlet, we have Stephen Hubb,
we have all these people who do massive projects
as well, but we look at Marta Argerich. He's
one of the most phenomenal pianists on earth.
But if you count how many concertos has she played
in her life and how many solo works she played,
it's not going to be a lot. Right. Absolutely.
What she plays, she plays better than anyone
in the world. But she found her repertoire that
speaks to her and she can play that. let's say,
in her sleep. And it is something that is always
with her. And I think that works for her, but
it also for somebody like me, who is a greedy
individual and a curious individual. I think
I'm thriving when I'm exploring. And so because
of that, I don't find that it's a good idea to
sit on the same thing exclusively. without adding
something else. And that doesn't mean that I
do not play same things many, many, many times
and I enjoy when I have an opportunity to play
same program ten times. That's a joy because
you grow immensely through that process. But
an ability to add unusual works and rarely played
works to your repertoire just makes you a better
musician, a better pianist, challenges you and
makes you... wonder how composers were able to
find new and new and new and new ideas out of
the same stem of the same language. also do a
composition and maybe we can talk about that
let's start with transcriptions because I've
been listening to your transcriptions you know
all week long and then this morning I listened
to it twice actually you know it was on loop
I really enjoy listening and the way you preserve
the essence of the original music reimagining
is just remarkable and you also once described
the process of transcription as something like
taming a wild animal very much so and discovering
whether the music will allow itself to be fully
realized at the keyboard can you talk about what
draws you to transcription as a creative act
it is a complete selfish act it's like i want
this candy you go through you go through a Shiny
mall and you see a store of, I don't know, venti,
Italian chocolate. Like, I want to look at it
to myself. So it always comes from an obsession
with something that you like so much, you just
want to play it yourself. One of the first ideas
for transcription. was Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata,
but I did not even attempt that because I felt
too much respect for Rachmaninoff. And it was
actually my professor, Santiago Rodriguez, with
whom I spoke about this. I said, I have this
idea, and he's like, what are you waiting for?
Go for it, go for it! I'm like, really? And he's
like, yeah! So I went home that night. I started
sketching things. But the very first transcription
that I wrote was of Gabriel Fauré's Elegy. Oh,
the transcription is amazing. It's so emotional.
Thank you. I played that for a while with cellists.
And I'm like, I just want to play it myself,
okay? I have to be honest. My cellist friends.
approve largely and they said oh this actually
works we didn't think it would but different
people told me that they enjoyed hearing that
and that meant so much because even having let's
say debates about clarinetists saying Brahms
sonatas do not sound very well on violas. And
violists go like, we're much better in Brahms
sonatas than clarinetists. So there is always
this, you know, jealousy about repertoire. But
transcriptions have different kinds. There are
literal transcriptions. There are transcriptions
that... One example of a literal transcription
would be, let's say, Liszt's Beethoven symphonies.
You do invent some textures, but just only to
convey what's there in the music. There are works
like Tannhäuser, Overture by Liszt also, that
is fairly, fairly close to the original. He tweaked
certain things, but it's a very... faithful.
Then there are ornamental transcriptions, let's
say Rigoletto fantasy, that follows the quartet
in time, how it progresses, but adds lots of
flourishing and things like that. And there's
also complete paraphrasing when things blend
with each other, concert fantasies are like that.
and things like that. I find myself most comfortable
in real, between literal transcription and a
bit of embellishment. Rachmaninoff cello sonata,
I have not added a single note that is not Rachmaninoff's,
other than changing the registers and to accommodate
certain things in figurations. Let's say, na
-na -na -na. I would go na -na -na -na sometimes
with the same harmony, right? So it all, with
exact respect to what Rachmaninov was doing,
cello line is sometimes put one or two octaves
higher or sometimes is doubled in octaves, but
it is all very, very clear. Tchaikovsky's Manfred
Symphony and Strauss, Einheld and Lehmann. already
have so much notes in them that your job is to
find what you can sacrifice not what can you
add but what you can sacrifice while still portraying
the thickness of the of the orchestral material
and sometimes you have to invent techniques and
things to portray certain things. There is a
phenomenal climax in Ein Heldenleben's Hero's
Love section, which is number three. And there
is like... And there's two harps are playing
glissandos down. And they're doing them in octaves
together, so they're very prominent. There are
so many things going on at the same time, but
these cascades of glissandos are very, very,
very loud. They're like, what do you do? They
are glissandos on harmonically black keys. Good
luck doing glissando on fortissimo on black keys.
You're going to lose some of your knuckles and
some of your skin and maybe some of your bones.
So I was just experimenting and just... It took
me maybe a good week. It's one of those moments
that give me a reason to talk about taming a
wild animal. The animal goes like... No, I'm
not gonna give you myself! So I invented a fist
glissando where you go and do the glissando by
this part. of your clenched fist. So it's the
pinky side. It's not even pinky. It's this meat.
Oh, meat. Okay. Meat of your... Because when
you clench it, if you just do this, it's flat.
But if you do this, the muscle rounds up and
becomes thick and rounded. And you can glide
through that and you don't break a skin at all.
And you can be very, very loud at the same time.
It really works. Wow. So once I figured it out,
I was like, yes. And the third type of the second
type of the embellished transcription I have
done a bit. My Frank's La Mariage des Roses is
one of them. The original song is very transparent,
mostly with block chords, and it's not much going
on. And I kind of... reimagined a thicker texture
in the style of Frank and made it in a more prominent
piece than it was originally. But I have yet
to go into a mode of complete paraphrasing. I
have not done quite that so far, but maybe in
the future. And I also love the Bach Christmas
Oratorio, you know, transcription arrangement.
And then also you've done West Side Story, Maria
from, that's beautiful too. Thank you. Another
opening choir of Christmas Oratorio is coming
out this Christmas. And the score and the video
of it will be available on Christmas Day. Great.
Most of your arrangements and transcriptions
are available as a score, right? About half.
I'm working on that. It takes a long time. But
where can we go and purchase your transcript?
On my website, there is a tab shop that leads
to my Etsy store where I sell all of my scores
and also some other merchandise such as... prints
of some artwork and i also have a hobby piano
stickers that i'm making uh work very well for
encouraging uh younger students yeah so that's
yeah so that's asia crepanova .com .com or you
can also access the same site with just asia
.us oh yes oh perfect wonderful i will make sure
to list those links in the show notes Let's talk
about your original works. I've listened to your
alto saxophone and piano composition poem. Well,
I've known this piece for a while because I interviewed
both Thomas Giles and Eliana for the piano part.
Yes, both together. Fantastic. Now I'm connecting
the dots. Yes. So that piece was amazing. It's
a little jazzy in the middle, like where there,
you know, gets a bit dense. Yeah, it's cool.
And also Piano Quintet, Marvel at the Sky, and
then a combrio for two pianos. So you are composing
your own original pieces. Yeah. Yes. So how does
that place you in a different creative space
from performing? Like, you know, All of your
life as a solo artist, solo pianist and trained,
well, also you studied composition, but does
the composition give you a different perspective
of yourself, identity, maybe? Absolutely. When
you compose and you make choices about what to
put on paper, it makes you look... everything
else that was put on paper before you differently.
It also makes you note structural elements and
that aids in comprehension of the structure and
in memorization and in forming your interpretation.
My composition teacher tasked me to write three
or four voice fugues when I was nine and ten
years old. and Sonatinas, and then eventually
Sonata forms when I was about 10 -11. So you
do it as an exercise, but also you're not trying
to do that in Bach style, whatever. You're trying
to use an existing form and adapt your own language
to it, but it also in order to be able to do
that. You have to study what it means to use
that form. What exactly is the form of the fugue?
What is its subject and counter subject? What
is the episode? What is the stretta? What is
the inversion? What kinds of inversions they
are? What kinds of retrograde, retrograded inversion
and all these things. And you use these tools.
what is it to have the counter subject that remains
the same throughout the fugue or that does not
what it takes to write a fugue with more than
one subject and eventually I have written a fugue
with three subjects for clarinet and piano which
is a final movement of my triptych for clarinet
and piano but it it is highly analytical work
and highly emotional work at the same time because
you have to analyze consciously what you're doing
but you also have to make sure it carries an
emotion and a feeling that you want to portray
because you know we just put something together
completely brainy It's not going to sound very
well. The reason why Berg's late first, like,
violin concerto is so beautiful, it's a serial
technique, but you never think about that it
is a serial technique because it's overwhelmingly
beautiful. It carries deep emotion while having
the structure that they were experimenting with
at the time. So I always encourage my students
to... try their best to compose something. If
they're working on polyphonic music, try your
best to at least write a canon and see how far
you can go. Try to deeply understand how this
structure is made. Try to write a sonatina and
come up with first theme and an episode and a
second theme and a closing theme and some kind
of development at least to... to feel what it
takes to develop the material that you have what
is it a development of thematic material how
all these motives that composer takes from his
existing themes he inverts and creates something
new and creates new elements right cadences to
your baroque your classical concertos even if
you end up not playing them if you're playing
Beethoven concertos or Mozart concertos I think
it's a must to try and write your own and see
how can you develop the material that you know
so well already in your own way so then you know
these days as a pianist we talked about how this
recording the innovation of a recording just
deprived of pianists of opportunities to learn
expansive work, like, for example, you know,
the entire thing of Rachmarinov, for example,
you mentioned and so on. So then when you mentioned
about composition and I feel like the performing
artists, like when you study in college, of course,
we learn, you know, basic theory, even advanced.
Then also, what is it? you know, counterpoint
and so on. But you actually have this extensive
training of composition and learning about counterpoints.
Is that because your parents were musicians that
you knew exactly what to learn? Or is it a very
common thing back in Russia? Back in Russia,
there are music schools for kids, first to seventh
grade. It's kind of evening school. That is...
throughout the country something that you can
subscribe to but there is also so -called specialized
music schools that combine music musical and
regular subjects from the first grade through
11th so it's a whole run it's the same school
from elementary through middle to high this is
one of the schools that i went to but In Russia,
if you go to a musical school, you get an instrument,
choir, and theory right away. The course of music
theory starts in the first grade and finishes
at the fourth grade. At 10 years old, anyone
who was born in Russia passes the whole course
of music theory. So for us, it is because of
that. It is introduced like a language, so to
speak. So because of that, for me, music theory
is elementary. And it's called elementary music
theory. For me, it is elementary because it was
introduced so long time ago. It became a second
nature. I didn't think about it when I came to
United States and I realized that people who
already play advanced pieces on their instruments
start. learning music theory in college, and
they do not know what the, I don't know, seventh
chord is, they do not know what the Neapolitan
sixth is, and things like that, it felt a little
bit counterintuitive. That said, way before conservatories,
when composers that we know now as great composers,
Tchaikovsky, Balakirev, Borodin in Russia, but
you know bach and bach studied with his uh brother
right and beethoven uh was beaten up by his father
but he also started taking lessons with uh his
teaching affairs like he was at 9 10 11. at that
time i don't think anything was given to anyone
in simplified way so information was given at
once So you already had a bar to which you were
to aspire. And so when I went to study with Professor
Lemon, who, you know, studied with Shostakovich,
and Shostakovich would not necessarily be very
easy on him either, he instantly presented me
like, I don't care how old you are, this is what
you're supposed to know how to do. And so he
would just give me tasks that he felt I was able
to accomplish, but he also was not necessarily
giving me much discount on any of that. Things
are gradually changing. A lot of people like
to complain that I would never need math in my
life. Why would I have to study? I will never
need physics in my life. Why would I need this?
I will never need harmony, four -part harmony
in my life. Why would I need to study that? Well,
it is done so that this gray matter in your head
knows how to move around. primarily because when
you have to analyze harmony for a four -part
harmony task you analyze tensions in the harmony
you realize internally how one chord resolves
to another how strong the pull between these
harmonies are and it aids immensely in how you
then construct a phrase in your interpretation
people don't think directly in these matters
unfortunately but it is true uh in you know school
the ear training class goes from the first grade
through the 11th grade every year two times a
week you come you listen to dictations you answer
chord progressions you think you sing by yourself
you sing with a partner you sing as a group and
it also when you sing you also learn how to build
the phrase in yours in your singing you you know
how to create a sense of progress in your playing
which is incredibly important so i would say
uh there is a system in russia that is uh sometimes
can be a bit too traditional because at times
when you want to venture especially in terms
of interpretation to your own ideas they those
ideas may not be very much appreciated because
the belief is in order to invent something new
you need to really know all of the fundamentals
when we are 18 years old and we are passing examinations
to Moscow Conservatory or St. Petersburg Conservatory
or any other conservatory in the country you
play your program that you prepare 45 minutes
of music then you have an interview at which
you are asked random questions uh from the course
entire course of music history that you did in
school they can ask you virtually anything How
many symphonies this man wrote? What was this
Beethoven sonata? Who was the dedicatee of this
Beethoven sonata? When was this written? Can
you play us an opening of this piece or that
place or this piece? And they also make you to
sit down and sight -read something that you do
not know. Then you have oral ear training exam,
where you... are played uh chord progression
of 32 24 to 32 chords they played twice and then
you have in those two times you have to memorize
that and tell from memory what course that they
were and uh in what what was in the soprano line
it is not a random thing you train for that 11
years for that this is something that we do all
the time so it's part of our training You have
to sing something, sight -sing something. The
next day there is a written ear training exam.
You write a dictation. Typically 16 measures
played 8 times. The next day there is an oral
harmony exam. You are given a beginning for a
period. You have to improvise a period with no...
wrong voice leadings and you also have to answer
some specific questions on the course of harmony
the next day is the written harmony exam you're
given a 16 measure melody piece of paper pencil
and eraser and four hours without instrument
in the class and you realize this so that means
you have to hear your head what you see in order
to really realize that so it really the course
of harmony trains you to have this ability to
really really internalize the sound and then
the last exam in that is essay they give you
random three topics from the course of the history
of literature typically Russian literature and
you write a saying about, you know, history of
this character in this novel or broad ideas of
Dostoyevsky, let's say, or that and this and
that. And nobody knows what these topics are
going to be. So you presume that you've all read
and you have read all of these novels. So from
memory, you can reconstruct an idea and stuff
like that. So seven exams. the education is free
but it is highly competitive because if you get
lower grades in any of these exams after your
instrument it gives you it brings you lower and
lower and lower in the list and then if you do
not make a cut you don't make a cut so it's a
very different system it also kind of puts you
in a lot of stress because you grow up everyone
who's studying together would use your direct
competitor because you always you have to excel
to make the cut to make the cut because they
also in the special music school they your grades
are not good they eliminate you and you no longer
can study so it's a very different Very different
philosophy, very different upbringing. It has
its benefits because it builds resilience, but
it also has its downsides because it's a lot
of stress and it breaks a lot of people as well.
but you made it and uh all the training you received
as tough as they were but it becomes who you
are as a you know artist and you can also contribute
to this american society now then you move to
the united states and you from russia to miami
yes yes wild west so how how is it how how um
How did being in the United States expand or
challenge your sense of artistic freedom? I've
been asked whether I have any regrets about moving
to the United States. And I said, indeed, I do
have those. And people ask what those regrets
are. And I say, well, I regret that I did not
make the move earlier. I came here when the time
was right, of course. And I came to Miami straight
from Moscow, which was a crazy move, especially
since my stipend, my scholarship, for whatever
reason, was starting in the spring semester.
So I came in January. And I came from very cold.
It was a very cold winter. colder than average,
and I'm coming to Miami, it's 85 degrees, and
I'm opening the doors of the airport, this warm,
moist air washing my face. I'm like, oh my God,
I'm supposed to study here? Like, what? But coming
to Professor Rodriguez's class was one of the
best decisions of my life. And he has been one
of the most helpful and amazing teachers I've
ever had and extremely encouraging and extremely
supportive in a way that he wanted me to be me.
And he never tried to make a mini me out of me.
So he was able to see my... personal aspirations
and personal features and helped me to realize
them even with that comment of of what are you
waiting for in the Rachmaninoff cello sonata
because that validation from him and he's a big
Rachmaninoff person that validation from him
sort of opened a pandora box in me because I
started writing Rachmaninoff transcription but
then And about a month later, I simultaneously
started writing Ein Heldenleben and then something
else and then something else. And it just kind
of like my hunger grew and I started to satisfy
it. And so it's been such an integral part of
my life these days. And I started also to write
transcriptions for Piano for Hands as I collaborate
with a number of colleagues. And I love. two
piano and four piano playing because it's a type
of chamber music that is very different from
playing with other instruments. And I enjoy that
very much. So I love brewing ideas for hand and
two piano repertoire as well. Can't wait for
the next composition or transcription that comes
out of you. But it's fascinating because you
rediscovered, basically, Rachmaninoff. in miami
you know what i mean like of all places you know
so yeah yeah in a sense that's true yes that's
wild yeah yeah but about miami you know i had
a very different perception of miami when you
when you're not in miami the stereotype of that
being a paradise touristy destination is so strong
worldwide That people think, oh, Miami, beach,
palms, I don't know, coconut water and maybe
some jet skiing and stuff like that. It's a very
vibrant and rich and huge city. And it's one
of its main benefits. It has still a lot of room
to grow. And many, many things are being invented
in Miami. I'm sure in about a decade, Miami is
going to be very close to New York City in terms
of how many happenings there are. There's Art
Basel, there are so many new concert series and
new ensembles, many, many things. And there are
people there who like to be there and they want
their communities to be. culturally rich University
of Miami where I went as a doctoral student and
artist diploma after my artist diploma after
that transformed in these last 12 -14 years immensely
new concert hall was just recently opened there
which I was very honored to be a part of the
opening of and they build new buildings for the
music school, they build new hospitals, new student
dorms, and it just, it grows and many new festivals
are started and many new events. So it's a very
special place and it's very, very far from just
being the beach and the palms, even though the
beach and the palms are quite nice. yeah yeah
i i've lived in florida so i know what you mean
so but is that where you met liana heron uh liana
and i met as students uh doctoral students okay
okay professor rodriguez actually introduced
us for the first time because she mentioned you
know she also traveled actually uh she mentioned
about you know coming out of miami so she drove
herself to new york and then she came here so
yeah yeah i remember that Wonderful. She's also
a wonderful pianist. Yeah, I want to talk about
your other part of you. You know, we talked about
being a pianist, a composer and, you know, arranger,
but also your visual artist and poet. And actually
you bring those all elements together into your
multidisciplinary. event or concert so tell us
because you were way ahead of everybody because
now people are doing it but since 2007 you have
these pictures at the exhibition event and the
euphoria after list and so many others so tell
us as i have mentioned i've been drawing my entire
life this is something that i really really loved
my mother also had this very fun idea of using
catalogs of art museums that she and my dad were
collecting as picture books for me. There is
this funny photo of me at maybe four or five
months old. I'm sitting on my mom's lap and we're
examining the National Gallery of Washington
DC's catalog. Which is also, I must say this,
in March, I'm making my debut at Buenos Aires
with Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra. And
I will be playing Amy Beach's South American
premiere of her piano concerto with them, which
is an enormous privilege and honor. But my mom
has a faint link to that because... many many
many years ago my mom had a duo partner in russia
a very wonderful violinist who they've played
many many recitals together and i witnessed them
practicing together and everything alia at some
point met a young man from argentina who was
from buenos aires and eventually which was very
difficult to do during Soviet times. They got
married and left. And for that period, the connection
with my mom got, unfortunately, had to be put
on pause because they couldn't meet and rehearse
anymore. But they were sometimes able to send
something from abroad. So one of the gifts that...
this lady Alia sent to my mom was the art catalog
of a National Gallery of Washington DC that is
present in that picture with me so I grew up
looking through that catalog hundreds of times
it became the the portraits and the artwork in
there became as familiar as if, you know, you
have a Tom and Jerry, you know, picture book
or something like that. So it was like that.
Oh, Perseus and Andromeda by Rubens are like,
oh, this and that. So I was so enamored by that.
And it was such a normal thing that years later,
when I went to the gallery, National Gallery,
I was walking around and crying because like,
i just saw in person every single uh picture
that i knew by heart from being a toddler it
was it was the most extraordinary thing so needless
to say i spent a lot of my time as a child trying
to copy just try to trace and just make a copy
and whatever i was doing a lot of that And I
enjoyed drawing in also in a style close to beginning
of 20th century ink artists such as Aubrey Bursley
and something like that. So it was a combination
for me of different styles that I enjoyed doing.
And that was fine. I was doing that. I was writing
some poetry as well. all in their own timelines
and their own realms, in a sense. One day, in
my late teens, it was actually my mom's idea
and wondering, she's like, have you ever thought
of drawing something about the music you're playing
or writing something? and I thought that could
be a very fruitful thought especially since in
the beginning it was more of a task for me because
I don't think visually music at all even when
I play a music that is openly programmatic my
my sense of associations is not depictive in
that instantaneous sense so when I decided to
attempt this it was the time when I wasn't initially
absorbing the collecting transcendental it's
a list three of them another three and another
two and that was coming together And so I started
doing drawings for these etudes and writing for
these etudes. But it's more of a drawing that
is inspired by the music rather than drawing
that tries to depict the music. It's sort of
a commentary on the music but not an illustration.
i don't illustrate and i also don't describe
in my poetry what is happening in the music it's
rather than what i hear puts me in a particular
state what what do i think about that so i like
the process because it also kind of puts you
as a thinker in music in a completely different
uh state because you are reflecting not as a
performer not as a listener but as a thinker
like what it is that it draws me to in my thought
so i did that and then i did um drawings for
vachwell table clavier book one and then i did
um i did um mix technique series for 18 pieces
of Tchaikovsky Op. 72, his last piano cycle.
Beautiful collection of pieces that are, other
than his meditation, are very, very rarely played.
There is a video of the entire set from a live
concert on my YouTube channel that I'm playing.
It's very, very beautiful. It's a very, very
beautiful... colorful and very nostalgic music
he wrote it in his last year of life which was
intended like a knickknack salon music but it's
actually much deeper than that and then the last
project that I'm also bringing on the road next
fall is pictures at an exhibition with my own
pictures and that It was very interesting work
because I always felt of pictures at an exhibition
as a very tragic work in general, despite so
many major keyed movements. And my series kind
of made it a little bit of a horror story. But
it's just, there was a viewer. I did premiere
this series of artworks in New York City. I played
right before the pandemic at the end of 2019.
I played a concert at the Rockefeller University's
Gaspary Auditorium. They have big projectors,
so I did. played there and there was an audience
member that came and said like it was very very
interesting to see how your fears manifested
in these artworks i'm like that's right very
keen view i didn't even want to say no no no
no like yes yes good eye you couldn't even deny
it but yeah so do you show your drawings while
you're performing Yes. So the very first concert
that I've done in 2007 with the Transcendental
Etudes was in a theater that had a very, very
tall hall. And they had a projector there and
a screen. It was able to hang it vertically.
All of my pictures are vertical for that cycle.
And it was a massive, huge screen. And also I
had a microphone. So it was a recital in which,
before each work, I would recite my poem, and
the picture would be projected. I would play
the corresponding etude, and I would take a microphone
and say, not a poem, the picture would change,
so it would be going like that. And it's not
always possible. in different venues to do it
like that, but in most of them where I'm doing
that it is something that I found through lots
of tries and errors a method that works for changing
the slides in the right time. I outsourced it
to different people, but sometimes somebody was
listening and kind of got absorbed and forgot
to change the slide and things like that. And
it's easier when you apply cyclical work, such
as list etudes, because the etude clearly ends,
and you can also, you know, bow and what have
you. But if you're playing, like, pictures in
an exhibition, if you do not know where exactly
one, because there are some of them are tacked
or whatever. So I use the same Bluetooth pedal
that I use for my iPad, except that Bluetooth
pedal is linked to a PowerPoint in my computer.
The computer is hidden on stage. And I'm just
pressing the visit pedal to change the slide
and that works for a while. Yeah. now did do
you think like you needed to do that is that
for your own sort of satisfaction combining those
or maybe you wanted to do a little bit more immersive
experience for your audience because there was
something maybe missing you know what i mean
like for modern audiences where maybe it's too
much i don't think i don't think i don't think
there's anything missing in music for anyone
i just think this is a sort of A commentary,
a curiosity, something unusual. But also, a few
years after I first time did the Liszt project,
I started seeing different musicians coming up
with presentations of other artists, let's say.
We're doing a night of French music and we...
playing Debussy, Ravel, Chaminade or whatever
and we have Manet and we have Renoir and Cezanne
to kind of blend in together so it's to create
an atmosphere and also to help to focus on something
that also you may listen to music plainly. You
just listen to music. You may listen to music
and think what associations you can have. But
sometimes people listen to music and they see
an artwork and they're like, huh, this is the
association that these artists have. But I disagree.
I have different associations. And I like that
people sometimes come, I don't really agree with
what I saw in your pictures because I felt this
music was about something else or I felt something
else. I'm like, great! Because you're going to
walk out of the performance having your own opinion
of what you felt about this music. Because you
had a trigger. So the point is not to help you
to understand. It's not. My view and my drawing
and my artwork is just sort of a screenshot of
my mind at the time when I... did make these
images but since i made them my opinion may have
changed and even in transcendental uses sometimes
i think like now that almost 20 years passed
it's time to make new ones because there's there's
so many new ideas that i have and they also may
come in a clash with someone else's opinions
which is good it's in a little bit in parallel
with an activity that i'm doing as a part of
my outreach things that i'm doing through my
organization music for months i go to classrooms
and i play unabridged repertoire for kids i know
that the best thing to get someone interested
in something is to overwhelm Nobody wants to
hear Marilee to have a little lamb or nutcracker
or something that is already so well -known.
You want to play something that people are like,
ah, we had no idea, you know. And what I do,
I come to classroom and I play four or five short
works for them that have programmatic element
to them, let's say. Ravel's Andine. or Chopin's
Polonaise, which is dance, or something like,
I don't know, Balakir of Islame, I played for
kids sometimes, Rage Over Lost Penny. It's not
too short, not too long, but I also request that
every kid has paper and colorful pencils. And
I tell them, I'm going to play for you this and
this piece. It is about that and that and that.
And you listen to that and that and that. And
these pieces point to certain key moments. And
then I want them to draw what they hear. And
then at the end of the class you see a wild array
of ideas. And also, you know, you have 30 kids.
Typically in 30 kids you have 2 or 3 people.
who have clear talent for visual artists, something
like enormously elaborate that was created out
of scratch in nine minutes or like in seven minutes
or something completely like unusual in thought
and reaction. But it also makes kids listen deliberately.
They're trying to listen to get a feedback for
themselves to draw, right? So it... ups the chances
that they would remember what they heard besides
just, you know, being educated and like, oh,
this is Beethoven, this is, you know. So it's
triggers. So I like it because it's a kind trigger.
It's not something that is going to spark much
of a debate, but it is going to focus. uh listeners
uh memory on what they heard so you spoke about
your community uh outreach so music for minds
tell us a little bit more you you mentioned about
okay you bring all these pieces you said short
pieces but they're extremely difficult islam
is very difficult you know fyi anyway so you
perform these pieces for these children is that
what you do or is there any other elements to
your organization the organization initially
was formed after i had first of these kind of
experiences in back in 2012 i became gold medalist
at nina weidman piano competition in shreveport
louisiana and then competition music director
lester central wilson who unfortunately passed
away last year but she was an incredible human
being trained as a pianist and a singer she had
a big operatic and concert vocal career and she
also was a very good pianist and she arranged
for this competition to not just have monetary
prize but to have a lineup of concerts for the
winner and she would travel with a winner to
all of these concerts to support to present them
and to teach them certain things about concert
life in the meantime one of the first concerts
that i did was a solo recital in jackson mississippi
and she literally maybe the night before i had
to perform she said you know we have a very wonderful
arts school private school, St. Andrew's school
here, and they were just wondering whether you
would agree to come in the morning and play a
little bit for the kids. And it was just like
an impromptu situation. She asked me that in
the evening. Of course, if we were to do that,
it had to be like 8 .30 or 9 in the morning.
so just like we go there and we're literally
driving there i'm like what do i what do i i
have no idea like demographics how old they are
what do i do i i don't have anything that kind
of necessarily matches like kids repertoire or
something that you do for children and i have
a big program to play in the evening and i come
in we walk through the hallways And there was
a main hallway in the school. There was a suspiciously
beaten looking upright piano in the corner. And
about 200 kids on the floor. From, I think, first
through third grade or fourth grade. It was just
like enormous audience. And they're all on the
floor and they're all impatient and they're all
rustling and, you know. So I'm like, I'm just
going to play excerpts from my recital program.
I said, and Islame was actually part of that
program. So I said, well, kids, I'm going to
play three works for you. One was Beethoven 32
Variations in C minor. Poor first graders. They
were explained what Beethoven is, what the variation
cycle is, what is thing, what is a variation,
what to listen for. And it's fairly short, not
too short, but like 11 minutes. They were listening.
Then I played Gaspard Delannoye in the first
half of my concert. I did not play the entire
thing for them, but I played. And they narrated
the poem for them. And, you know, in that poem,
the character of Andine is trying to seduce this
man to join her in the underwater world and become
the king of the rivers and things. She describes
her life and everything. And he tells her, thank
you so much, but I love a mortal woman. And then
she gets, she laughs, she gets angry and disappears
in the streams of water. So I got to the point,
but he replies, I'm sorry, but I love mortal
girl. And every girl in that room goes. Needless
to say, needless to say, I have been playing
Undine almost at every outreach event ever since.
And a variation of that reaction is almost always
present. They love that. So then I tell them
that you need to listen to that moment. There
will be a pause and there will be this one line
and then there will be this cascade. And they
really link to that. They want to hear when this
rejection happens. They're so enthralled to find
out. And then I played at the end of Islame,
and during Islame the audience was, I mean, not
completely silent, but they were quiet. And then
after the performance I had a line of, I don't
know, 40 kids. With questions like oh, we didn't
didn't know the piano can sound like that. We
didn't know all my parents wanted me to take
lessons I didn't know this could be oh, I want
to take more piano now They were all you know,
they were excited because they were there was
a shock moment, right? They could not expect
something like this and then I realized aha That's
the way to do it So we're not doing something
condescending and abridged or whatever. We're
just hitting them with all what we have because
they totally can get it and they get excited
from that because our competitors is video games,
cartoons with very elaborate music. Video games
now have very elaborate score. Everything is
big sound, very, very colorful. Everything is...
attacking your senses right so you have to provide
same impact and so i had some a few months after
that i registered uh uh organization because
i realized i cannot go to a school without having
a credible name of a non -profit organization
because most most schools are very suspicious
of individuals so you have to have something
that has a history of doing that and and and
so one of those missions for my organization
was education of this kind but also an ability
to create music series with unusual programming
i did three years of a festival with academy
in baltimore it was called festival baltimore
was done before the pandemic 2017 through 2019.
The mission was crazy. It was a festival of complete
cycles. Every concert was presenting a complete
collection of works in a certain instrumentation.
24 list attitudes, all of the list attitudes,
let's say. Five Beethoven cello sonatas in one
night. Complete works of Paul Creston for alto
saxophone and piano. Complete Hindemith viola
sonatas in two evenings. complete works for uh
viola and clarinet by robert schumann with piano
you know these kind of surveys and we recruited
students to form concerts like this too our first
year we recruited three pianists and 12 string
players to have a concert of complete brahms
piano quartets and All of the artists who came
to perform the concerts, they were coaching the
students. So the students got a very multifaceted
coaching. The second year we did complete Tchaikovsky
string quartets and complete Rachmaninoff piano
duos. So just a very kind of unusual look on
programming, but also a little bit of resistance
in that. Worldwide concert programs are shrinking.
When I was growing up, a recital program was
first half 50 minutes, second half 45 minutes.
That was a norm. Now they tell you first half
30 minutes, second half 25 minutes. That's a
joke to me. So having experience of growing up
like that, but that also means that audiences
are gradually getting more impatient. television
and it's now well studied that in the 70s there
were certain tv seven minute tv shows that kind
of framed people's attention to seven minutes
at a time and so it's more difficult to hear
longer works so i think when you can entice a
person that yes you're going to be in a concert
for over than two more than two hours but those
two or two and a half hours you're gonna hear
a lifetime a composer in this particular genre
right you're gonna hear all Beethoven cellos
another than a stretch throughout his life or
you're gonna hear all of the works of you know
Paul Hindemith that also were not really at the
same time they were written over a period of
time we had a colleague of mine fantastic pianist
Randy Lupa played at my request, complete piano
sonatas of George Walker. And those five piano
sonatas span 56 years of his life. And you see
there that the concert itself is just an hour.
The sonatas are not very long. But in those,
that hour, you hear how composers... language
was changing from sonata to sonata and that's
absolutely amazing and there's definitely demographic
of the audience that appreciates that and is
interested in that we had come people come with
scores to our concerts and we're sitting with
scores listen that's that's the best thing that's
the biggest compliment wow that is incredible
then you also created this uh concert series
uh festival flatiron and i meant to go last summer
because you started last summer right yes this
past yeah and then i saw the advertisements on
facebook or something i think so or maybe i'm
part of this email thread or uh through group
muse and so but you play the chopin's concerto
with a smaller ensemble yeah it was it was our
it was our uh closing night uh one of my mentors
uh kevin kenner with whom i studied uh during
my artist diploma at the university of miami
he created together with his colleagues a new
arrangement of for piano and string quintet of
both chopin concertos And he recorded, there's
a fantastic recording of his. Everyone needs
to listen to that. It's beautiful. And he was
extremely kind to share with me these scores
and let me perform them. So the closing night
of our series was these two concertos, which
we played in the... order of completion because
the second concerto was earlier so we played
second concerto in the first half and first concerto
in the second half and it was a beautiful experience
because um the string players can now play from
ipad they can play from full score they do not
need conductor they can just follow you like
in chamber music so closely so it was beautiful
experience so beautiful that this coming year
i am cooking something along those lines. I can't
quite yet say what that is, but it will be announced
in the beginning of the year. So you'll be continuing
this flat iron? We are going to continue the
series, yes. It's going to be having very, very
interesting programs and some tributes to what
would be a concert attributed to Shostakovich
with all of his duo sonatas, Violins on the Cello
Sonata and Viola Sonata. There will be... some
very, very beautiful music played, but also would
be a festival finale that also features some
piano concertos with strings. Where exactly is
the venue? Flatiron, so that's in Manhattan.
I love Flatiron District. Yeah, it's in that
district, yeah. Does it take place at a certain
venue? Because Group Muse is about... you know
bringing the concert to homes and you know almost
like basically providing there is a there is
a fantastic uh he's a pianist himself an extremely
talented pianist but also he has made his career
in finance and he is a philanthropist his name
is uh jonathan de perry a few years back he moved
to white iron district and he looking for an
apartment that The primary objective was not
a place to live in, but a place to hold concerts
in. So he bought a loft that has wonderful acoustics,
sits up to about 80 people. He has an incredible
piano, which we later discovered is a piano on
which I did my Carnegie Hall debut at the Stern.
In 2017, he bought a Hamburg Steinway Auditorium.
It's a beautiful instrument, one of the finest
instruments in the recital space in Manhattan.
And he holds about 30 concerts a year in his
home. It is his passion, and some of them he
participates himself. We have a traditional...
a four -hand program that we play every year
together. But also he likes to present music
that otherwise one would not hear anywhere else.
So he heard about my aspirations with Festival
Baltimore that it came to conclusion in that
location. He's like, well, maybe you want to
do something interesting in my space and you're
welcome to do that. So it is an honor to do it
there, but it also allows me to again do interesting
programming and do things that are really hard
to find somewhere else. So I know we're coming
toward the end of our conversation, but before
we go, is there any other things like we didn't
cover or maybe something to promote? Well, I
would say that there are many things that I look
forward to in this coming year of 2026. I will
be making my South American debut with Buenos
Aires and write. After that, the following week,
I will go to Santiago and play with National
Symphony of Chile. I will be playing Beethoven's
Emperor Concerto. There are many beautiful collaborations
that I'm looking forward to this year, but there
will be some time spent in the recording studio
as well. I will be... In February, recording
my beautiful and beloved program of Liszt's Complete
Etudes. And also later in the year, I will embark
on recording the Rachmaninoff. Oh, my goodness.
Wonderful. Wonderful. So for our listeners, please
visit Asiya. crepanova .com and connect with
her through her social media accounts instagram
at pianist underscore asia and a youtube at her
the entire name asia crepanova to learn more
about her projects performances and latest updates
now before i let you go we have to do one more
thing the piano part rapid fire questions and
then now we take this segment very seriously
you've shared your stories expertise today but
these questions will may reveal who you truly
are so let's do this okay okay okay so uh please
answer each question as shortest response as
possible no explanation is necessary level one
question number one what is your comfort food
oh it's a good question um um roasted eggplant
so good how do you like your coffee in the morning
With a tiny bit of cream. Cats or dogs? I had
cats a number of times. I had dog once. I would
say both. And at the same time, I would say I
cannot afford having a pet. with my schedule
traveling and with my husband's travel he has
also a career that has a travel so about every
maybe six to eight weeks we open pet finder we
browse through available pets in our area We
sigh, we close, and we move on. In about two
months, the process repeats. I get it. Sunrise
or sunset? Both. Summer or winter? I can't, I
can't. Because when I moved to Miami, I spent
five and a half years in Miami. In the beginning,
I was just like, oh my God. there's no seasons
there how can i be without my seasons five years
later i'm like who needs seasons like i want
this eternal summer and then i moved up to boston
and i was completely miserable first winter because
i lost all of my tolerance but we had snow yesterday
and a lot of people are complaining I'm so happy
when snow comes in. Yeah, so I think it's 50
-50, definitely. All right. Level two. What skill
have you always wanted to learn but haven't had
a chance to? Playing a string instrument. Oh,
yeah, that's a good one. What is your word or
words to live by? I can have a feeling in my
head, but I guess I don't typically manifest
it in literary way. But I can describe it as
I have endless curiosity. And I love trying things.
And it brings me great joy to do things by my
hands. whatever creative process there is. And
I always try to do more because it teaches, you
know. So I guess that could be a broad answer
to your question. Any favorite venue you ever
performed in or dream venue maybe? It's really
hard. It is really hard to pick one. Because,
of course, there are legendary venues that you
always dream to go and to play to. Growing up
as a little student in Moscow, the biggest dream
was to play in the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatory.
Of course, you play in the Great Hall of Moscow
Conservatory, then I wanted to play in an international
venue, then go and play in different places.
And I played in Carnegie Hall, and it was, of
course... such a milestone, and I'm about to
play in Theater Cologne next year, which is also
another milestone, but sometimes small venues
or venues that you don't expect to be anything
special becomes the most special in your entire
life. I will give you a couple of examples. I
had experience playing in juvenile prison for
boys between 14 and 17 years of age that committed
different kinds of crimes. Is that in the United
States? No, it was in Russia. Oh, it was in Russia.
And I came there and I played a lot of kind of
unassuming repertoire for them. I played things
that most of them probably have never heard before,
and probably have not heard since, but one of
the works that I played was Schubert's small
A major sonata. There is this room of about 200
of them, and there is, of course, military units,
and everyone is, you know... Sort of supposed
to behave and the piano is not very good. It's
an upright and I'm playing And there's this very
interesting silence that comes from both them
not quite understanding what to do with what
they hear but also from Objectifying me because
you know as they walk by me they, you know, say
things and they probably haven't seen a real
girl for a while so they kind of like look at
me in a certain way but then after the performance
there are a few guys that come through and they're
in tears and they say we we don't know what it
is and we haven't heard this music before we
don't know what it is but we just we we couldn't
help cry that was schubert and you know when
you ask about what's the venues and what's the
most memorable kind of experience this experience
comes in the first few most overwhelming ones
because it's just this act of sharing and kind
of connecting so deeply that such outcome happens
you know or also if you have an experience of
playing for someone who is on their deathbed
and you know that your performance is the last
thing they would ever hear in this life it also
becomes some of the most important venues of
your lifetime even if it is someone's bedroom
where you brought a keyboard to play you know
so There's all sorts of experiences, glorious
and shiny ones and not so glorious, but shiny
in a different way. Beautifully said. That's
great. Well said. So the last question, fill
in the blank. Music is blank. Eternity. Beautiful.
Thank you. Asia, thank you so much for joining
us today and for sharing your artistry, your
journey and thoughtful reflections with such
openness. Thank you for having me. Of course,
and depth and generosity. Amazing person. So
to our audience, if you would like to explore
more of Asia's incredible work, visit asiakorepanova
.com and explore her performances, compositions,
multimedia projects, and educational initiatives.
And of course, a huge thank you, all of you to
our litigated listeners for tuning in today.
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thank you i'll see you once again appreciate
you thank you so much thank you