Hey everyone, it's Yukimi. Welcome back to another
episode of The Piano Pod. This season we are
exploring creativity and connection, highlighting
artists who are reshaping what it means to perform,
create, teach, and inspire people through piano
across the modern era. Today's guest, Sean Hickey,
embodies that spirit as a true visionary of the
21st century music landscape. A celebrated composer
whose work spans solo, chamber, and orchestral
projects, Sean also brings a unique perspective
from deep within the industry, currently serving
as the CEO of Pentatone Music. His musical journey
began with the electric guitar in Detroit, and
that early curiosity has evolved into a career
dedicated to exploring the profound intersections
of humanity, memory, and scale. In this episode,
we dive deep into his most ambitious work for
solo piano to date, Sapiens, A Brief History
of Humankind. Inspired by the landmark book by
Yuval Noah Harari, this 50 -minute cycle acts
as a meta -instrument observing 70 ,000 years
of human evolution from the first primeval breath
to the complex global systems of our modern world.
It is a work that challenges us to look through
the lens of history to find meaning in our own
period of rapid acceleration and change. Before
we dive in, a huge thank you to our listeners
for supporting the PianoPod. Your engagement,
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Here is Season 6 of The Piano Pod with composer
and industry leader, Sean Hickey. 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. Sean, welcome to The Piano Pod. It's really
such a pleasure to have you today here. Thanks
for having me. Great to be here. Thank you so
much for being here. So before we dive in, Where
are you joining us from today? I am joining you
from New York, New York, particularly and specifically
Brooklyn, from home. Oh, yeah, I'm in Brooklyn,
too. Where in Brooklyn? Bay Ridge, right on the
water at the entrance to the harbor. Oh, nice.
You've lived there for a while? Well, I've lived
in Brooklyn since, what, 99. But we've lived
in this place, my family and I, since 2019. yeah
oh okay great and i live in williamsburg so i
mean we're a little far but still within the
same yeah uh borough so cool yeah great and i'm
so happy because uh we met once uh actually it
was a few months ago at the pianopod live event
you came and i was so so happy to meet you thank
you so much for being there it was a very special
day It was for me, too. I thought it was really
great and really stimulating conversation. And
I was invited there by my dear friend, Eleanor
Byneman, who was part of your discussion, who
you've spoken with, I think, more than on one
occasion for the PianoPod. And she's a dear,
dear friend and supporter of my work. Don't hold
it against her, my former piano teacher when
I first moved here. Oh, no way. I didn't realize
the connection, really. She's a fantastic pianist.
She is. I, however, am not, and I am her worst
student, but I got a lot out of it, I have to
say, and a great friendship with her and her
family. Wonderful. Yeah, she told me about the,
I think, a week before my event, so that was
October 4th, so a week before that year. actually
had a presentation, a concert at the same venue.
Yeah, at the same venue. So my piece, a very
epic piano piece called Sapiens, A Brief History
of Humankind, which actually was partially developed
and workshopped in that exact same room. This
is, of course, at the Manus School of Music at
the New School in New York City. We concluded
a small U .S. tour of the piece there at Manus
when I saw you in whatever that was, September,
I believe. And yeah, with a brilliant pianist
that I've had the great pleasure of working with
and who has recorded the piece. And his name
is Vladimir Rumyantsev, and he's a true force
of nature. Wonderful. Yeah. And then Eleanor
told me how fantastic the event was. And then
so the following week when I had my event, I
was like so surprised to see you. And then afterward,
I think we ended up at the same restaurant together
in the seating. That was fun. Great. So it feels
especially fitting that we're here today focusing
on a conversation on sapiens. As you mentioned,
a brief history of humankind, a work that reflects
on humanity, memory and the shared spaces we
move through, particularly in the light of the
profound shifts and uncertainties that many of
us. are experiencing right now. But before that,
let's start with this question. So you've been
described as one of the most successful American
composers of our generation and a deeply influential
leader within the industry when it comes to arts
administration. So looking back, what is the
core artistic impulse or mission that has quietly
tied together your diverse body of work? over
the years well that's a big one and uh one to
really kind of uh grapple with i think overall
i mean when i started uh so i started in music
at age 12 so it wasn't exactly a young prodigy
or whatever but i my parents uh essentially said
you're gonna do something this summer other than
sit around and and do nothing you're gonna um
do something constructive and in my case we rented
an electric guitar and within minutes of doing
so i had already written my first song not nothing
about it but uh and certainly not memorable but
um from that point i've just always been been
obsessed with you know creating music and just
you know it's just been an impulse to me that
i can't quite fathom living without And certainly
over the years, I've composed a lot of music.
I think I've composed about 100 different works
in a variety of genres, nearly everything except
for opera, which I'm not personally particularly
interested in. But over time, and certainly in
the last, oh, I don't know, say nine or 10 years,
my work has really been focused on a lot of issues
of... well, just sort of societal things, changes,
the systems that we have in the world and in
our country specifically. And I've been particularly,
I suppose, in the last 10, 15 years, moved or
influenced by a lot of things that I have seen
or heard or read so that my work over time has
been, at least in its framework or in its initial
inspiration, inspired by and guided by some bigger
and broader concepts and that wasn't something
that was happening when i was say in my 20s i
wanted to write a string quartet i called it
string quartet and that was it and then i wrote
another one so that was number two um you know
thing things have changed and i've developed
over over the years yeah then of course this
magnificent piano music sapiens a brief history
of humankind that also tied together what you
just mentioned so For listeners encountering
this piece of music for the first time, what
is Sapiens? And what kind of response were you
hoping to offer through music? Well, to me, this
was among most of the pieces I've written, like
a real, real artistic imperative for me. In,
I believe, early 2018, I read the book of the
same name by Yuval Noah Harari. Sapiens, A Brief
History of Humankind. And it's the first of the,
I think, six published books that he has done
and hundreds and hundreds of articles. He is
a great historian and thinker and not necessarily
a sociologist, but certainly a very, very brilliant
writer and someone that I at least can draw a
lot from in nearly everything that he's written.
And Sapiens, when I read the book, was one of
those books, maybe the only book I've ever read,
that after reading the first page, I could hardly
turn it because I was just incredibly inspired
by and moved by this incredibly large and wide
scope of things. And, you know, in the last 25
to 30 years, in sort of the broad things of nonfiction,
There's been a lot of micro histories like, you
know, salt, the spice that changed the world
and cod and, you know, various things having
to do with how certain things, you know, have
really influenced our current living. And then
there's the mega, mega macro histories and macro
looks at things. And Sapiens is probably the
best known example of such a book and among the
first. And for me, I read it and. i had no idea
what was to come next but i just felt that it
was imperative for me that in some way i was
going to fashion a piece of music out of the
inspiration that i found in this book yeah i
i read it too i think i read it during 2020 when
i was home and then finally being able to read
such a you know massive amount of uh content
in in uh in a really focused time and it was
Yeah, as you mentioned it, like first few pages,
I had to reread over and over again, because
it was such a shocking thing to read. It really
is. Yeah, yeah. It's such a big and broad scope
of things. And, you know, I just, I think it's
amazing how this utterly brilliant individual
and it's not the only book that he's written.
His other books are almost no less. No less shocking
to me and impressive, but this was the first
of them and therefore it really stays with me.
Yeah, I mean, I felt the same way and then read
it again the second time and as the pandemic
bore down on our city and our world. And I really
kind of redoubled my efforts at the end of 2020
to finish a piece that I had started a couple
of years earlier. But what stood out for you
to me? One thing is, as you said, it's the scope
of the book. You know, how basically he writes
70 ,000 years of human history or longer into
this book. Here I am, you know, reading from
my apartment in Brooklyn in 2020 by myself. I
just felt overwhelmed, too, about the history.
But also, at the same time, I felt... at the
end of the book? I don't know. It's a strange
thing, but was also be able to be hopeful about
humankind. I don't know. How did you experience
this book? I mean, in the end, that's kind of
the way I came away with it. I mean, I know that
some people have, you know, maybe read the book
or read his work in general and felt that, oh,
we're doomed as a species. And it might be easy
to say that for, you know, ecological collapse.
the world that we've inherited now where everybody's
in their you know fixed camps and pointing knives
at each other and all that um but there is um
there's quite a bit in the book that i find quite
hopeful in that um i find it comforting and i
don't know that everyone agrees with me to understand
how small and insignificant that i am as a cog
in the wheel of human history very small one
uh and um Yeah, I think that, you know, many
of the concepts that are explored in the book,
some of which I helped or tried to use as inspiration
for my piece later, allowed me to, you know,
feel very confident. And I think, as you say,
a little more hopeful in a time of great uncertainty.
I'm referring to the pandemic, I'm referring
to... our modern world and all of what was coming
unraveled in those few years and still is in
my mind, that, you know, understanding the fact
that, you know, throughout all of human history,
all of what we're talking about, the span of
a single lifetime, mine or yours, is, I mean,
frankly, utterly insignificant in the march of
time. And then compare that to geologic time.
I mean, human history is 70, 80 ,000 years, but
geologic time goes back seven to eight and nine
million years. um and uh all of the species and
that's kind of how the book you know starts to
establish itself that didn't survive some have
some haven't but why did we i think it's fascinating
why why and how did we develop these brains that
allow this conversation to happen i think is
uh i think it's quite fascinating yeah and then
he says that it's the uh Because of the, of course,
cognitive revolution, he says, and being able
to understand the sort of abstract concept, whether
that is being able to dream. I don't quite remember.
I have to revisit. But do you remember? Yeah.
So the cognitive revolution is, you know, the
development of the minds to the minds of any
sentient living human being to understand. uh
some of the things that we understand so right
now we're speaking in a shared language of english
that when i speak it you understand me and you
speak it i i understand you or hopefully most
of it in most in both cases um and these are
just these are symbols these are things that
we've adopted as a as a culture as part of our
cognition and they're developed widely developed
brains that maybe the animal world doesn't have
but you know one of the things that the animal
world does have to some degree is that i know
if i'm walking down the street with you and you
stand behind a tree i know that you're still
there even if i can't see you and um you know
that was one of the kind of breakthroughs in
the cognitive revolution that the animal world
for the most part has understood and recognized
that uh just because i can't see or hear a particular
thing or a person or a threat doesn't mean that
that person or thing or threat is gone um so
um that that's you know one small example of
you know what a dog or cat might understand you're
still present if you're standing behind behind
a tree yeah so i need to revisit and reread again
uh it's such a wonderful book so how many movements
make up this cycle of your versions uh yeah so
there are eight movements or eight sections um
and i chose as um you know if if if you know
the book and you know that know it well it's
not as if i uh titled my sections after the chapters
i and instead took what i think are some broad
concepts and maybe kind of added one in the in
the end of the last section called commonwealth
that is mostly my own uh to um some of the teachings
and understandings of the book and just to talk
about one of them the first time is a section
called that i call prehistory which you know
is just one of those fascinating words that to
me is like prehistory what what happened but
it's like kind of like post -modernism it makes
no sense at all uh but we throw it around a lot
and it sounds good and generally we understand
what it's supposed to mean prehistory really
uh you know attempts to determine what there's
a word used to define what happened before humans,
before our species, Homo sapiens, really developed
into the individuals that we are now. And I should
mention at first, you know, when I was inspired
by the book, I didn't know what, didn't have
any idea how to shape the piece, didn't even
understand or recognize who it was going to be
for. It was not a commission. I'm fortunate that
most of my work in the last 10 or 15 years is
on commission so um this was not a case it was
just something that i wanted to do my additional
uh initial idea was to write for ensemble perhaps
orchestra um and then you know as my id my broad
kind of drafting and ideas started to take shape
um i realized that this was probably not a work
for orchestra and i had a huge amount of sketches
of the piece which are now archived at a great
um A great other place in Brooklyn called Mind
to Music, the Mind to Music Project, has some
of my very initial sketches of sapiens on there,
which, because I sat at the piano and drafted
them, in the end it really kind of morphed into
a work that I felt was going to be a very substantial
work for piano. And I find the piano very intimidating.
I find it also comforting to sit at and write
at, which I've been doing for years. As I said,
I think at the start, I'm not a pianist per se.
I really can only perform one piece of music
I've ever written in my life. But in the end,
that seemed to be the sort of suitable instrument
for me. And when I really kind of embraced the
idea of the piano as this sort of meta instrument,
We know the incredible expressive range that
comes from this instrument, the modern instrument.
We know the fact that the modern instrument developed
out of other things that might have been a little
less expressive and less complex than we have
today. And yet it has largely stayed fixed for
the last 200 years, just about. And I imagine
the piano as sort of a voyeur or witness to history
at the birth of music. So my particular piece
that starts Sapiens is called Prehistory as a
subtitle. And it consists of a very strange amount
of music that doesn't really sound music. In
fact, the very first instruction in the piece
is for the pianist to breathe into the instrument,
you know, a single exhalation, single breath.
And it doesn't really start on the piano, it
starts at the piano. And from there, music. in
a series of C's really kind of grows out of that
particular impulse as if someone had, you know,
been launched into this strange thing and encountered
it for the first time. And what would they make
of it? That's really the piece grows out of that,
those first impulses. Wow. Yes. I, I've been
listening to this whole series over and over
and then, yeah, I, First I started, I heard the
breath. And also, you mentioned that I realized
there are a few pieces that are centered in the
key of C major. So I thought, maybe, is there
a message behind that? Yeah, I think maybe not
a conscious one. So yes, it starts with a bunch
of Cs, maybe not C major, but the pitch C, the
note C, in various octaves. It ends... I think
very hopefully in a particular section called
Commonwealth that to me is among the most successful
parts of it. And it's also fairly rooted in C
as well. And there's also a work in the middle,
a section in the middle called Mean Temperament.
And Mean Temperament consists almost entirely
of the note C in every one of its iterations
on the piano. There are seven of them. And I
really felt challenged to make a piece of music
or a section of a piece of music that incorporates
a single note only. It involves a huge amount
of jumping around of hands because each of the
octaves of that particular C only happened one
at a time. And mean temperament, of course, is
a bit of a double, I don't know, ironic. play
on words, mean temperament, obviously referring
to the pitch and the tuning of a modern instrument
and modern music for Westerners anyway, and also
maybe a comment on our nature as a species too.
And yeah, that movement came together rather
quickly, I have to say. Oh, wow. And I want to
go through each one of them, but when you first
read the book, you thought, wow. I want to write
a music about this. I mean, did the inspiration
came like immediately? The inspiration to write
the piece came immediately. What I was going
to do with it did not. I should mention that
everything that you hear in the piece, I did
write sequentially. It seems like I started with
section seven or whatever and went back to section
two. So it was sequential. I went and read the
book. I reread the book. I read the graphic novel,
which is fascinating too. Sapiens, which is also
graphic. graphic novel and quite interesting.
Oh, there is a graphic novel? There sure is.
Yeah. And it's really, really quite good. Yeah.
And so the idea to write the piece was quick,
but how it was going to take shape was not. But
I really wanted to focus on, you know, the sort
of key principles that I took some inspiration
from when reading the book. And that really kind
of gave me the sort of broad architecture to
start putting things in place. So you mentioned
that it started with the prehistory. Then the
next piece is the Lascaux, right? Yeah. So the
inspiration for Lascaux is, you know, though
it's been eclipsed by some other findings in
the last several years, Lascaux refers to the
cave in central France where some of the first
instances of representative art were found. painted
on the cave walls. They were some 40 ,000 years
old, 45 ,000, I believe. And it was a major breakthrough
in that, you know, the thing that I do and that
we do as artists, which is to, you know, is to
explore and act upon this impulse to do something.
That doesn't necessarily better the world. It
doesn't keep a structure intact or keep you warm
or feed you. The things that really directly
relate to survival, these are things that an
artist would do because he or she feels a very
strong need. And the Lescaut cave drawings are
as mysterious today as they were when they were
discovered, which is to say probably a mystery
for the intervening 45 ,000 years. that depicts
buffalo hunts, that depicts men and women, weaponry,
various things having to do with life in that
part of the world at that time. I wanted to use
it because I took some inspiration from that,
which, of course, is talked about in the book
as a particular piece. And that particular section
of it is, I think, clouded in a lot of ambiguity,
a lot of mystery. It's a little more, you can,
I think, sense the piece in terms of sort of
a metric and rhythmical structure. kind of coming
together a little better in that section than
it is in prehistory so you're seeing the sort
of evolution of a piece start to take shape just
as humankind said i am i at this moment i am
going to create art and i'm doing it for reasons
that are unknown to history and it's quite impressionistic
in style right yeah yeah i think so too i mean
the pigments of the walls and and i for the record
i've never been to lisco um i've only read about
it and seen it uh and on the page or whatever
but uh you know the pigments of it uh i think
are are very evocative and they almost look impressionistic
for me And the fact that something is so, I mean,
I have had the benefit of seeing some, you know,
really interesting Navajo and Ute art and that
in the desert southwest of the United States.
This is very, very different. Much of that art
is no more than a thousand years old. This is
40, 40, 45 times more than that. I mean, it's
quite, quite ancient. Yeah. Yeah. And then. Moving
on to the third piece, Fertile Crescent. And
I thought, wow, this was quite contrast to Lascaux,
quite fugue -like, you know? Lots of conversations
happening. Yeah. So Fertile Crescent is probably
the biggest and densest piece. It's the longest
in the work, longest section in the work. Fertile
Crescent, of course, is inspired by... something
else that Harari talks about in the book, and
that's the agricultural revolution. And the agricultural
revolution, like the cognitive one beforehand,
which is about 12 ,000 years old, allowed for
something that we very much take for granted
now, is the ability for human beings to gather
together in groups and cooperate in some way
or another. So whether you live in New York City
or a small town, or you work in a factory, or
you work... In any endeavor, we often usually
need the help of others to survive and to create.
And that was not necessarily the methodology
for most of human history. For most of human
history, Homo sapiens was solitary. They traveled
in very small groups, perhaps as a family, perhaps
as a couple of families. They hunted game for
survival. They found the appropriate foods to
eat that would allow them to thrive and give
them the appropriate amount of vitamins, protein,
and they kept on the move. They did not necessarily
have homes, per se. They kept on the move, often
across very wide geographic regions. The Fertile
Crescent, of course, refers to the band of something
that happened, which is the plantation of crops
in a rough stretch from western Turkey. going
to the east and around into the Sinai Peninsula
in northern Egypt, modern Egypt, and encompasses
many of the countries in the Middle East. Interestingly,
many countries that we would very much consider
to be dry and desert -like now were, at that
time, fertile enough to support the planting
of crops, and many of the first grains and cereals
were planted in that particular region. And when
they were planted in that particular region,
it required the ingenuity and gathering of people
together in smaller groups. And it's no surprise
that the first established cities happened in
some of the river valleys of the area, namely
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in modern -day
Iraq. And that allowed for people to settle together.
And one of the other interesting things that
allowed people to settle together was the fact
that when they did settle together, longevity
improves because people were and would over time
develop immunities to one another and develop
immunities to the livestock around them at a
time when our first livestock where people were
herding animals into small and living with those
animals or living in close proximity to them.
And this incredible reason that it's not just
called agriculture and that it's an agricultural
revolution is that revolution almost in a matter
of a handful of generations, we don't really
know who, almost doubled life expectancy, maybe
up to age 30 to 35 for a lot of people. And so
all of that is a background of my... piece called
Fertile Crescent and in it I have essentially
two crescent -like shapes. One is the shape of
a particular figure in the right hand that really
kind of opens the piece that goes up in a crescent
shape and comes down lower in pitch and volume
and is presented several times. The bigger one
is the midsection of the piece, which starts
with a very low pedal and the left hand and a
series of very dense and chromatic chords, almost
hard to really discern the pitch. That entire
section, chord, chord, chord, chord, essentially
rises to the upper limits of the piano, the upper
limits of the volume that the piano is capable
of producing. And each measure going up to that
particular point, a half a beat is slashed off
of each of them to the point where when you get
to the end, there's no more beats to slash off.
It's essentially there's no more notes. And then
at that point, everything turns around backwards
and a retrograde inversion mirror image of itself.
That exact same section is played backwards and
upside down. And that is the broad. fertile crescent
of that whole particular movement and it's quite
a challenging thing to play and I have to say
maybe a concept to understand too. to say that
that particular movement probably took me as
long to compose as the entirety of the rest of
the piece oh really yeah because i had the idea
in my head and i have to say i'm not uh such
a dogmatic uh composer that i play around with
um uh particular theories or whatever i'm not
a serialist i'm not a uh you know not i don't
consider myself a serialist or minimalist or
any of those things i write the music that i
wish to write and not not be constrained by any
of the isms that are out there but i had the
idea of you know this series of chords and i
could understand the pitches and how they would
very very very slowly and imperceptibly imperceptibly
uh modulate to higher pitch levels and a half
a beat lopped off of each measure until you ran
out of room in which case everything turned around
and flipped and that was just a very big and
broad crescent that uh probably took me a couple
of months to uh more than a couple months to
compose Then followed by Jericho, which is the
name of the city. Also, it's a biblical city,
right? It sure is. Yeah. So Jericho is, you know,
the biblical Jericho and the modern Jericho were,
well, I should say the biblical Jericho is best
known as a walled city. And why do we? Why do
we at some point in our history put walls around
our cities to protect ourselves from invaders
and hostile forces? But for me, Jericho, and
maybe this departs from the book a little bit,
is symbolic of the fact that, you know, one of
the greatest and most diabolical human inventions
is the wall. and obviously it provides us comfort.
I'm surrounded by them now. It sounds like you
are too. It keeps us free and separated from
our neighbors. It allows for privacy. It allows
for warmth and comfort and safety, and that's
critically important. But in history, no wall
has ever stood for very long, and Jericho is
probably the first example of such walls. I mean,
the Horn of Gabriel. blew down the walls of jericho
in the bible and um you know i i started to think
of you know sort of the development of the wall
um you know certainly the great wall of china
and hadrian's wall in northern england neither
of which stand completely as they were intended
um and then the ridiculous thing of a border
wall uh across any two countries which was very
much in the news then and still now and i was
inspired to write a piece that is very uh brittle
granitic uh the pitches aren't uh you know as
as specifically defined i was very much inspired
by some of the composers who wrote in the city
i'm i'm a big fan of alberto ginastera great
argentine composer and his piano sonatas which
i think are fascinating and incredible so more
along the lines of ginastera bartok and a few
others you know compose this particular work
in homage to the wall as being imposing and ultimately
futile. And, you know, there's a particular point
in the piece where a very thick set of clusters,
I think they're 10 note chords, are resounded
13 times, exactly the amount of times that you
hear in the Rite of Spring, in the third section
of the Rite of Spring. And to me, that's sort
of a sublimation of the walls that come crashing
down. Get Jericho. fairly successful section
of the piece overall and um it's a pretty big
contrast to what is around it i have to say so
um and and again it's uh i think if i uh just
called this piece and gave it a anonymous title
not anonymous title but a different title like
piano sonata or something like that and that
was plopped in the middle of it i think it would
have a very different meaning Even if you didn't
understand the book or didn't read the book or
understand the concepts, the fact that it has
a title, Jericho, and that has that particular
sound world that's very different from what comes
before or after, hopefully it's understood by
listeners. Yeah, evident. Then that followed
by mean temperament, which you mentioned. So
maybe we should talk about double helix. This
is one of my favorite. out of eight pieces so
it's about dna yeah right so inspired by one
of the great uh scientific discoveries of the
20th century is is dna of course and um you know
in the discovery of dna you know we have determined
that uh quite a lot of human history and all
of the suffering that we must endure is you know
can be enshrined in these little microscopic
strands i mean it's pretty revolutionary that
this uh particular discovery uh has happened
and i think in in many ways uh it it's so big
and so unwieldy and so earth shattering that
we might be able to look at it something like
this and determine when we will die uh unless
we're hit by a bus or some other uh the external
factor uh is overshadowed by the fact that it's
uh it's quite frightening in the way that ai
is frightening today um in the 20th century i
think the discovery of dna was frightening to
the people of the 20th century and through to
today i took it as kind of an inspiration uh
of a particular piece it's a very big and mysterious
piece the left hand in its entirety plays in
one key b flat and the right hand plays in another
key d um and this is a bit of a mind melt for
the pianist i think and it was for me to write
But once I established that, I mean, what I came
up with in terms of combinations of sonorities
and chords was to me very deeply satisfying.
of the piece is truly two strands of melody.
So that is a rare, as this is my music, very
rare of a fugue. And the fugue in the right hand
is in D and the fugue in the left hand is in
B flat. And yet it does observe the rules of
the fugue with the introduction of the subject,
the transition up to the fifth, the stretto at
the end, and then coming on some different music
altogether. interweaving of the strands. I mean,
the DNA molecule is a weave together a pair of
strands that we, I think, know and understand
in its shape. And that was kind of the shape
that I was referring to in my particular movement.
Wow. Engineering is involved into your composition,
I guess. Yes. That's cool. Then that followed
by conformation bias. So tell us about the piece.
So perhaps a little bit also of a departure from
the book, but maybe not so. But I think one of
the most dangerous things of our time, certainly
any time, but particularly so in a time when
we are divided into our camps and determined
that our opinions are right and perhaps everyone
else's are wrong, except the people that agree
with us, is the concept of confirmation bias.
And the confirmation bias, of course, refers
to the fact that, you know, if I believe something
to be true, and I hear that something that confirms
that what I already believe to be true is true,
then therefore it must be, and there's no further
proof needed. And this is a particular thing
that Homo sapiens do, and likely the animal kingdom
does not do, and the plant kingdom does not do.
And I find it very, very dangerous because what
is it done in our era of the Internet and social
media? It's allowed us to only surround ourselves
with people that really kind of confirm our biases,
feed them on these algorithmic structures over
time and further entrench us in our particular
part of the world. And I find that incredibly
dangerous. I deeply question social media for
a variety of reasons. uh something that i limit
myself very very very strictly to for reasons
of mental and physical health uh i don't i'm
surely in the minority of that but um so confirmation
bias uh as a you know musically starts with a
particularly falling octave this is a g flat
and f with a chord in the middle which i think
is b flat and c And that particular falling thing,
which is really kind of a sort of sort of falls.
And there's a huge amount of activity in that
work around that falling thing. That falling
figure occurs in every single measure, every
single one. And it's a very blank and mysterious
and enigmatic kind of sonority there. And that
piece was also composed rather quickly too. That
section was composed rather quickly. But there's
a huge amount of activity, a lot of noise, a
lot of outside influence, a lot of things that
essentially are telling the player, the pianist,
the composer, the listener, no, consider this,
look outside yourself, here's another perspective.
And the player essentially ignores it the whole
time, that falling thing, that tolling figure.
which maybe I lifted from Ravel a little bit
in one of his pieces, is on the present throughout
the whole thing until the very last chord. It
kind of almost resolves upwards in a sort of
stasis, a sort of peace, equilibrium. Wow. Then
ending with Commonwealth, and I like the title.
And also it actually ends with like a... toward
the end of probably 20, 30 seconds, it's silence,
right? Or maybe something else is going on, but
tell us. Yeah, so I'm glad you find the word
Commonwealth resonates with you. I like it very
much too. As I was deep in the piece and writing
it, I really wanted to have... a title or a word
or a series of words in the final section that
i feel would maybe just personally represent
what i would want for humanity what i do want
for humanity and the the word commonwealth probably
embodies that better than most words that i know
uh and you know the the idea of a commons a public
space which is the foundation upon um public
parks and public spaces of any kind in a city
uh where people can gather together and exchange
ideas and argue and fight or or whatever uh is
is very appealing to me that particular word
common is used a lot in um you know certainly
uh puritan england and uh new england where it
exists in many towns and cities boston common
is one of them the commonwealth of course refers
uh also to the british commonwealth of nations
which to me is a very pejorative, very negative
thing, which is, you know, is a sublimation of
empire. But the word itself, I think is, you
know, to me is a gathering together of peoples
with the understanding of hopefully achieving
prosperity for a group, and that no one should
be excluded from that particular group, you know,
in any particular way, and that wealth and security
and progress can be enshrined in this particular
concept of commonwealth. And that, to me, certainly
touched upon in Harari's book quite a bit, but
not explicitly so, not at all. But it's something
that I really wanted to end my piece with. So
it starts with a series of whole notes, rather
thick chords starting quietly and ending loudly.
uh and then that set of chords repeated again
and then it really kind of uh explores and again
as you mentioned we're really in the key of c
again almost entirely in in in the piece um and
uh i think i'd like to think it ends hopefully
big positively optimistically i do think that
you know maybe not to get on any sort of soapbox
and i certainly can't predict anything but I
choose to live in a world where I think there
are better days are ahead of us. And even if
I have absolutely no influence on any of that,
other than the fact that I can contribute to
the world and model a piece of music, then I
want to be the one to do that. And Commonwealth
is a way of me, you know, essentially saying
that this is, you know, this is my contribution
to it and ends at a very, very, very loud and
high. Note that the top of the piano is also
a C. There's actually also a little quotation
in there for those that are paying attention.
I am deeply moved by one of my artistic heroes,
which is the composer Dmitry, who is the composer
Dmitry Shostakovich, who of course was the Soviet
Union's most celebrated composer and lived in
a time of incredible oppression, unbelievable
circumstances that I cannot as a white male American
and born when I am. imagine at all um and in
so many of his works starting with the eighth
string quartet and this piano trio and the tenth
symphony and on and on has a particular um a
series of pitches that outlines his name d e
flat c and b natural uh and even that is in the
very beginning because even in the very end of
commonwealth because that to me is one of the
brave artistic utterances in music history in
that this man, this brave man who survived incredible
oppression of Stalinist Soviet Union, put his
stamp on everything that said, this is me. This
is who I am. And I wanted to have one small,
sublimated, hard -to -hear quote in that, which
I've used in another piece. My cello concerto
uses it as well. in my particular piece. Well,
incredible work and congratulations. Thank you
very much. How do you feel about creating such
an expansive, it's like a total length of this
piece itself is 50 minutes or something like
that? It is, yeah. I mean, I have to say I have
a kind of a hate -hate relationship with music
after I've written it. I mean, I find sometimes
what I do hard to listen to, and I'm usually
on to the next thing and really focusing on that
and feeling that I can do more, do better, do
different. But Sapiens is just, to me, it's been
quite successful and in the hands of such a great
interpreter, Vladimir, who, frankly, I happened
to meet in the middle of its composition. So
I had very, very different ideas for Sapiens.
You know, you mentioned when you were reading
the book in 2020, we had quite a bit of change
in our particular family circumstances. And the
idea that when I finished writing the piece in
21, that we would do some sort of global premiere
in three different continents with three different
pianists taking sections of the piece. And we
do it all on Zoom. And to be perfectly honest.
I just got overwhelmed by the logistics of doing
that, and I just didn't have my heart in it.
I liked the idea. I had three pianists and three
continents that were willing to take it on, which
I think would have been very cool. And in the
midst of it, I was introduced to Vladimir by
a dear friend of mine, Shain Wang, who commissioned
and premiered probably my second largest piano
piece, which is called Cursive, years ago, for
Lincoln Center. And Cheyenne is on the faculty
at Manus too. And she said, you have to hear
this guy, Vladimir Rumyantsev. He's one of the
handful of people that I think could really play
your massive piece of music and realize and articulate
your ambitions for it. We were at the time, my
daughter was at Interlochen Arts Academy. We
were living, I was in residence there. We were
living temporarily in Northern Michigan, supporting
her. And Cheyenne sent me a clip of him playing
one section, Confirmation Bias, actually. And
I said I had to meet him when I come back to
New York. So I met him, we hit it off. He gave
the premiere here in New York. We did the recording
at the Sono Luminous Studios in February of last
year, which is in Virginia. And we, as I mentioned
in the fall, did a little tour in Chicago and
New York where he performed a piece, I lectured
and talked about it, did some interviews, and
it's just been such a great experience because
he is truly one of, I mean, I've been blessed
to work with a lot of brilliant musicians, especially
pianists, it seems, and he just, there's nothing
in his, nothing seems to intimidate him at all.
incredible memory for Tempe that I do not have
at all. And, well, in fact, everything about
him is exactly what I love about him. I don't
possess it on myself. So it's really been such
a great experience. So he's, we wouldn't be here,
wouldn't be having this conversation if it weren't
for Vladimir. And just out of curiosity, have
you ever had any direct contact with the author,
Harari, Mr. Harari? So, not direct with him,
but I do have the permission from his publisher
and for Sapienship, which is the nonprofit organization
that Harari started to promote the ideas and
the vision and the book several years ago. Before
I really got, well, I shouldn't say before I
got started, while I was started and, you know,
really thought that this was going to come together,
I contacted them and it took a while for me to
really. pin them down but they gave me the blessing
to utilize the work and the inspiration of the
book provided that the author was acknowledged
which well certainly he is in every interview
I do and every piece of text that we write about
it's inspired by him but I've not yet met him
directly and I would have to say I would love
to yeah and he should listen to your music he
might have already I hope so. I've sent it to
him and to his people, and they're very, very
aware of it, but I haven't heard back yet. So
you mentioned you've been traveling, touring
with the pianist Vladimir with the piece, right?
So he is performing, and at the same time, are
you giving some sort of lecture, master class
together? Yes, so we did that at the Manus School.
um where i met you a few months ago um you know
basically a lecture demonstration on my inspiration
for the piece and some of the signposts that
to listen throughout it he of course performs
it we did a somewhat similar thing in chicago
at a very cool new venue called the checkout
uh in early september that was more of an interview
with seth bausted who runs um access contemporary
music there and is the owner of the venue um
so We like to be able to do this as a sort of
collaborative thing where I don't touch the piano
at all, but I'm happy to talk about the piece
and the inspiration behind it, and he's happy
to play it. We'd like to do more. We do have
Wigmore Hall in London on our horizons. I don't
have anything firm yet, though I did meet with
him two weeks ago and at least planted the seed,
so I'm hopeful at some point. We may be able
to make that a reality sometime in the next couple
of years. It has not yet been played in Europe
or Asia or anywhere else for that matter. So
my hope is that the recording will, like any
recording should, give it life outside, you know,
my feeble little head in the hands of one performer.
And hopefully, you know, others will be inspired
to play it too. There's surely a ton of great
pianists that could make something of it. I would
love to continue working with Vladimir and we
definitely will. But, you know, we really want
to expand it into performances in other parts
of the world and discussions if they're merited.
Yes. Yeah. And then I saw, I think, photo or
video of you at Manus with the piano. And then
also I saw, how do you call it, projector or
screen. showing the but have you ever done any
of these things like where there's a picture
showing while performing or something like that
or have you thought of it i have thought of it
and i have to say i hadn't thought of it before
that and that's problematic because a couple
people came after up to me after that show and
said like you know this is great great talk great
thing that you had the image of the album which
is you know right here um right up there But
what you didn't have is, at the very least, letting
me know what section I'm in. Because even though
there are pauses between all but one of the movements,
the people weren't really clear where they were.
And a couple of people said, wow, the piece sounded
shorter than it was. I can't believe that was
52 minutes or whatever it was. So at the very
least, I would like to do something where we
can indicate the movement sections in sort of
an AV. type presentation and maybe just maybe
um if we want to uh you know i would love to
one day commission someone to do a film to accompany
uh accompany this i have a um colleague who i've
met within the last couple years actually met
him at another piano recital that i had of another
piece of mine uh early last year his name is
j henry fair And he does an enormous amount of
film and video and photography taken from airplanes
and helicopters. And his focus is on what man
has done to the landscape of the world. So there's
a lot of very interesting river deltas and polluted
and degraded landscapes and mine tailings and
things like that. It might be a little depressive.
um but there's certainly a lot of inspiration
that we could you know maybe look at uh for something
down the road so yes i would like to do that
for sure yeah it would be amazing such a great
piece so as a pianist you know but as a composer
do you hope the pianist to play the in its entirety
in back to back in order in one concert or can
we play maybe one separately Well, as I mentioned,
the confirmation bias was performed a couple
of times by Vladimir on its own as part of a
recital program with Mozart and Haydn and Chopin
or whatever else. And I think that's just fine.
I would prefer it performed as a whole piece,
but I would never, well, I don't think in any
case of anything I've ever written, say that
it would be not right to play a section of a
piece. Two of my concertos that I've written
have been excerpted. The final movement has been
played of each, which I felt was just fine. I
don't really consider this a multi -movement
piece, but it really is a multi -sectional piece.
So I think if someone feels particularly connected
to one or more sections of the piece, by all
means, you have my blessing as a composer, for
sure. Is the score available? It sure is. For
anyone who asked me, I send it out all the time
via my website. It's not there present on the
website to view in its entirety. There are, I
believe, segments of it. But for anybody who
wishes to contact me directly, I'm happy to share
it with anybody. I work with a couple of different
publishers, but much of my work is published
in my own company called Cantabile, and I make
it available freely. and without charge to anyone
who wants any of my piano work. So it's just
reach out to me. So how can we be in touch with
you? Is there a website, SeanHickey .com? SeanHickey
.com is there. Contact me, Paige. Send me your
info. I'll get the email, and either I or my
assistant will have it emailed. And for those
that want it printed and bound. Just require
a bit of postage for that. We can ship that out.
That's not a problem. And then where can we listen
to your music? So you can, and I hope others
do, follow me wherever you listen to music on
any of the platforms. Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon.
If you go to my website, SeanHickey .com, you
will see listen links and buy links for most
of the recordings I have. Sapiens, I believe,
is my 12th commercially available. I had another
one earlier this year, another piece on a program
this year, interesting program. So wherever you
listen, you can find me. I would encourage your
viewers and your listeners to follow me on Spotify
or wherever they normally listen to music. The
vast majority of the people, and this is what
I do in my other job, stream where access is
more important than ownership. In our world of
streaming, you can access my music anywhere and
it's as easy for you as it is for the person
next door. But for those that really want to
buy and purchase and experience the physical
manifestation of the piece, again, that's it
right there. You will be able to buy that wherever
records are sold. So Amazon record stores or
via the website sonoluminous .com. record label
based in Virginia run by a dear friend of mine,
Colin Ray, who really got behind the recording
of this piece when I first presented it to him.
So sonoluminous .com as well. Sonoluminous .com.
Great. Thank you so much. Is there anything else
you want to mention about this album, Sapiens?
I think I just encourage people to listen, to
listen critically. It doesn't necessarily need
a program at all. hopefully to enjoy it. I think
it lends itself a lot to greater enjoyment if
you do have an understanding of the program and,
you know, all of my sort of reasons for doing
it as this piano is the sort of meta instrument
as voyeur and witness to history, not just our
deep, deep past, but our present and maybe our
future as well, united in the sort of common
cause. But ultimately, I think people can and
should enjoy it without understanding or knowledge
of that program. I just want to have this particular
piece have a bigger and better and greater life
beyond the handful of performances that it's
had and beyond this recording, which I'm very
happy with. So I encourage others to pick it
up. I encourage others to listen. I hope people
reach out to me via my website. And stay tuned
for more. So now I want to change the subject.
With over 20 years at Naxos and now leading Pentatone,
which is an independent record label, you've
seen countless records come and go, I'm sure.
So in your experience, what is the secret sauce
that allows a record to transcend its era and
become truly timeless? Well, I would direct...
your listeners attention to an article i wrote
recently which you'll find on linkedin and also
on the pentatone website the news section of
the pentatone website and the title of the article
is release rationale why and why now and um this
i think relates to sapiens and there's a good
segue from sapiens um the the whole point of
a successful recording in this industry and you're
right i've been in it for more than three decades
is uh Storytelling needs to be at the heart and
the center of everything a recording artist must
do. A recording should never be a list. It should
never be a concert program unless that concert
program has storytelling at its heart. And in
that particular article, I did my best to articulate.
So at Pentaton, you can imagine we receive roughly
a dozen or more submissions every week from unknown
artists to some of the biggest artists in the
world. big, big names that you and your listeners
will know very, very well. And sadly, many of
them don't put a whole lot of thought into, you
know, what is important to them. On the piano
over here, I have tacked up on the side of it
something that I is there to remind myself, but
it's a quote from Arnold Schoenberg, who's not
a composer I feel particularly simpatico with
necessarily. But he said one great thing is that
one must be convinced of the infallibility of
one's own fantasy, which is another way of saying
be yourself, right? Be your best authentic self.
And, you know, that's really the thing. A couple
of calls I had before you are with a couple of
rather notable artists that I had to kind of
say, you know, let's flesh out your idea a little
more. Let's understand a little more about what
you're trying to do and trying to say. There
are roughly 6 ,000 commercially available classical
music recordings released annually. That's how
many there were last year. I am the chair of
one of the Recording Academy committees for composition.
I'm the chair of that. We reviewed over 2 ,000
submissions in classical, which is, I'm told,
more than twice hip -hop and rock. You know,
there's a huge amount of music being written.
There's a huge amount of music being recorded.
And there's a huge amount of music being released
every year. And in order for your particular
project and the infallibility of one's fantasy
to stand out is to put storytelling, I think,
at the heart of everything that you wish to do.
And when you do that, there's a lot more interest
from media. There's a lot more interest from
our DSP partners, Spotify, Apple, et cetera.
And it makes our job easier because we help tell
the story with the artist. And at Pentatone,
we have 11 -person staff. We have in -house sales,
marketing, PR, communication infrastructure that
routinely teases out of the artist why is it
that they do what they do, what makes it important.
Why is what you do unique in the world? I mean,
as you know, there's surely a lot of people in
the world that can play Chopin on the piano.
And it takes nothing away from the talent of
any one of them. It certainly takes nothing away
from the brilliance of that particular composer,
because in my mind, he's more brilliant the more
you listen. But one must ask why, and related
to that, why now? And then maybe related to that
second question, why me? And if you can't fully
answer that question, it's probably not time
to necessarily make a recording, or maybe time
to make something that... is a little different
than what you had set out to do. That's a huge
part of my public speaking work. And my work
at Pentatone is discussing that with artists
around the world. Wow, that's incredible. So
you also teach entrepreneurship to fellow musicians.
I've seen the video before on social media. And
so what you know about with the streaming and...
also we have to think about sustainability as
an artist and then ai is creating also music
these days i guess so from everything you've
seen as a musician and also as a someone who
who's a ceo of pentatone music so do you still
feel hopeful about our industry music making
well what do you think yeah yeah i wouldn't be
in it if i wasn't hopeful because i think as
i mentioned earlier i wanted to end my piece
with some degree of hope uh and i definitely
believe because i choose to believe that there
is a lot of hope i mean uh the one thing that
uh you know i did not I am not streaming native
and I'm not iPhone native, but those that are
20 years younger than me are. And I very distinctly
remember a time as I worked in one that people
discovered music in two ways, either on the radio
or going to a record store. Or a third way, a
friend turned you on to a particular thing. All
of those things are valid now. They still very
much exist. But the fact that streaming opens.
you know the window to the world's music and
you know with the access you know just your particular
device to be able in moments notice to be listening
to something that you haven't heard of or you're
curious about this artist or this composer or
that work and to be able to do it just at a at
a touch of a button is something we take for
granted but it's utterly utterly revolutionary
of course same is true with video same is true
with on -demand anything same is true with delivery
of You know, whatever your next meal is going
to be, you know, being able to dream it and envision
it. And if you live in New York, it's probably
at your front door in an hour. So all of these
things are quite revolutionary. And someone who's
my age, I don't ever want to lose the sort of
sense of wonder that we have with this development
of technology. There certainly are threats. I
feel, and I've written about this too, there's
both huge threats and huge opportunity as a result
of AI. The biggest threat that I think AI poses
from the issue of rights is the ability to take
money out of the pockets of music rights holders,
which is to say songwriters and composers and
record labels. Because right now, if you're,
say, a music director of a production company,
and you have a particular scene in your movie
that you need um whatever seven seconds of quasi
eastern sounding violin music uh that starts
quietly and ends loudly and maybe there's a choir
in the last four seconds um that is a question
that we at pentatone get almost every day and
uh just as an example of one and we might have
a number of hours only to respond to it with
the knowledge of our catalog AI can crawl our
catalog and determine what is the most suitable
stuff that might fit that particular spec. But
to take it further, right now, artificial intelligence
can produce exactly that on spec in a matter
of seconds, and there's no rights behind it at
all. So there's no remuneration for a creator
because there is no human creator behind that
particular seven seconds of music that's used
in the film. And I think that's very detrimental
and damaging because it takes the human element.
You know, if you have a human filmmaker, why
would you not have a human composer? But all
of that said, there's also a huge opportunity
for AI. You know, I think there is quite a lot
of opportunity and a lot of people use it as
a compositional tool to organize thoughts, just
like you might utilize ChatGPT to organize a
framework or an outline or a bio. You know, the
same is true, you know, in music. It's not necessarily
something that I personally want to do, but I
don't make a value judgment on those that do.
And a number of other things. I mean, AI, as
far as I'm concerned, if AI can do anything really
good and lasting in this or any lifetime is find
a cure for the diseases that ravage our world,
starting with cancer. Almost everybody I know
has been touched by cancer in one way or another.
And if it can do that. by replicating quickly
and methodically all of the things that human
beings have been slow relatively to do thus far,
whatever damage it might cause music and the
creators might increase longevity. And is that
a trade -off that we're willing to make? I would
say that many people would be okay with that.
But that is, you know, AI is something that we
deal with and talk about all the time in the
record industry. Yeah. It's a really scary thought,
but I don't think AI can ever recreate us, our
stories, and I don't know. I'm still hopeful.
I don't know that it can recreate either, but
I was at a conference two, if not three years
ago, where there was a music panel on AI. I wasn't
part of it, but I was in the audience, and a
woman played, started her talk with a piece of
music, play 30 seconds of music, and then 30
seconds of another piece of music, and ask the
audience to identify which one was AI -generated.
And it was quasi -Baroque -sounding, maybe Italian
to me. It was Vivaldi or maybe Corelli or something
like that, though I couldn't recognize the piece,
not that I would. And the answer in the end was
both of them were. And, you know, these kind
of experiments are replicated. quite a bit. We
don't know what the future has in these areas.
For me, the most important thing is to do all
we can to protect the rights of the creators
and the rights of the people that try to guide
the creators, the labels, the distribution entities,
everybody in the sort of music ecosystem that
helps us translate our ideas into commercial
realization. When humanity looks back, hopefully
there's humanity still, decades or hundreds of
years from now, and when your music outlives
us, how would you like sapiens to be remembered?
That's a good question. Well, I guess I would
like to think ultimately that this is my small
contribution and the overall scope of humankind
to... you know presents something that i hope
is hopeful and lasting and which is no different
than uh the beethoven symphony or what have you
not to equate myself with beethoven but i mean
he and i i think have taken on some pretty ambitious
and broad and universal concepts um and that
i hope sapiens is you know viewed in that light
but i also hope that it's uh you know that my
work is um something that ultimately i mean i
hate to be dispassionate about it But it's the
work that I need to do. It's the work that makes
me who I am. I can't imagine a life where I'm
not doing it. I can't imagine living and not
making music. I've been doing it since I was
a child. And, you know, I just hope that others
can find some sort of fulfillment, some sort
of enjoyment, and maybe some recognition of themselves
in it, especially as I try to tackle some particular
concepts. that I think you don't necessarily
need to have a whole lot of knowledge of those
particular concepts, but it might help you, like
the Sapiens, understand a bit more of the reasons
behind everything. I think there's an issue with
classical music broadly that some people feel
that you have to have a huge amount of knowledge
to really understand and appreciate the music,
and I do not believe that to be true. I do not
believe that you need to know what Brahms had
for breakfast every morning in Vienna, wherever,
when he was writing his piano sonata or whatever.
That might provide some interesting background
if you ever go to these great places where the
masters lived and you experience how they might
have lived a little bit. It does help understand
it if you're privileged enough to do some of
those things. But classical music requires one
thing of you, one thing of the listener overall,
in my mind, and that's time. Time is incredibly
valuable, and it seems our intention spans continue
to contract and get shorter, not because we want
them, but because the world is saying, like,
we're going to give you more and more and more
and more. And music is codified into a really
horrible word. I call it the C word, and that's
content. And my music is not your content. My
music is mine. Only I can do it, at least I believe
so. And, you know, anyone's music is their art.
It's no one's content. Content is a term utilized
by the tech companies, by big tech to, you know,
overlord all of the creative activities of a
great many artists throughout human history.
It's not content. It may look like content. It
may feel that way. It's another video. It's another
sound file. It's another stereo file uploaded
onto a platform. And broadly, yeah, I understand
what you mean, but that makes music and art sound
like a potato chip. You know, it's just there
and you can consume it to your heart's desire.
And when you're done with it all, how satisfied
are you? Maybe not too much. Well, thank you
for answering all these questions. Some of them
are tough, but I learned a lot. It's a masterclass.
So tell us what you have coming up. like besides
touring for the sapien but do you have any other
uh exciting maybe performances or another new
endeavor i do indeed yeah so um in april my guitar
concerto will be premiered it's called congregate
settings yep And that will be in Miami at the
Frost School of Music. And it's a rather unorthodox
concerto in a couple of different ways. It was
conceived when I was at Interlochen. It was commissioned
in conjunction with Interlochen, but we're ending
up having the premiere elsewhere. And it's a
two -section work, two -movement work. Two things
that are different about it is that it's conceived
one movement for the classical guitar and the
second movement or second section for the electric
guitar. And it is not a standard symphony orchestra,
but a wind symphony. There's a particularly American
type of ensemble, winds, brass, and percussion,
and a very large one. So that will have its premiere
in April in Miami at the Frost School of Music.
And then I go to Tallinn, Estonia, where I'm
curating the next Audio Klassik conference, which
is a great gathering of labels and musicians
and artists and artist managers. We're just about
the most notable one in the world that I'm curating
some of the discussions and panels around. So
that's happening just coincidentally right around
that same time. And then my next work is one
that has been commissioned. by the great violinist
Philippe Quint, who I've worked with in the past,
who's commissioned a violin concerto from me,
which is called Systems of Oppression. And we
are in the fundraising stage now. We just had
an appeal go out pretty widely to a group of
people that we hope to raise funds to produce
a recording of the work. We have commitments
from three orchestras in three different countries.
very excited about uh to give premieres in 27
28 uh but we uh we're at the fundraising stage
right now which is uh part of the sort of uh
i don't know what you call it mechanics of being
a composer sometimes uh dealing with a lot of
this uh communication operational stuff yeah
yeah yeah well that's exciting thank you yeah
so for our listeners please go to seanhickey
.com to learn more and also to get get the latest
updates about Sean's work. Right. Thank you.
Great. I appreciate it. So it's been a really,
really wonderful conversation. And so but before
I let you go, we have one more thing to do. It's
called the piano part rapid fire questions. And
I asked some questions. I wanted to answer them
with the shortest response as possible. No explanation
is necessary. Just a way to end our conversation
on a positive note, I guess. I'll try to do short.
All right. All right. Question number one. What
is your comfort food? Pizza. Great. How do you
like your coffee in the morning? Black. Cats
or dogs? Dogs, though I have two cats. Sunrise
or sunset? Sunsets. Summer or winter? Summer.
Okay, level two. It's going to be a little harder.
What skill have you always wanted to learn but
haven't had a chance to? Skiing. What is your
word or words to live by? Have a good time all
the time. Nice. Favorite venue you have ever
performed in or dream venue, maybe? That I've
been in or had my work done in? Probably Whitmore
Hall in London. What is the most important quality
you look for in other people? Truth. Name a composer
you wish more people knew about. Oh, boy. I could
give a huge range of answers to that one. Picking
just one, I would say, I don't know, since I
talked about him earlier, Alberto Ginastera.
Name one piece in your current playlist. I know
it's hard. Ooh. Doesn't have to be classical.
In my current playlist, lately the music of William
Walton and also Brian Eno. Alright, so the last
question. Fill in the blank. Music is blank.
Salvation. Ah, beautiful. Sean, thank you so
much for joining us today, for sharing your artistry,
your journey, and thoughtful reflections, and
congratulations once again for your magnificent
Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind for the
Piano Solo. They are amazing pieces and I would
love for my audience to check them out on SeanHickey
.com or you can listen to them on everywhere
on all major streaming platforms. And to everyone
listening, thank you for spending this time with
us. I hope this conversation stays with you and
I'd love to hear what you thought of this episode.
Feel free to leave a comment or share your thoughts
on your social media page and tag us at The Piano
Pod. We'll see you next time on the piano pod
thank you sean thank you so much i really appreciate
a great conversation oh wonderful conversation
thank you