Page 109 - PDF Flip TR Program Demo

PM: Well, that’s a question you’ll have to ask the audience! That’s hard for me to answer. I always refer to music as a narrative in an abstract language. It’s a language that we are surrounded with; music is in anything from heartbeat on- wards. But at the same time, when you speak about “art music” or “classical music,” people will often say, “I don’t know enough about it. I don’t know what to think of it.” So, I try to set the scene in which I open the door to what I play with facts that anybody might understand: the setting, the time. . . . I let music speak its own language, but I try to open the door through which somebody can hopefully experience it in a more welcoming way.
DH: Of all the things in life, why did you choose to play piano?
PM: I started playing when I was nine, relatively late by
music standards. I was fascinated by music. I heard it on the radio and television. Why did I want to play piano as opposed to violin or cello? I have no idea, but somehow, I did. I would say it was not conscious. It was something I did because I loved it. As I go on now, I look at what I do in a much larger picture. In other words, I’m getting away from the piano. And I don’t mean not to play, I mean I’m interested in seeing the larger picture. How do piano, music, arts fit into society? And what is it we contribute to the world? I don’t mean in any grandiose way, but just on a Wednesday at five o’clock, what is it I can offer to an attorney leaving an office? While I love the piano in and of itself, it’s not my main interest. My main interest is music and more so, how it fits into the everyday world. So, in a funny way, I rarely think about the piano as an end. The piano is just a tool, and a wonderful one.
2018 Summer Season 109