JAMES STRECKER: Please tell us what you want the public to know about your work in the arts. For instance, how do you yourself describe it as a significant experience in your life and why exactly do you labour to make it exist?
NICOLAS NAMORADZE: Whether as a performer or composer, the work I do stems from the feeling and conviction that I have something to say—and music is my means of expressing it. It’s much less labor and much rather a way of life. There are many fields I am interested in, and I often wish I could have several lives to be able to pursue various careers; however, if I had to pick just one, it would without a doubt be what I am doing now.
JS: What exactly do you like about the work you create, as originator or as interpreter, or as both if such is the case?
NN: Whatever the nature of my work, it is as honest and true to my artistic intentions as I can make it.
JS: Please give us a brief autobiography, some stuff about yourself that is relevant to the essence of your work in the arts.
NN: I was born in 1992 in Tbilisi, Georgia, and grew up in Budapest, Hungary. I completed my undergraduate in Budapest, Vienna and Florence, and then moved to New York for my master’s at The Juilliard School and my doctorate at the CUNY Graduate Center. I was fortunate enough to study piano and composition with some of our era’s greatest masters, such as Emanuel Ax, John Corigliano, Zoltán Kocsis and András Schiff. I now pursue a busy international career as a performer and composer. It is a thrill to perform for audiences around the globe in some of the world’s most hallowed venues and collaborate with some remarkably inspiring colleagues.
Beyond my activities as a pianist and composer, I’ve also had for many years a keen interest in the cognitive sciences, and I’m currently pursuing postgraduate studies in neuropsychology at King’s College London, where my research interests include the effects of mental practice and mindfulness on musical performance.
JS: In what ways is your creative work fairly easy to do and in what ways is it difficult to realize? Why is it so?
NN: The difficulties are many, such as the relentless focus and dedication required, the immense technical demands as a performer, the challenges of interpretation, the grueling travel and performance schedules, the complex and taxing processes of composition, and so forth. However, I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing—and while it doesn’t make it easy per se, it is all enormously meaningful and gratifying.
JS: How does doing the kind of work you do in the arts change you as a person – and as a creator?
NN: Music of course is an expression of the human condition and imagination, and by engaging with it, whether as a performer or composer, I feel that I in a sense have lived many lives, through the myriad journeys and dramatic narratives of the art itself. This breadth of experience in turn informs one’s craft—a very special cycle.
I also think that artists often end up seeing life through the lens of their craft. Not only do my ears find interest in the sonic spectrum that accompanies our lives, but I also find myself being intimately attuned to the temporal structures of our day-to-day experiences, to their underlying rhythm.
JS: What kind of audience does your work in the arts interest? What new audience are you also seeking? Why to both questions?
NN: While much of the audience of our genre consists of veteran classical music lovers, it is of course essential to bring in new audiences, and in particular the future generations of listeners. This is something of a cliché, but nonetheless true. The universality and accessibility of this music is not reflected by its current reach, and new digital media present unique opportunities that we can make the most of.
JS: What are the most important parts of yourself that you put into your work in the arts?
NN: My artistic output is informed by my interest and curiosity in several fields, whether other artforms or realms such as the sciences; my many passions constitute the inspiration for my work.
JS: What are your biggest challenges as a creative person in the arts?
NN: Finding time! Between performing, composing, pursuing a neuropsychology degree, and launching a forthcoming digital platform, I’m doing my best to squeeze in more than 24 hours in a day.
JS: Please describe at least one major turning point in your life that brought you to this point as a creative person in the arts.
NN: In terms of my professional trajectory, my international career was launched in 2018 when I won the triennial Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary.
JS: What are the hardest things for an outsider to understand about your life as a person in the arts?
NN: I find that the many hours of practice and daily dedication to one’s craft involved in being a performer tends to be underestimated.
JS: Please tell us what you haven’t attempted as yet that you would like to do in the arts.
NN: I’ve written for many formations—solo instruments, chamber groups and orchestras, electronic and electroacoustic music as well scoring films and even installations—but I haven’t yet written for the stage. An opera sometime down the line would be an exciting project.
JS: If you could re-live your life in the arts, how would you change it and why?
NN: While one may always have taken a few different turns along the path, I’m happy with the direction my career is taking—and I’m still at the beginning of it, so I’m mostly looking ahead!
JS: Let’s talk about the state of the arts in today’s culture, including the forms in which you work. What specifically gives you hope and what specifically do you find depressing?
NN: Classical music is less present that it once was in media such as TV and radio—and, more broadly, in education systems and the general cultural consciousness. However, I’d echo my answer above to the question of audiences in saying that new digital platforms offer much promise in expanding the reach of such artforms.
JS: What exactly has the impact of the COVID pandemic been on your creative work and your life in the arts?
NN: While on the one hand concert life and travel ground to a halt, many opportunities also arose on the other. I had the time to write my doctoral dissertation (which eventually became a book that has just been published), begin another degree in a rather different field, and pursue a number of unique projects in the digital sphere.
JS: How has the pandemic changed you as a person?
NN: It has made me come to appreciate for many things we used to take for granted, as well as becoming more attuned to facets of the human experience that could sometimes get lost in the hustle and bustle of our life as usual; I think this has brought a new kind of patience.
JS: What’s next in the coming few years of your life in the arts?
NN: Many exciting projects are on the horizon for the upcoming season, including residencies at the Honens International Piano Competition and the Florida Grand Piano Series; recital appearances at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Le Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier, Beethovenfest Bonn, Miami International Piano Festival, Kulturpalast Dresden and Lugano Musica, among others; a tour of duo recitals for piano and electronic marimba with Lukas Ligeti to mark György Ligeti’s centenary in 2023; and a series of concerto performances with multiple Canadian orchestras of a new work written for me by Kati Agócs. I am also soon launching a new digital platform on music and the mind, in association with IDAGIO, the world’s leading classical music streaming service—this will definitely be a major focus of mine during the upcoming period.