How is the career of a composer related to that of a professional piano player?
They are very closely related. Initially, I started my musical career as a professional piano player. Subsequently, I found being a piano player too repetitive and at 25 I decided to pursue composition in a professional way. I am very happy I started as a pianist. It helped me a lot with my composition. Piano is an instrument where you can play a melody with one hand and harmony with the other. Combining the two is the base for composition. This is not true for the flute, for example, on which you can only play a melody. My polyphonic ability was much helped by the Bach scores I played on the piano. Most of the orchestral composers, just to name the great ones, Mozart and Beethoven, for example, started by playing the piano. Between 20 and 30 I played the double bass in a jazz quartet. I found this very important for my experience as a composer. Double bass helped me better understand the foundations of the compositions I played. Q: What do you think about pop music? On nadir_latent an
