My relationship with the piano has developed through music that demands very different kinds of attention: the structural clarity of Bach, the physical and emotional intensity of Beethoven and Rachmaninoff, the lyricism of Chopin, and the more spacious sound worlds of Philip Glass, Arvo Pärt and Sofia Gubaidulina.
At Royal Holloway, my study of Classical and Romantic repertoire—primarily with Dr Stanley Mathew and Dr Zubin Kanga—helped me develop a disciplined understanding of touch, voicing, phrasing and musical architecture. Rather than approaching virtuosity simply as speed or technical display, I learned to consider how physical gesture at the keyboard could communicate direction, tension and character.
My work on contemporary repertoire with Dr Mary Dullea expanded this approach further. Pieces by Glass, Pärt and Gubaidulina encouraged me to listen more closely to resonance, repetition, silence and subtle variations of colour. Together, these works trace my development from interpreting the piano as a traditional concert instrument toward understanding it as a space for sound, gesture and experimentation.