Episode 06: James Kirby

A genius is someone who can apply seemingly isolated skills to everything in life…

-James Kirby

Welcome to episode 6 of FORTE Podcast!

I studied with Professor James Kirby at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama between 2013-17 where we worked on repertoire ranging from Bach, Chopin, to Schoenberg.

The most recent was a big project where he prepared me for a big performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto no.1 at the RWCMD. James is an alumnus of Royal Academy of Music, London, having studied there with the late pianist, Hamish Milne; and then moving on to the Moscow Conservatoire with Tatiana Nikolayeva and Elisso Virsaladze.

This conversation was an extremely meaningful one not because it's always a pleasure to catch up, but to get to understand some deeper insights to the musical questions I find personally important. I've always wanted to hear in full spectrum his stories and philosophies.

PLUS a bonus treat was that I got to see Arthur Rubinstein's and Olivier Messiaen's handwriting up close!!

Timestamp:

(0:49) James' piano studio

(3:44) Lockdown experience as a professional musician

(9:56) Learning all the Beethoven Sonatas

(13:18) Learning Beethoven Symphonic transcriptions

(16:03) Other career paths

(22:27) James' first ever advice to me

(25:15) James' late teacher, Hamish Milne

(32:57) Pianistic development at RAM and Moscow Conservatoire

(41:51) James' pianism today

(44:07) Musicality: Nature or Nurture

(48:14) Making a good sound on the piano

(51:37) Thoughts on Brendal's "Titans in a museum" statement

(59:02) Favourite edition of scores

(1:00:14) University Days vs. Post-graduation Life

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Twitter @AnthonyKaChun