INTERVIEW

Q. Do you worry that the audience will hear your performance as background music to the animated film, without recognising Chopin’s genius?

I think that in a situation when kids are having one of their first encounters with this kind of music, the screen will reinforce their experience and help understand the music better—just as Tom and Jerry helped me!

Q. What kind of reception do you anticipate for western classical music in India, which has a strong culture in popular and art music of its own?

I think The Magic Piano will surely be well received here, just as in any other country, as kids are the most sincere and open-minded. I do think that music education needs to be supported, and what would also help is to have more classical music played on TV.

Q. Cat Concerto, which won an Oscar in 1951, features Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody no. 2, one of the works in your piano repertoire. Would you consider it a template for the combining of the two art forms?

I guess many kids wanted to be introduced to the piano after seeing that one! I love that short. I think there are many ways in putting these two forms together, provided the movie director has a good musical knowledge and phantasy, which Hugh Welmann, the creator of Magic Piano, certainly does.

Q. Broadly speaking, what are your views on music education programmes for children?

Art is an integral part of any culture, religion, philosophy and human being, and everyone should have a right to learn it. Music education needs to be supported, and what would also help is to have more classical music played on TV.