Young and successful pianist Pavel Vondráček (22): 'I didn't get into the Czech Academy of Performing Arts, now I'm studying at one of the most prestigious music academies in Boston'
How did you get into piano playing? What are the complete beginnings? I heard you started playing at the age of 3?
I really started playing the piano when I was 3 years old. I have a memory from that time of sitting at the piano and playing the bear, the lowest notes on the keyboard, and then the highest notes, the teacher called them bells. It was the kind of introduction to the piano that probably every child goes through. I got to it privately because my mother was taking mandatory piano lessons in college and she wasn't very good at it. So I guess she was hoping I'd be good at it. And surprisingly, I did. Later I changed piano classes with different teachers at the Poděbrady ZUŠ.
As a kid, I was never single-minded, so I needed to find a teacher or teachers who would meet my own needs and not follow a purely routine curriculum. Fortunately, my parents and I were able to do that pretty early on and not only did I last over 10 years with that teacher, but we also clicked humanly and still see each other to this day. She and her attitude is a big part of the reason I play piano today.
So you fell in love with the piano from the first time you met it?
The piano, along with the strings, is a real "enemy" from the start, according to many musicians. In the beginning of piano playing, hand coordination is probably the biggest problem, while for more advanced pianists, relaxation of the hands and the whole body, fingering or fluent playing from the notes are the problems. I started out on classical music, and I didn't take up the more popular music until later, when you start to find your own musical taste. But I didn't mind it at all, I didn't have any problems with memory or technique and I always enjoyed playing and listening to classical music.
Your work contains mainly classical music, but it also extends into popular music. What was your path to these genres?
Like any young pianist, I started with classical music very early on. The whole Czech music education is based on it and few people teach other music. Perhaps it is also because the credo of domestic music education is still to suppress nonart (non-classical music) as low-quality, inferior music. I've loved classical music from the beginning, even though I went through a period when I wanted to quit piano. Thanks to Chopin, however, I stuck with the piano, and today I love playing it the most of all composers. And although my albums and concerts mainly present my music, which is more of a popular nature, I would also like to record some classical works and bring some new wind to our environment. One day I might be lucky enough to play Chopin's first piano concerto with an orchestra, I would be really happy about that.
So what genre would you classify your music under?
I myself have trouble deciding what genre to put my music in. When I do find a genre that my music fits into, I listen to a few artists and am disappointed to find that they are very similar, but my music doesn't fit. It's probably because I don't listen to anything other than popular music and classical piano, or other pianists of more popular genres. That's why my music is so different and goes its own way, because I don't even subconsciously adopt their musical ideas and draw more from classical and pop. I got into more modern piano music about 10 years ago when I really liked to improvise. From that it was just a step to a distinctive style that I am constantly trying to rub together.
You say you draw from classical and pop. Who specifically inspires you the most?
To tell you the truth, unlike classical pianists, I don't have role models in the famous performers Chopin, Beethoven, Rachmaninov or anyone else. I have a great deal of respect for many of them, and I could listen to Barenboim's Beethoven almost all the time, for example. I grew up with classical music in my fingers, but surrounded by popular music. My dad was an avid vinyl collector back in the last regime, and even today he'll happily buy a CD that's really worthwhile. Personally, I like to listen to music from the 80s, Enya, Dido... More female singers than male singers, but there are exceptions. I also have a soft spot for sopranos, their voice was already an inspiration for many composers in the Romantic era, not only for their vocal works.
At the moment, I'm probably most inspired by the British soprano Sarah Brightman. Her early career, when she took classical music, added compositions in her own style and wowed the world, basically set her up for a career for the next 40 years after her success in The Phantom of the Opera. Even during her last world tour she was phenomenal, and that, of course, included the imaginative way she built the whole concert. She is the one who inspires me to offer a really great experience with the piano. Music is important, a lot, but without that amazing environment the experience wouldn't be nearly as good. That's what I miss a little bit at classical concerts.
Do you have similarly ambitious goals?
It will probably change in a few years, but at the moment I would like to introduce myself to a wider audience in our beautiful country and successfully complete the Czech part of the tour and, if the coronavirus allows, hopefully go to Europe in the spring and possibly overseas. But I want to break through mainly with my music, I like my privacy and I don't want to let it out to the media. I think everyone has the right to be themselves, whatever they want to be, and I don't see it as sensational.
I definitely don't want to get into debates about my sexual preference, I'm happy to have those with people I know and in the real world. And back to music, in the long run I probably wouldn't be angry for a gramophone statue, after all there isn't nearly as much competition in our genres, but I'd still rather see the enthusiasm of the people in the audience in front of me than the results of anonymous voting in various music polls.
At the young age of 22 you have already released two albums, can you give us a brief description of each of them?
I recorded my debut album "Lost in the Wind" when I was 15, freaking out in the recording studio and very nervous. We recorded mostly covers of popular songs and some of my own improvisations, nothing musically significant. Plus, I hadn't played much in front of people yet, and in the studio, knowing we were recording didn't do me much good. And even though the album was pretty good, I consider it more like a first pancake - you might throw it away, but eventually you eat it and it's okay, yet it's only from the second pancake that it starts to feel right.
After the experience in the studio, where many things didn't suit me and the expenses even for a really modest recording were quite high, I convinced my parents to try to use the capital the album brought me as efficiently as possible and to equip one room in the house with modest studio equipment. I recorded the album "Love Stories" on it back in 2015, which was in a drawer waiting for release until December 2019.
This album is really distinctly different from my debut in many ways. I'm a proponent of the concept album, where you may have some songs that people like on their own, but the album as a whole, from start to finish, makes the most sense. Only that will give the listener of my album a complete experience. In addition to the piano, I also use strings, bells, percussion, some backing synths and also organ. And the biggest change from the first album? Everything on "Love Stories" is my own creation, no covers.
You're a student at Berklee College of Music in Boston, USA. How is it different from studying in the Czech Republic and why did you go there to study?
I even applied to HAMU in Prague, I wanted to study music production here. At that time I went to the entrance exams with experience from real studio and my own recording. From the first round, 4 of us advanced to the practical part, which I personally found very strange. The committee looked at me with great disdain and the more I argued with my practical experience, the more hostility I felt.
In the end they took two other applicants and when I realised that I would have to pass an entrance exam in counterpoint and musical forms, which no real music producer needs, I wasn't too sorry. About two months later I applied to Berklee in the US, thinking I'd just give it a shot. And it worked. In the end, I'm very glad I didn't get accepted to AMU.
Studying in the Czech Republic is always focused on theoretical knowledge. Moreover, there is no college in the Czech Republic that teaches anything other than classics. Therefore, even majors like music production or music management are mainly focused on classical music. Berklee is the leading academy for popular music and jazz, and its graduates have contributed to some of the most successful songs, picking up Grammy after Grammy, and then teaching at Berklee themselves. So we too can "breathe" a little of the atmosphere of a real producer or sound engineer's work.
But music is an environment where education is no guarantee of anything. Art schools churn out a lot of graduates every year who don't have the right character or enough luck to make a career. On the other hand, many people who have never studied art quickly take to the skies and are suddenly known all over the world. It's a bit of a lottery, only in the music lottery there's perhaps a slightly better chance of winning.
You are studying at the same time at Berklee College of Music in the Czech Republic, how do you juggle that? How often do you "pendlet" between the Czech Republic and the USA?
Surprisingly enough. Americans are a bit more modern in higher education than we are and you can study a lot of it online. Of course, it's not the same as being able to go to an actual on-campus university, but you can build a career while studying or going to another school. Otherwise, of course, it's no problem to go to the Boston campus and the European campus in Valencia, but you can also study purely online if you want. I'm not really afraid of cheating, because it's pretty hard to do in music in particular. During the semester I do my portion of work at Berklee every week, that takes about 8 to 10 hours if I'm handy, and the rest I focus on my studies here at the College of Music and also my music.
What's your audience like? Is it a classical and classical music audience or do you make music for everyone?
Personally, I think that the exclusive lovers of classical music would be disappointed by my performances, because there is not so much pure classical music. However, there are many people who listen to classical music and will also listen to pop, rock, even metal, simply anything else. On the other hand, even lovers of popular music will find something in my work, precisely because it draws musically from popular genres and the tour itself is built on pop elements.
What are your experiences and experiences from your travels and performances abroad? Can you highlight any interesting stories?
To be honest, there's not much experience of performing abroad yet unfortunately. This spring was supposed to be a concert year in the US, but the coronavirus was really raging there and the conditions for performing were unfortunately not there. But it has happened to me that my pianist colleague and I have got the program wrong, and you either have to react in a hurry or it ends up really bad.
On the current tour, I'm changing my clothes several times, and since I often only have a minute or two to change, I'm always worried about what hair creations or how unkempt my shirt will be when I appear in front of people. Then it happens that with video recordings of concerts I relive in retrospect the aesthetic damage I caused the audience. I really suffer from that. Anyway, this needs to be fine-tuned for the fall.
How will your autumn tour go, what can listeners look forward to and why should they come?
I'm hoping it will be really nice! Listeners can look forward to about an hour and a half long concert of piano music. Together with guest pianists and violinists, we will present selected pieces from my two albums, music by Yiruma, Einaudi, Chopin... Compared to traditional classical recitals, the environment of the concert is completely different.
We have focused a lot of energy on the program and everything around it. The order of the pieces is very important, which pieces and when they will be played, but also the environment in which I perform. For the whole tour we chose interesting concert halls and buildings that offer an atmosphere in themselves. We spice it all up with lighting, candles and of course violins at some concerts. In December we performed a very similar programme at two of our latest album launches and the amount of positive feedback was breathtaking. I think we really have something to offer the audience.
We've had an unpleasant few months with the coronavirus pandemic. How much has it changed your plans, disrupted your studies, concerts...? As an artist, you've certainly been very limited...
Unfortunately, the coronavirus completely cut off my artistic endeavors in the US and forced us to move the Czech tour from May and June to August, September and October. With the way the coronavirus is evolving and coming back, I'm a little worried about what it will look like epidemiologically in the fall during the tour. We don't want to postpone the tour to the spring anymore, that's when I'd like to start preparing new projects, and since I've already invested a really huge amount of time, effort and money into the current tour, I'd hate to postpone it indefinitely. Fortunately, our concerts are rather intimate in nature and the capacity of the venues is usually relatively small, so a possible reduction in the number of visitors might not threaten us that much. I'm more worried about people wanting to come at all.
What do you like to do in your spare time? Or are your days filled only with music?
I spend a large part of my day with music, either actively or passively. But it's certainly not the only focus of my life, and I think that's right. I like to work out, and although many believe it can be harmful to my hands, I don't notice as many negative effects. Fortunately, I have discipline, so when a show or a whole tour is coming up, I simply cut the gym out of my weekly schedule and don't stress my arms. I generally like to play sports, and I try to get some exercise throughout the year. When I have some time, I like to read a book, watch a nice movie or documentary. I can't forget my family and close friends, who I spend time with often and outside the digital world.
What do you consider to be your greatest achievement so far?
To be honest, I haven't had enough time to think about this question yet. I'm constantly trying to push forward, work on my career and so I guess I consider my biggest achievement to be able to be part of such a big tour at all. Since I want to make a living with music in the future, I have to focus on all the partial successes and keep working on myself and my music.
