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PROFILE


Preparing for a piano career


Ashley Fripp, a Yamaha piano scholar at Guildhall School of Music & Drama, talks about preparing for a career as a concert pianist


M


y appetite for exploring music came very late in my childhood, but a wave of enthusiasm struck me when my parents bought me a battery-operated keyboard for Christmas when I was


nine years old. I vividly remember hearing Beethoven's Sonata Op. 27 No. 2 (Moonlight) being played on the television and was utterly compelled by it. For a long period I listened almost exclusively to Beethoven's works and a strong need to play them drove me to teach myself to read and write music as quickly as I was able to. I distinctly recall the adrenaline rush and thrill I got from playing before so many people on one occasion in a local hotel. Thereafter it became my dream to play professionally.


Guildhall For the past four years of my BMus(Hons) course at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (GSMD), the scope of the curriculum has offered an intense programme of performance-based activities, academic and historical studies, the opportunities to build on skills in all areas of musicianship and professional development. It's impossible to express how much I have been inspired by my professors and peers; it is simpler to say that I believe the GSMD to have an absolutely outstanding faculty of wonderful musicians and that those around me, particularly my piano teacher, Ronan O'Hora, have been a constant stimulation for work and creativity, for which I'm tremendously grateful. I was recently delighted to learn that I have earned first-class honours for my degree and have also been awarded both the Concert Recital Diploma (Premier Prix) and the Kathleen Higginson Piano Prize for obtaining the highest degree results and final recital grade in my year group. I am excited to be taking up a place on a masters programme at the GSMD this term to continue my studies under Ronan O'Hora. Having access to a variety of pianos at GSMD has


been essential for someone preparing for concert life. As pianists, we are not afforded the luxury of travelling with our own instruments and having a range of leading piano brands at our disposal enables piano students to get to grips with the problems (and pleasures!) of performing on instruments that vary in terms of their sounds, actions and the way in which they respond.


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The scholarship with which Yamaha has so generously provided me throughout my undergraduate studies has been a crucial support


Yamaha scholarship The scholarship with which Yamaha has so generously provided me throughout my undergraduate studies has been a crucial support to me at the most important juncture of my musical development. It has been a substantial contribution towards the expense of studying and living in London and has enabled me to receive a world-class education. Yamaha has also kindly offered me masterclass opportunities and practising facilities at Yamaha Artists Services (based at Chappell's, London), which has given me invaluable experience.


Preparing distinctive performances Self-trust is perhaps the greatest factor that allows us to give reign to our own unique creative freedom in performance. But in order to have this we require absolute technical command, to know every single marking in the score back-to-front and to have a sound stylistic understanding. Once we walk out on the platform, however, we have to totally release ourselves from all of that. Our subconscious mind is far more capable than our conscious one in bringing all we have studied and practised together at once. In letting go and reacting to the music and our own playing we are far more likely to create something that speaks more personally, with a more sustained, emotional, narrative thread. It does require huge quantities of energy to connect and engage with the music in this way, but it is a self-perpetuating energy and, when it works, can be fantastically thrilling!


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