From the very first...

What is it like to work under pressure and be limited by time? Work-related, I mean.

We all probably know that, in some professions, it is more pronounced when you have deadlines and in others, you can work a little more relaxed, but no one is completely exempt from that.

Maybe if you think that artists can work more relaxed... maybe, in a way, although there are always self-expectations and also meeting expectations from the audience, so hard work is inevitable. Is my job hard and stressful, or is it much easier than in other professions? I don't know, because I have never imagined having (nor tried) a profession other than the one I have. Maybe the details and the form of expression change, but the essence is always there - the piano.

I knew that the piano had to play the only, and decisive role in my life from the very beginning, from the very first piano lesson I had when I was eight years old. That day, that class, that classroom, my piano teacher, and I believe her touch of my hand and her voice were something like "being in the right place at the right time". At that moment, I made a decision and set a goal that has never become anything less than the only one.

I had been waiting for that moment for almost a year. When I was seven, I enrolled in a preparatory class at a music school with the hope that I would start learning the piano right then. But it didn't quite work out that way. For a year, I only attended solfeggio lessons, which is an educational program in the country I lived in. You couldn't start learning an instrument until you were eight. You can imagine how eager I was to start playing the piano properly after a year of only learning to read and sing notes.

I could find solace at home, luckily!! My mom taught me a few simple songs but she's not a piano teacher so she couldn't help me much. Everything else was me making up nonsense on the old piano we had in the old house. It was the piano my mom and aunt had when they were little and also learning the piano. They also had some piano books that I didn’t understand at the time.

This summer when I was visiting my parents, I found some old books which I had appropriated a long time ago. They were one uncle's books. He was a pianist, my aunt’s first husband (my dad’s family members) who unfortunately died many, many years before I was born. I didn’t get the chance to meet him, but these books are a memory and a reminder that someone else was a professional pianist in our distant family. (My mom and aunt didn’t continue their piano education beyond elementary school.)

The books also contained photos of famous singers from the times this kind of music was popular... I can't really determine the right genre... it is not strictly classical music but you needed the technique of a classically trained musician to be able to play these arrangements from light operas. Ah, yes, in English it is also called operettas, I checked now, very popular among the composers in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Stylish :))

Time shows its power, everything is fleeting, including these books... but you know, maybe the presence of some of these music scores and the stories I heard about that uncle I have never met contributed to my strong decision? Could be; however, the very first piano lesson can't be forgotten, ever.

How and when you have decided on your profession? Do you still remember it? Was it something that you knew from a young age or you were searching for the right thing until you found it?