Haydn, Schubert, Saariaho & More with Pianist and Steinway Artist Miki Aoki

Greg Kostraba: This is KBACH's Heart of the Arts podcast. I'm Greg Kostraba. Miki Aoki will give a solo piano performance at the Recital Hall of the Steinway Piano Gallery in Scottsdale, Saturday afternoon, July 11th at 4:00. And she's in the studio to talk about the program. Welcome!

Miki Aoki: Thank you, Greg. Thank you for having me.

Kostraba: Before we start talking about this wide-ranging program you'll be performing on the 11th, tell us a bit about your journey as a pianist.

Aoki: Well, I started playing the piano when I was four years old. I grew up in Japan. My, my mother originally really wanted me to become a violinist before I was even born. But a friend of mine in the neighborhood started taking piano lessons, and when I was introduced to this teacher, I really fell in love, and I started taking piano lessons. When I was nine years old, I moved to England because of my dad's job, and that's when I entered the Purcell School, which is a music school for children up to age of 18. And that was when I had idea of studying in Germany, but also had a dream of attending an American university, and that's how I ended up studying at Indiana University for my bachelor's degree. And then I eventually went to Yale for my master's. I did go back to Germany to study in Hamburg for quite a while, and I stayed in Europe after that, doing different jobs in different countries. I did many collaborative piano positions in Germany and Austria and so on, but eventually I decided to come back and to do my DMA at Stony Brook, and that's how I came back to the United States.

Kostraba: And Stony Brook had the famous pianist, still does I think, Gilbert Kalish.

Aoki: Yes, that's where I met Gil, and that was such special thing that I went and got my DMA quite late in my life, and that I had a chance to meet Gil. I met him at the auditions, and I never forget. We hadn't met before, and he just asked me, you know, "What can we do for you?" And I just told him I, I've been living in Europe, I was very happy playing the piano there and doing my, the job I've been doing. I love doing collaborative piano, but I said, "I have this dream that I want to teach in the United States, and I think I need a DMA." And he said, "Okay. Yeah, I think that's a good idea to come and study here." And he was just so wonderful, and actually during the time I studied at Stony Brook was when the pandemic hit, so there was a whole period of time we couldn't meet in person, and at that time Gil already was, you know, in his 80s, and he said originally he was not going to do anything online, because he never has, and he doesn't feel like he needs to, but he ended up teaching so much for us online, and also creating online classes and sort of a meeting place for all the pianists. And we still talk about it among the students from that time that, you know, that really saved us. It could have been so lonely, stuck in your apartments in New York, but that was such a great time.

Kostraba: It's wonderful that he was able to do that and foster that sense of community. That was such a difficult time.

Aoki: Oh, it really was, and yeah, he really made that a sort of a positive outcome of that time.

Kostraba: And then you came to ASU about four years ago now, where you've been teaching collaborative piano. And now you're a Steinway Artist! Tell us a little bit about how that happened, and what it's meant to you since the announcement.

Aoki: Yeah, so it's been about a year since I became a Steinway Artist, and it's been a lifetime dream. While I was growing up in England, you know, I would go to these concerts and there were so many Steinway Artists, and it is a process that you have to go through to become a Steinway Artist, which is very complex and you need to have substantial number of concerts and so on. So, it was just by wonderful luck that I met Henry Welsby here at Steinway, and he also encouraged me to apply, and it took a very long time to get all the material together, but when it did work, it was just so exciting.

Kostraba: Yeah, that is thrilling. And because of that, the Steinway Piano Gallery, in addition to ASU, has become kind of your home for performing here in the valley.

Aoki: It is so true. I really had such wonderful opportunities last year to go back and perform there so many times. Also my students performed there, and it really is a wonderful place that I have alongside ASU.

Kostraba: Let's talk about this recital that you're giving on July 11th. As I mentioned, it covers a wide range from Handel and Haydn, all the way up to a piece written in 2005 by Kaija Saariaho. Is there an overall theme for the program, or did you just decide, "Well, I like this piece, oh, I like that piece, and that piece kind of works with that, and maybe that'll become a set."? How did you decide on what the program was going to be?

Aoki: I am so passionate about programming. There's no clear theme as such, but I try to make it abstract, but that makes still sense. And I think in this program, I'm kind of basing on the theme of transformation. For example, the Handel's aria is transcribed to solo piano by Moszkowski. The Liszt transcription of Schubert songs. And again, it's very abstract, but also Saariaho's Ballade is a very short piece, actually, and it's a beautiful piece that maybe it is difficult to listen to it for the first time, but I always also try to find a piece that's relatively unknown or contemporary, in this case Saariaho's Ballade is written in 2005, I believe, and it's a very short piece, it's about 5 minutes, so it's not overwhelmingly long for people who are new to more contemporary music. And this piece was written for a pianist, Emanuel Ax. It just has this texture that is so complex, but you hear glimpse of this theme that keeps returning. And then at the end, it actually returns to the opening. That kind of transformation that happens during the piece and then the return is also part of that kind of a very abstract theme that I have.

Kostraba: That works really well, the transformation, not just from the aria to solo piano, but within that particular piece. I was listening to that piece this morning before we talked, and it reminds me a lot of Ravel, Gaspard de la nuit. Not so much the harmonies, exactly, but the piano writing is, to me, reminiscent of Ravel.

Aoki: I think you're absolutely right, and that's actually also Gilbert Kalish that really introduced me to try to integrate more of the contemporary works into my repertoire. And originally I said, "Oh, I just don't even know where to, how do I choose? How do I know if it's a good piece?" And he said, "Oh, don't get too complex about it, play it, and if it makes sense to you or if it feels good in your fingers, that's probably a good piece."

Kostraba: Let's touch on a couple of other pieces. You mentioned briefly the Handel-Moszkowski piece, "Let Me Weep" from Rinaldo. And then you've got a Haydn piano sonata, one of the very latest sonatas, the C major number 60. In terms of transformation, how does that fit in this program?

Aoki: You know, that's one piece that I did try to fit in because I love the piece so much, and also for me, growing up in England, I like Haydn's music to be always sort of part of my repertoire. I think that Haydn's music, especially in the late period of these piano sonatas, they are so colorful in the drama, and the first movement is so full of humor, and the second movement is very improvisatory. And this kind of character changes, to me, is a transformation of sort of different stages of maybe life, so that kind of, again, is a very different sort of transformation of the pieces, the movements go on, I think, in the sonata.

Kostraba: Right. And you talked about the transformation in the abstract, so there could be multiple, and there are multiple ways for this, for this phrase. And you've also got a set of Schubert, and Liszt transcription of Schubert songs. You're doing two Moments musicaux and a couple of transcriptions including that amazing "Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel." Tell us about that little mini-set of pieces within this entire program.

Aoki: Yeah, so that's actually my newest set of pieces that I've been working on, and I've been trying to fit a Schubert concept into a program, but as you know, a lot of the Schubert works are very substantial. And when, these days, I'm also trying to come up with concept programs that are not overwhelmingly long, I think in the past there was a time where I wanted to fit in everything that I love playing, and also, I think, the trend was that we had very long programs. But these days I think about the audience side of getting to know classical music, and especially having an afternoon concert, I don't want to overwhelm the audience with lengthy program, but I also don't want to play just short, easy, light pieces to listen to. So, I kept trying to figure out what could I do with Schubert's work that I'm not just playing like a movement of a sonata or just one little piece out of a collection of pieces. Originally, I have to be honest, I was just playing different combinations in practice, does this make sense together, does this work together? And then, I thought, "Oh, I love playing these Moments musicaux set," but again, they are very known, and also they're not short, so I thought if I combine different ones in between with other works of Schubert, maybe this is interesting. How about putting some of the Liszt transcription of songs, because those are something I also, again, always wanted to play as a set. So I selected the two songs that I thought are contrasting enough, very different in character, and then also putting the Moments musicaux pieces in between, and I thought that makes sense for me.

Kostraba: Sure, absolutely. Now, last question about a transformation from being a collaborative pianist, which you do for your day job at ASU, and you travel around the world, but you also have this solo piano gig. What kind of transformation do you have to do in your mind to become a soloist rather than someone that's collaborating and always thinking about the connection with the other musician or musicians you're playing with?

Aoki: I think that's a very interesting question, and very important for all of us that do a lot of collaborative playing. I think I've come to a point in life where I don't really have a division between the two. I don't think about, "Oh, I'm playing solo now, and I'm playing collaborative piano." As far as music making goes, for me, it's the same concept. So I think having these Schubert songs transcription of, by Liszt, is also part of that excitement, like when we do those with singers or when I play it alone, basically musically it's the same concept of how I would have to create that together with a singer. I think that's something that I really learned in the last years, to have that challenge and adventure of thinking, "Is there a line between solo playing and collaborative playing?" I don't actually think there is, and that excites me as well because that doesn't make me more conscious on stage doing one or the other, because otherwise it becomes very hard when, when you're on stage to remind yourself, "Oh, this is not something I usually do, okay, this is a little scary." You know, I just go out and do what I normally do.

Kostraba: And what you clearly love.

Aoki: Yes.

Kostraba: Thank you so much for spending time with us, Miki.

Aoki: Thank you so much for having me.

Kostraba: Pianist Miki Aoki will give a solo recital of music by Handel, Haydn, Schubert, Kaija Saariaho, and more, Saturday, July 11th at 4:00 PM at the Recital Hall of the Steinway Piano Gallery in Scottsdale. More information and tickets, which are free, are available at 480-847-1474. For KBACH's Heart of the Arts podcast, I'm Greg Kostraba.