The Embodied Pianist: Elena Riu on Presence, Breath, and Artistic Freedom

0:03 What I'm trying to do more and more is really how can I help this person be the best version of themselves that they can be and find the path that best suits them in this profession. I think what connects it all is, I'd say, trying to find a more organic way to see music making. as not separate from other areas um like yoga and health you know like well -being also emotional health spiritual health it is just in simple terms is becoming more aware of the the role that your body and what you're doing with the body has on your piano playing Welcome to another inspiring episode of Season 6 of The Pianopod, everyone.

0:59 This season is all about creativity and connection, exploring how artists across the piano world are reshaping what it means to create and connect in today's ever -changing landscape. Today's guest perfectly embodies that mission, Elena Riu, a Venezuelan -born pianist, recording artist, educator, and yoga teacher whose career bridges performance, education, mindfulness, and innovation.

1:23 Elena is known for her powerful performances and her visionary albums like Piano Icons for the 21st Century, Salsa Nueva, Out of the Blues, and Soler, 12 Keyboard Sonatas. She is also recognized for her pioneering work on the embodied pianist, where she merges yoga, mindfulness, and music training to help musicians connect more deeply with their bodies and artistry. Elena has commissioned and premiered over 40 new piano works, collaborated with composers such as Gabriela Ortiz, Tanya Leon, and Diana Arizmendi, and inspired generations of students at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London. She is also courageously bringing new conversations to the field, like her work with female performers exploring creativity in the

2:15 menstrual cycle, a truly taboo -breaking topic in music and the arts. I can't wait for you to hear this conversation. We talk about everything from embodiment and artistic freedom to cultural identity, cyclical creativity, and redefining what it means to be a 21st century pianist. So wherever you are, take a deep breath, settle in, and enjoy this episode. Before we begin, a huge thank you to you and our listeners and community. Every time you subscribe, rate, or share this show, you help us continue building this space for creativity and dialogue. It truly means the world. Here is Season 6, Episode 6 of The Pianopod with pianist, educator, and yoga teacher Elena Ryu, the embodied pianist on creativity,

3:04 awareness, and artistic freedom. Please enjoy the show. You are listening to The Piano Pod, where we talk to the brightest minds in the industry about how they are bringing the piano into the future and thriving in a complex, ever -evolving world. Elena, welcome to The Piano Pod. Thank you so much for being here today. Thank you for having me. Of course. Your work spans performance, education, mindfulness and collaboration. And what would you say is the core mission or passion that connects it all? Well, this is a really good question because I often wonder myself, especially, you know, the algorithm is very puzzled by all this. The algorithm wants to put us in a little box of like, you know, do one thing.

4:01 very focused. And I think what connects it all is, I'd say, trying to find a more organic way to see music making as not separate from other areas like yoga and health, you know, like well being, also emotional health, spiritual health. And so I think what brings it, like what synergizes more and more, I can think that at the moment, I feel that it's the movement in a way. Because, you know, I have a training as a dancer initially and then as a yoga teacher. And as musicians, we move as well. You know, it's not like we only play from this beat up, you know, from the brain.

4:55 That's the way I think a lot of us have been taught. And so I'm finding more and more that my work with yoga and embodiment and coherent breathing brings those two areas of my training together. And that's actually shaping up strongly at the moment. So you mentioned embodiment and then throughout your... publications to your website to social media, I see the word embodied.

5:30 So how do you define the term embodied musician? I think it's just in simple terms, it's becoming more aware of the role that your body and what you're doing with the body has on your piano playing. And it's more like connecting. you know, your physical body, your emotions, your spiritual body as well, in the process of creation and understanding how it might be hindering your progress or getting in the way of your practice, like misuse of the body or lack of awareness of the breath, for instance. You know, I've been teaching a yoga session at Trinity Lab and Conservatory of Music and Dance where I work for, quite a few years now, eventually they listened to me.

6:24 And so now we have a session in the keyboard department. And, you know, I give them a little questionnaire that I've made that I'm tweaking. And, you know, one of the questions is, you know, they have to put between 1 and 10, awareness of body, awareness of breath. And a lot of people, you know, when you ask them about awareness of body, awareness of breath, they put one. So very, very little awareness of what's happening to their breathing and what's happening to their body. And then, you know, we're constantly talking to people about injury, like how to cure the injury or how to deal with the injury. But what I'm really interested in is not getting the injury.

7:11 It's preventative. I think that's what's really important. So that should be happening from childhood. You know, people teaching children should already be incorporating embodiment in the teaching. So mixed of physical awareness to spiritual mindfulness. together is the embodiment yeah it's like really like having an awareness of why did that happen what is my shoulder doing or not doing or needing to do did i you know what's what's my heart space like how you know posture is not just about the bones and the muscles it also impacts you know in chinese medicine a lot it has a big impact on the heart center how we sit how we you know it has a big impact on the diaphragm it has a big impact on the postural muscles it's all connected

8:11 so it's not just like oh if you sit straight like you know it was quite old -fashioned this sort of pilates sitting like a rod like that which actually that's not how the spine works because the spine is a sort of like you know organic creature and um and so you know How is this sitting like that affecting your heart center and your heart meridian? And, you know, all the emotions that are lodged in the back of the heart as well. And so, yeah, so embodiment is taking all that into account. How am I feeling today?

8:47 Your menstrual cycle. Is it really the right day to push? and practice seven hours, is it ever. But, you know, is today the right day to do that? Or is today the right day for me to show my new piece to people? Or am I particularly vulnerable today because my inner critic is really whipping me and I don't need any more people, so this is not the time to take a new piece too.

9:17 to my friends or even to my teacher if I'm feeling like already, you know, I'm already bounded by my own inner critic. Wow, interesting. So much to really discuss. But I'm just curious, like you are already an accomplished pianist. I know that. And also you have, we're going to talk more about your recordings later on. So you are a recording artist. How did you come to this place? Like what's been your artistic journey from traditional pianism? I'm sure it was a traditional training and then now incorporating yoga, mindfulness and somatic awareness. Well, I think I was quite lucky that, you know, when I was a child, I was given quite a few opportunities to do, you know, to do dance. So I was always very sort of active.

10:10 And then I started to teach myself yoga when I was 11 from the very famous Theos Bernard book. And I was doing ballet and I was doing piano and I was doing quite creative as a young person. So I think that already informed my relationship with movement through the dancing and the wonderful synergy that dancing to music has, which is fantastic.

10:40 you know, medium. And then I got the scholarship to come to the UK, where I had a kind of quite traditional romantic pianism, sort of, not pushed on me, but sold to me by my teacher, who was Joseph Van Garten. He had been, you know, a mega sort of Hungarian Jewish refugee, actually, in London. and had a big career as a, you know, Liszt and Schumann and all that. But because of my background, I had already done quite a lot of Latin American and Spanish repertoire because I'm half Catalan. And so when I came to London, I was already playing repertoire that wasn't really being taught in the conservatory.

11:29 As it is, as you know, to this day, very, very few people are playing Spanish music outside of Spain. And and so I started to incorporate this repertoire into my recitals, which at the time was, I think, really, really stroke of luck for me because no one was doing it. So that attracted some attention. My teacher, you know, he was OK with it. He did like Granados, but he wasn't really, you know, he wasn't really somebody who played Iberia or. Coyescas or anything like that.

12:03 And also in Venezuela, because I had a friend who was a composer, I was actually very interested in contemporary music. So I started to look at some, you know, quite light -hearted like Bozza and people who were a little bit, you know, off the beaten track and just to explore. And we were playing music by Venezuelan composers at the time. So, you know, and some of them were still around. So we were playing that kind of...

12:31 contemporary repertoire already and then when I came to London I yeah as I said I started to program a mixture of contemporary and classical music sort of like I call it infiltration you know so I was playing to very um mainstream audiences you know in London San Martin in the fields you know at the beginning you know doing all those church rounds as we do here when we're young.

12:57 But I always was infiltrating some 20th century music so that people didn't think, oh my God, what's that? But they came to hear, you know, King of Zen or some Mozart variations. And then once they were sort of captured, then they would just hear whatever else I played. So I would play some Scalf or I would play some other repertoire.

13:23 And I found that that was a very successful way of introducing new music into a mainstream kind of concert hall audience as well. And then I had these ideas of how to kind of renew the piano repertoire. We're talking about 2000, I think, or Leighton or Salsa Nueva. Let me check. 2005. I had these ideas and I was wondering how can I play more new music? I was playing new music by Venezuelan composers, by people, by colleagues at the conservatory. And then I decided to see if somebody would be interested in this idea that I had, which was to create a piano repertoire based on popular styles. And that's how Salsa Nueva and Rhythm and Blues came to be. pitch the idea to Busy and Hawks. And, you know, it

14:24 was just a question of being in the right place at the right time, I think. I wasn't like, you know, an A1 list name in the concert circuit. I mean, I was doing quite a lot. But I think they thought, well, this hasn't been done before, which I think it probably hadn't. And so I commissioned all these composers to write piano music. inspired by salsa. And then the next volume was inspired by R &B and the blues. And that was, I think, quite a kind of breakthrough in my career as a musician, because then I also was editing, producing, doing the whole thing, commissioning, checking on the scores. making a recording, taking on tour. It's a lot of work and a lot of heavy deadlines. I'm sure. And the second one, the

15:25 second volume was happening when I was pregnant. So that added a whole new light into the whole process of like being really pushed, you know, having a deadline looming over you when you're going through pregnancy and then childbirth and then, you know. breastfeeding and all that so that's when you were like oh i need to incorporate some of those like wellness into your well i had already funnily enough before i had my my daughter i had you know um taken a whole two year teaching qualification as a yoga teacher so that actually happened just before I had Ananda in 2008. So I had been doing a lot of training with a really incredible, one of my mentors, you might have heard of her. She's like a visionary,

16:21 pioneer of women's yoga. And she's written six books, I think. And she's called Dr. Uma Dinsmortuli. She's written a massive book called Yoni Shakti, which is like a compendium of like yoga and women's health. So I done a lot of trainings with her, you know, while I was, you know, doing my music and my teaching and everything. And then I took this yoga diploma and then, you know, I was, well, I was incorporating to my own daily life and I could see the benefits that it was having on my creativity, my energy levels, physically.

16:59 I've always very luckily naturally been quite sort of relaxed. in my body so I know somebody very stiff and then yeah and then you know that kind of came into my teaching you know one -to one more specifically and then it has become a bit more like incorporating into a group practice also because you know as you know people are suffering from performance related anxiety quite a lot and after COVID and with everything in the world it's you know it's You know, just anxiety generally in young people, you know, the anxiety is quite high. The stresses of the career, having a career, whatever that means, you know, being told what it means by somebody. And, you know, the expectations, you know, can be quite... I'm

17:52 not saying that we have to sort of... This is the wrong word. You know, it has to be, you know, but the thing is that the yoga brings resilience. We need to train people who are resilient because we need this job. You need to be very resilient and very flexible, don't you? So that comes with the yoga as well. That's interesting because our industry is not really known for being flexible because the training is rigor and rigid. But at the same time, when we think of career, yeah, we have to be flexible, especially these days.

18:34 Yeah. Now, that's where your expertise in yoga comes in. And that's amazing. But when you teach. I know you are teaching this yoga mindfulness. It's yoga and mindfulness for pianists. Yeah, it's called the embodied. Well, I'm calling it now the embodied musician and also the embodied performer, because if you're a dancer or you're an actor, you can also use a lot of, you know, we have very similar issues that we are facing, you know, tiredness, attention, fatigue, muscular tension, you know, injury. anxiety, stress, and all these things that lead to insomnia, perhaps for some people, you know, etc. So it's all the ramifications of these issues and where they lead people as well. So yeah, so I have a class,

19:30 I'm doing workshops online, also on creativity and your cycle for women, for female performers. I've been doing quite a few of these. And then I have, yeah, a yoga class on a Monday morning, which is not very good for the States, but, you know, I could do it. If there was demand, I would do it later. And that's every Monday, you know, for people who want to kind of start the week feeling purposeful and aligned with the energy of the Monday morning, which, you know, sometimes quite tricky. And, yeah, so I'm doing. both one to -one in my one -to -one teaching, where obviously it can be more hands -on because, you know, obviously with consent, because you can see something and adjust it in a way that they feel it very, very

20:22 quickly. And then in these group classes and then, yeah, in these workshops as well. Where do you think these anxiety or tension come from? from especially what among young musicians maybe you already have answered but that we you know I have several students and I want to help too and there are many as you mentioned there are many books many classes out there but maybe it's not quite addressed from the get -go you know there are solutions to the problems but maybe they're not addressing the core of the issue you know before it's happening as you said we can stop from being happening you know what i mean yeah the prevention well there are many reasons i think you know quite a lot of it can come from your family background you know the

21:26 kind of environment that you grew up in the kind of expectations that have been placed onto you you know You know, a lot of people take on a career as a performer, as a form of, like, fawning, you know, pleasing your parents or fulfilling expectations from other people. It happens in other careers, you know, like lawyers. And then, you know, there are so many expectations, aren't there, when you've gone to music college and then you're faced with sort of these incredible high standards. of of um perfection also fueled by the cd industry you know and um and meeting so many deadlines i think especially the first year students i think there's like a sort of first year student and post grads i think they

22:19 they both i think the worst affected because then you know in the middle people have had some time to adapt or make some choices hopefully but at the beginning you know they come into Music college and they don't really fully, they're not fully aware of what they are going to be dealing with or the expectations are going to be. I see that a lot. And they're not prepared for what's coming to them. And then, you know, when they get to postgrad, they sort of feeling like, oh, my God, if I haven't made it, made it. Now I'm a failure. And, you know, there's a lot to do with being compared to people, you know, comparing yourself to your peers. The competition, you know, also not getting anywhere. A lot of

23:06 rejection and not having to deal with rejection. Having a good kind of lifestyle also that helps one kind of deal better with obstacles, you know, and that's what I mean, resilience. You know, you have to, okay, accept that maybe that wasn't what you expected. And now you have to get up again. You know, try to learn from it. How do we start again after a rejection or a perceived failure? How do we deal with negative thoughts?

23:43 And I think the problem is that we tell students it's all talking. So, you know, you read a book or you go and see someone when you're anxious and they'll talk, which is great. Obviously, talking is... better than not saying anything. So talking is one form of dealing with these problems. But we now know from neuroscience and from yoga and from alternative medicine and from the people I train with that the best approach is bottom up. The best approach with somebody who's already very stressed and very anxious is not to sit and talk or meditate, it's to move.

24:25 is to use the body as the tool to bring people back into your center or into yourself, you know, to feel your big muscles, to get the mind to feel the body. And then the mind basically drops down into the lower body. That's what we want. We want people to be up because especially also, you know, we're sitting all day. there's a lot of stuff like circulation and energy channels you know if you believe in yoga and chinese medicine you know traditional chinese medicine and you're better that have been blocked there's a lot of blocking from the posture the breathing the pelvis you know there's no circulation so the the approach is that you you move people you you do certain things to purge the negativity you know to release

25:21 the tension with the body through the body and the breathing and then you lie them down to do an incredible yoga nidra which is i mean you know i have people you keep me coming to my yoga class at nine o 'clock so they just got up and at 10 o 'clock they're sleeping again because you know the level of tiredness there's like an epidemic of tiredness in all of us. And we don't notice it because we just carry on. You know, we're taught to just push, push, push with toxic productivity. So I have people who are so, they just gobsmacked that they fell asleep at 10 o 'clock in the morning. They just can't get over it. And then at college, now I used to have a class of five, well, everyone, I say 90 % was asleep in the yoga nidra. And even now,

26:15 11 .45, So if I do a yoga nidra, yeah, sort of 12, 35, most of them will be asleep. Wow. You know, Elena, I used to be a hardcore yogi, not like you, but, you know, like I did like a vinyasa, like a little athletic. So it was my work. Yeah, it was my work. But, you know, since 2020, I stopped. And then my life has not been the same.

26:45 It's, it's, it's, and then, you know, I encouraged myself to do, oh, maybe I should do like an online yoga thing, but it's not, it wasn't the same. So I was so discouraged and I'm so, such a perfectionist that everything has to be perfect in order for me to continue. So I really do miss, but there's something so beautiful about yoga where this, you know, each class. just focuses on one part of the body for example yeah and then especially when it comes to the hip joint when that part of your body opens up yeah i don't know what happened to my brain right what what is this thing about yoga that really Is it breathing or is it this openness in your body? What is it? Yeah, it is because, you know, the thing

27:39 also is that people go to the gym, you know, they watch something online, you know, or Instagram and they like do this. And I tell them, if you're not breathing, it's not going to, the medicine is in the combination of the breathing, the pace, you know, in the case of coherent breathing, it's this very specific breath ratio that is like the magic formula too. regulate your nervous system. And I knew you nailed it in the head.

28:06 It's the flow of prana. You know, it's making, you know, in Chinese medicine, they believe that the energy goes up and down. And, you know, when it just stays stuck up or down, then we have issues to do with our health. So when you're in a yoga class, you know, when the breathing is incorporated into the movement, you know, so that's one of the best practices for strength is, you know, moving breath. And my teacher, you know, I trained with a few people, but had very big influence was the shadow yoga school, Shandor Remete, really incredible, incredible teaching. And there's a lot of sequences where I feel like Tai Chi or Qigong where you're moving with the breath. So the mind is very, very busy

28:57 because it's busy trying to synchronize the breath with the body. So it doesn't have time to go into, you know, somebody said something about me and I'm useless. And, you know, you get a break from all that, don't you? And then there's healing from... Just having that hour when you didn't think about all the stuff that you're not getting done or that you're not, and you're just being in your body with your breath. And yeah, you know, the law of correspondence is the hips and the shoulders. So when you free your shoulders, you're freeing your hips. When you free your groin, your feet, you're freeing your armpit, which is really important in piano playing because, you know, most of us are like this. Yeah, and this panacea, this balm, which

29:49 is the yoga nidra, giving people the permission to have this profound opportunity drop into their body and, you know, peel these layers of thought and tension and deadlines and just like peeling an onion, you go deeper, you go into delta. Now they know that you go through all these different brainwaves. which are incredible for your creativity that in normal waking time we don't have access to. So the yoga nidra is not just to fall asleep.

30:26 I mean, whether you fall asleep or not depends on your body and where you are, but it's more like profoundly creative because you really are exploring the kernel of your being. But not from the mind's point of view. Wow. It's so deep. And by speaking with you, I feel like, oh, this is a sign. I need to get back into it. Yeah.

30:56 Maybe at this point what you need is to do a different kind of yoga. Because doing vinyasa now might not be what suits you. Because we change and we're at a different place. So that kind of yoga. might have suited you you know in your 30s or 40s and now you just feel that's not really what i need you know my body doesn't want it and and then we can adapt to changing needs as well yeah i i think so too i'm in a different stage of life where that sort of activity doesn't suit me anymore so i need to find a different path but Yeah, I need to breathe. I need to, like you said, feeling like an onion skin, like a little by little, like, you know, I need that experience again. Yeah, and the coherent breathing

31:47 is wonderful for that because the way these wonderful people, the doctors there in New York, Dr. Brown and Dr. Gerbard of Breath, Body, Mind, the way they teach it, because obviously they are doctors, they're psychiatrists. So they know. all the ins and outs of, you know, from the physical perspective, what is happening or not happening in the body and the mind. And they bring in these practices to the West and also they're, you know, they're using these practices in really kind of extreme situations of where people are experiencing severe trauma, like war and catastrophe scenarios like the earthquakes. I think they understand this idea that you have to get rid of something first, you know, before you put the other stuff

32:44 in. You can't put a new thing if you're blocking it with all the old stuff that is just running around. And then the way, you know, the coherent breathing, which is pranayama, but you know. explain me in a different way this this breath is ratio of breathing um that very related to the role of the vagus nerve as well you know that creates this balance so you know it's not like you're going to do this yoga and come out to play and you'll be like a zombie because you know what i mean it's not it's it's you are like really balancing the stress levels which are usually like that for most people and these are the you know the relaxation um response you're trying to bring them into relationship so when

33:34 you come to perform you'll be not over sympathetic or parasympathetic you know you'll be balanced so you can make better decisions you have better responses in the muscles you're not in flight or in fight hopefully and that's something i work a lot with in my class the nervous system and How what sort of like positive effects do you see from like after teaching several classes or maybe a semester or something? And then do you see any transformation in your students?

34:09 Well, I ask them after the sessions to, you know, to fill the questionnaire. So it's like a before and after. And you can see quite a lot of. really positive responses but you can even see it after a session as you know when you go to a yoga you feel immediately better after and that you know your face looks your eyes are clear and so I tend to get a lot of feedback on people feeling more I think more courageous and more, I think, more energized, more inspired and more relaxed as well. And I've had some very beautiful feedback of people doing the final relaxation of the nidra and feeling really interesting things happening in the arms, people with injuries. You know, doing this, this coherent breathing, they really

35:04 describe very beautifully. I can send it to you late if you want to. The feeling of, you know, what's happening in the arm and light and it's very beautiful. Yeah. So it has, yes, you know, some people are very sensitive. Some people take longer, you know, some people are more cynical. Some people are more rational, you know, so you, you know, you also depends on. where you are in your perception of what the yoga is as well you're going to bring that into it yeah absolutely wow thank you for sharing all this it's very inspiring now then but before we talk about your career as a musician let's talk about this taboo topic in in our industry especially this menstrual cycle so when we talk about you know, female

35:54 in this context, obviously we are referring to those who are biologically born female. It's something, you know, menstrual cycle is something that we experienced nearly half of our lives. You know, if we were to live in, you know, our eighties or nineties, right. And then it's rarely discussed. And then when you think of like athletes, I'm sure there are expertise of all sorts of kinds to help them. to prepare for this the game of the century right but then in our industry there's no talk like hush hush absolutely and yeah and i wonder you know like even if i was much younger starting the cycle and then if i had a more information more support and it would have been a different experience for all of us

36:48 and that's why i wrote my book I wrote this book, My Dear Period. Oh, that is great. For young girls. I did all the illustrations, but that's another conversation. How did I do that? You did? I did all this drawing. Oh, you're so multi talented. Oh, really? You can see why the algorithm hates me. Not because of the talent, but because of the diversity stuff. I wrote this book because I, through my yoga, I also... have been working a lot with young girls for many years and their moms. And a lot was coming out in this session because of my daughter. You see, I did that also to give her a girl's circle. So I was meeting girls to do yoga and coming of age stuff every week for quite a few years. So I learned a lot

37:41 about what was happening in the school. how people talk or didn't talk about the period, how they felt about the body. And it was alarming because this is happening now. You know, the taboo when we were young, in a way you took it for granted because, you know, just imagine my mom, I mean, her background in terms of body literacy was zero, you know, and you didn't expect that. But even for me growing up, it wasn't a subject.

38:13 that was explored or welcomed in my environment or even with my friends. So we already have experience of what it's like not to have this kind of body literacy tools. So obviously, when you go to conservatoire, it's going to be the same because all those girls have been brought up mostly in families where this subject is. ignored or dismissed or very likely like you know here's a pad don't talk about it you know hush hush throw it in the bin and so it is to be expected I mean I taught a class for dancers the other day which you you know you think as you say athletes they're going to be really clued up they had no idea about whether or not they were ovulating what a cervical fluid was, how to track the period.

39:09 I mean, they were all, you know, on the pill, not knowing what the pill, you know, really is doing to your body, etc. So it's actually widespread taboo. And that's why, you know, movements like Celebration Day for Girls exist, which is a fantastic workshop created by Jane Bennett in Australia to give this sort of... girls a chance to have a proper right of passage around monarchy, which is first period. And so, of course, it's taboo because, you know, the music business traditionally has been very, very misogynistic. I mean, the music business still now, you know, I read lots of stuff from the New York Philharmonic. There was a whistleblower, I'm sure you know her. I mean, you know, dishing all the dirt on how absolutely

39:57 appalling it is. You know, even the Berlin Philharmonic, I think they only had one female player with Karajan. So it's not a surprise that women are thinking that to succeed, they have to behave just like a man. That's the standard, you know, I have to be, you know, exactly the same. I have to have the same hand span. I have to make the sound of a male pianist. You know, women go to play, you know, and they're told, project, project.

40:27 And I'm like, project what? What? What is project? I mean, you know, just to, you have to kind of, I call it meat and two veg, you know. You have Sunday lunch in England, you have meat and two vegetables, and it's like really heavy and, you know, makes you feel really full, not healthy, unnecessarily. And so I just, they just have this kind of expectation. And so how could you even be brave enough to mention? that you have a cramp and maybe you don't want to come to your lesson or you can't practice you know so so i'm now calling it bringing the m in the m of m of menstruation into music that's what i'm calling bringing the m of menstruation into the word music so as you say athletes now have so much

41:23 more knowledge they're taught to track their periods famously in the british in the football teams, the female football teams, and they are adjusting the training. So they're making the most of each phase of the cycle. It isn't that having your period is worse than being, you know, in the follicular phase, which is pre -ovulation.

41:48 So basically there are four phases and they're like the seasons. There's inner winter, that's when you bleed. Then there's inner spring, which is the follicular. which is before ovulation, when the energy starts to surge. Then there's the ovulatory phase, which is when you ovulate and your hormones are at their top peak. And then there's the premenstrual phase that we know very well as women. When everything gets a little bit, you know, the hormones start to change, estrogen drops, you know, progesterone rises.

42:22 And then there's the bleed when the hormones are a bit more like flat. And they are just different. They're not worse or better, but they have different strengths. And so my students, if they have a really bad period, they can call me and they can say, I really feel really not well. And we will make up the lesson. And if they come to the lesson with a really heavy period. We will do other things. We won't play through, you know, the Schumann sonata in G minor when you have a really heavy period, you know, at full speed or Bartók sonata, you know, first movement. We don't want to do that. We work in a different way. And also, I'm telling, I actually got an award show coming up in December of how to show

43:21 up for a performance during your winter. So how do you, again, because we don't have the luxury of telling a concert promoter, sorry, I got my period. Can I change it? You know, so this is what people don't understand. We are different. That's why I'm approaching performers and menstrual cycle awareness. We're in a different category because you can sync your diary, you know, most women kind of manage to with a... period with the menstrual cycle but when you have a gig that has been planned for two years you can't change it so you have to manage you know with your period with the cramping with whatever comes with it then how do you do it and so that's what's interesting how do you pace your cycle if you know that you

44:17 have this exam this first performance this important meeting on the day of your bleed or around it? What can you do to prepare yourself so that you can do your best? And how can you use the incredible gifts that come with the bleed in your performance? Because we have other gifts. Each part of the cycle comes with a different set of tools and powers. And so if you know they're there, you can use them at different times. Like we were saying, you know, if you're very premenstrual, you're already like very critical. You're hypercritical, you know, to yourself. So it's a really good time to edit something or to clean up a document or to make decisions, you know, tidying up. But it's not a good time to kind of get out there

45:14 and play to people because you're not. you know you're already receiving a lot of criticism wow that's incredible i wish i knew this when i was much younger and then now you know obviously i'm in over a certain age and it's uh in a different phase of my life so maybe you can still use the moon so women who are postmenopausal yeah we will be using the moon as a sort of anchor you know not like a fixed thing but you know You can use the moon and go, okay, oh, I'm feeling there's this big full moon happening here and I'm feeling the opposite. You know, I'm feeling really low. I'm having a really sort of tough time. Or, you know, the energy of the moon is waning. So, you know, because we still have hormones.

46:03 It's not that we don't have hormones. It's just a different level of operations happening. Right now it's like I'm in the perimenopause. Okay. toward the end, but it's like ups and downs. It's just the experience is incredible. The moon can help you. The moon really can help you because women who are in perimenopause, when your cycle starts to, you know, be very erupting, the moon can actually give you a little bit of a feeling of grounding because you can at least look at nature and the moon as well to get that feeling of, well, I know what I am. You know, there's like a... you know, waxing moon or crescent, you know, it's still sinking. And some women come back to a more regular cycle in perimenopause

46:54 through using the moon. They do. It's really interesting. It's like your body kind of sinks with. Wow. Yeah. And it's tough. It's tough because it's like you're in the premenstruum all the time. all the time yeah yeah yeah but you know at the same time i i'm the kind of person to embrace the nature because i think living this long is already a privilege you know and so yeah it is a privilege so i embrace the aging process and i'm not afraid and sometimes oh it so sucks you know it's not really cool to experience the aging but but I take it positive so that's why I'm asking like you know I want to somehow incorporate the knowledge or I want to study a little bit more so that I can really give that gift that

47:54 to my students you know young students who are about to experience and enter into this phase of their lives and it's gonna they're gonna have this relationship this this menstrual cycle this relationship for a long time that they might as well we have like 430 cycles periods they're about yeah well that's why i wrote the book the root the book is there you know on amazon everyone so that okay in the u .s so people can feel empowered and empower their daughter You know, to have all the right language, to have the knowledge.

48:33 There's lots of spaces to write things down in the book, to reflect. It's like a sort of journal. And, you know, to change the narrative that they do know where they are in this cycle and what's happening. And obviously the book is for young girls. But, yeah, I think I am working on, you know, I'm going to have some trainings in the UK about. the embodied pianist and musician for music teachers. And I think the next one is going to be for, you know, for teachers of female students as well, just to how to, how to understand that, you know, if you have a student in, you know, you remember, you know, in different phases of the cycle, they are, you know, have different abilities that we can call upon, or, you know,

49:18 we can give different homework or different tasks or, yeah. But if, You know how to manage better. I think as female artists, it's such an eye -opening experience because oftentimes it's been a disadvantage because we weren't taught how to. really deal with right so yeah exactly it's not because it is a disadvantage well the patriarchy wants us to think that it is a disadvantage that's right that's right and it actually isn't it's it's it's a incredible you know if you look at nature how nature creates nature creates in a cyclical way nature doesn't create in a linear way you know if you look at all the processes of the you know the life cycle it's also a cycle you know and then you know it keeps changing it keeps

50:19 repeating it keeps evolving you know and that's the same so it's it's um we feel that it's a disadvantage because we have such little information about also the creative cycle is the same the creative cycle is not linear You know, when you're writing a book or practicing, not every day is the same as the other one. That's imposed by this patriarchal lens that you have to be. And even men, they do have hormones. You know, they do have cycles. They're just smaller. So this expectation that young people have, you know, that they have to practice every day the same amount of hours at the same, you know, it's like driving a car at full speed the whole time. You don't do that. You know, you change the speed.

51:04 Even in a car, it's not the same. You know, you have to adjust. You have to change gear. Exactly. So in a creative life, when to change gear is very useful to know it, when to push. And if you have to push in a moment that you feel that you have less energy, how to deal with that, you know, how to help. yourself as we're saying if you're having a very you know heavy period or you're you know having a long cycle because you're in perimenopause and you're an artist and you're on tour and your period last 15 days like as perimenopause how to deal with it to make this experience you know less disempowering and and you do that by how you prepare before the event And on the day, you know, like delegating,

52:03 asking for help, even simple things like that can make a big difference, you know, in how we are managing performing with a cycle. Wow, this is incredible. Thank you. Yeah. And then can you show me your book again so that people can see? It's in Amazon in the US. And you can just get it in the US. They deliver it to your doorstep.

52:32 And it's just for girls and their moms or the caregiver or auntie. And it's a present that you can give to your goddaughter. And it has a lot of, let me show you, it has a lot of spaces for, you know, lots of questions and good places to... To draw, for instance, that's a blank place to draw. And then they have draw your menarche party outfit. And then just, you know, making decisions about what would you like to do planning your first period. This is, you know, some yoga, tension releasing. And then these leaves are for you to write down what you're wanting to release today. So there's a lot of journaling also and games that are incorporated. So it's very child friendly. So it's about, you know,

53:28 between eight and even 14, depends on the child. Oh, wonderful. It just looks beautiful. And I didn't realize that you have this gift of drawing too. Well, I just did them because I did a training and I did actually the menstrual, the menstruality leadership training with Alexandra Pope. They had people doing a lot of visualizations. And after the visualization, they wanted us to draw.

53:57 And I was being very rational and quite closed in for some reason during that weekend. And I just, I thought, oh my God, you know, I can't believe I'm having to do this. And I had a lot of resistance, which is interesting. You know, I could draw, I drew with my daughter, but not. And then I just thought, you know what, I'm here.

54:19 I've loved all these days. I'm just going to go for it. And then this drawing started to kind of come out of these visualizations. And that led to me thinking, how can I explain to somebody else what I like, the drawings that I want for this book? And I thought it was going to be so difficult that I just thought, well, I'll just do it myself. And I did. Wonderful. But it happened out of... It happened out of a five -day retreat where we used visualization as a tool. Because you know athletes use it, and I'm teaching musicians, it's really good for us to use visualization to manifest the highest outcome as well. Visualization, hmm. Yeah, you know, like the athletes, the gymnasts, they visualize for many more hours than they

55:17 actually practice. at the power of the yeah so it's really important that we do that as well yeah you're right yeah i've talked to psychologist um on this podcast and he mentioned and as well yeah uh yeah yeah now i want to go on more about all these wonderful physical topics but i also want to you know talk about your recordings and um So you briefly mentioned at the beginning of this episode. So you are a champion of commissioning and introducing new piano music for decades.

55:52 You know, I listened to your albums, like, for example, Piano Icons for the 21st Century. That album came around 2000. Yeah. And then Salsa Nueva, you mentioned in 2014. I totally enjoyed it. And then Out of the Blues. And the Soler one as well. That's right. Soler, actually, I interviewed Haik Arsenian. He's a New York -based pianist, and he did extensive research on this composer, Antonio Soler. Ah, that's amazing, yeah. Yeah, I'm going to connect him to you because he, yeah, he wrote this, I think his doctorate degree, he wrote a dissertation about this composer.

56:42 Oh, fascinating. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that, yeah, his book is now published in Spanish as well. Okay, I'd love to connect. Yes, thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. So tell me how... So even like contemporary pieces you commission and perform, they're not too avant -garde. So, you know, most of them are super tonal and really invites much wider audience, I think. So how do you pick and choose? And also the piano icons were slightly different. That was very sort of highbrow, you know, that was more to do with like... portraying composers' different interpretations of spirituality and nature, you know, so there's the Janacek. And then I commissioned this piece by John Tavenner, who, you know, was a very big

57:30 composer at the time. And that is a whole story of how that happened to be and the issues that came up through the whole of that commissioning period for that. And, yeah, and he wrote me a piece that was... quite difficult because it was, you know, quite long, I think 20 minutes. And then when I saw the score, like, you know, I had five pages of continuous trills. I wasn't so pleased with it, but anyway. And then, you know, I had to ask permission from Arvo Pert to write this piece. So that they, you know, and so I put this, this was like a... a big breakthrough for me because it was commissioned by the City of London Festival and there was a lot of stuff going on and yeah and so I wanted to present

58:24 different styles so there was Montpau and then there was Sculptor then there was the Janacek which is quite big and the Tafna and then from that I think I went into the Soler in Catalán and you know people play a lot of Scarlatti but again hardly anybody knows Soler and His music is exhilarating, isn't it? It's just so fantastic and so crazy with all these modulations, you know. And then came the sort of, and then I had recorded music by Diana Rismendi, who's the, she's the artistic director of the Festival Latinoamericano de Música in Caracas. And she's been writing for me for many years. And so I've been doing.

59:08 you know, some recordings for her as well, which are, you know, part of a sort of like recordings of all her music. And then I did this Salsa Nueva and the Out of the Blues because I wanted, I was seeing, because I used to teach kids, you know, before I taught at college, how it was very difficult for really young people to relate to some of the classical, you know, repertoire.

59:36 How does that really connect with somebody who's 10? You know, how did they connect with a Mozart, you know, divertimento or something? I mean, what is that saying to the actual life, everyday life and the school life? So I wanted to come up with something where young people would be kind of feeling that it was cool. It was cool to play this music because, you know, it was a bit of like boogie and blues and stuff like that. In fact, when I taught, I showed this, I did a workshop with Epta China at Trinity College last year, and they loved the rhythm and blues.

1:00:21 You know, when they heard the pieces and when they heard about it, they just... Oh, my goodness. They all wanted to buy it. Because as soon as they heard that it had R &B bass pieces, they... Is that from Out of the Blues? Yeah, this is called R &B Connection. This is Bluesy and Hawks. But I think you buy through shorts, actually.

1:00:46 It's quite complicated. And this is, you know, new commissions by people like... Sally Beamish, Nicky Yeo, David Rosenblum, he was the head of the Dean at CalArts. He did a lot of really also contemporary jazz. Anna Lara from Mexico, you know, Elena Katz -Chernin, lots of different people writing me pieces that were sort of blues and R &B and sort of jazz inspired. And I thought, you know, young, young musicians would really like this because they would feel... That's what they're listening to. They're listening to R &B. Now rap more and rock and pop music. So these are a compilation of all these composers who wrote for you and then geared toward more intermediate students? It's 17 pieces in this one, yeah. So

1:01:44 that was also what happened, that the first, the Salsa Nueva, was supposed to be also like... For up to grade five, I think we said at the beginning, but it wasn't because we had people like Javier Alvarez who wrote me a really difficult piece, wonderful piece, but really difficult. And then Gabriel Ortiz also wrote a really difficult piece, wonderful, but not at all great. I mean, grade eight, maybe. But not really. So the second time we learned a lesson, so we had to be really tough with the composers, you know, about the length and the difficulty. So it would be more like grade five. And so we were more successful in the rhythm and blues that it can be played by, you know, younger people or people that are

1:02:38 not at college. A lot of the salsa nueva would be like almost, yeah, you have to be really good at also reading. you know technique and yeah you have to be grade eight up or semi -professional some of them are maybe grade six seven but the minority and also because you know with all these rhythms it's quite difficult if you're not familiar with latin you know clave montuno all this and also my my one of my really strong remits for this was that i wanted to include as many women good I noticed that so you have the Diana Rismendi I push really hard and I think we managed to do half and half so I think I have the same number of women as men over the two volumes so I feel that I wanted to give a voice to loads of composers

1:03:30 also that were not from the usual countries you know So that they were from, you know, the global south or nationalities that perhaps weren't so well known in Europe or in the US. And so that also we managed to have quite a lot of Latin American female composers involved in this. And I was really pleased with that. Because now, you know, now it's more popular, you know, for people to record music by women and play music by Latin American. This is 2005. I know. It wasn't really happening then. In fact, the review from the Grammar, I think this was Salsa Nueva was kind of, if I may say so, a bit ahead of its time. Yeah. Totally. Yeah, because it was also contemporary music and short pieces. It wasn't

1:04:24 a sort of people pleaser, although, you know, some people loved it. Anyway, so I was really pleased that we managed to get all this wonderful. women composers but where does because you know finally in 2020 i think this uh diversity of of recordings and female composers and so on just happened all of a sudden just it really broke out yeah you know but before then well yeah i guess only a handful like including yourself so i wonder where that did that inspiration come from or it was just your I think my roots, because, you know, I grew up in Venezuela, so I was surrounded by Latin music, salsa, you know, whether you liked it or not, you were exposed to it 24 -7 in all the buses and blaring out of every single

1:05:16 loudspeaker in the street. And I actually really love salsa and I love dancing. So, and then, you know, I grew up with knowing about all these Latin American composers. And then I heard, as I came to Europe, I started to listen to more. You know, Tania Leone, who I'm so honored that she wrote Tumba, which is played a lot, apparently.

1:05:39 It's become really popular as a piano piece. I know. But did you commission her? Yes, I commissioned her. That piece? That's a very famous piece? Yes, I commissioned it. And I think she dedicated it to... Did she dedicate it to Celia Cruz? Let me just... Tumba is dedicated to Celia Cruz. Oh, my goodness. It's a really famous Cuban salsa singer. Is that the music score that... Tania wrote. Yes, the score that Tania Leone wrote.

1:06:15 But these are the compilation from your album? So it's part of... So do you also... So did you publish the scores as well? Yeah, this is... So that was why it was such a great project because... We not only commissioned, but we published all the scores with Busi and Ott. They got paid to write, but they also were getting a commission because I wanted the composers, I was very much advocating for the composers. You know, normally you commission a piece, it gets played once, maybe twice if you're lucky, and maybe the composer gets a little bit of money depending on nothing, just the performance. So I really wanted to make sure that they got more than just the first performance and that the music was going to live on and be,

1:07:06 you know, available to all around the world, which it is. And yeah, so that they're all printed. So you can get the scores from Busy and Hawks for shots. I think in the States, yeah, if you go to Busy's, they'll tell you where to get it. I think it used to be Hall Leonard who distributed them in the States. You have to send me those links and then I can put it in a show notes so that people can take a look and purchase. And it's really great for piano teachers when you're sort of desperate with trying to find repertoire.

1:07:42 And even now, for instance, at Trinity, we have some requirements in the exams, which is brilliant, depending on the year that they have to play a piece by a female composer, which is really great. or a living composer. So this meets both of those requirements as well. And, you know, if you give a 10, 11 -year -old boy a piece that is a boogie, they're going to be quite happy to play it. Oh, definitely. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

1:08:08 That's exactly what they're asking, always. Yeah, or something that sounds like, you know, R &B or rap. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But it's still good music and it's still written by a really good... composer for the pianos it's not an arrangement that you just downloaded off the internet wow that's cool so i know you mentioned you're of venezuelan origin and trained in europe as well and which in currently you live in the uk and which must have given you a rich perspective on music and an identity and so on and how do you think that experience or yeah experience shaped your approach to tradition and artistic freedom I think, you know, I brought with me what I had from my home. I mean, you know, we

1:08:57 were a family of immigrants. So, because, you know, my parents, for different reasons, both ended up in Venezuela. My dad was fleeing Spain after the war. And, you know, all the Europeans were, a lot of them were escaping. So Venezuela became like a safe haven, a paradise. You know, we welcome everyone. So I was bringing that experience of coming from an immigrant family and becoming an immigrant as well, you know, myself in a different country. And it was, you know, it's an incredible experience, but it was tough. It's tough. So now, you know, when I have foreign students, I know exactly what they're going through, you know, at 18. You know, it's not a picnic, not all of it. And, yeah. My identity, I don't know,

1:09:48 you know, it's been very difficult in Venezuela with this dictatorship. So I haven't been able to go back for many years. I sort of refused to play since 2016. And then my mom passed away, so I didn't feel I could go back. I'm hoping that soon when this is over and we get rid of the baddies. I would love to go. I mean, I'm already now to go and do some work there. There's so much good work. There's so much talent. Oh my God, talent in Venezuela. It's just out of this world. So as I was talking about identity, that's really difficult because, you know, I was already born in a country, but didn't have, you know, any family from that country or my family was in Europe. And now I'm in a country where I kind of made a... You know, I have a

1:10:43 child and I'm made out of family. But, yes, but it's not, my roots are not here. Although, you know, I feel, yes, because I don't really feel I belong to a particular country. I'm not sort of, I don't have an identity as such like, you know, if somebody said something bad about England or Venezuela, I'd be. mortified you know I could take it because you know when you're an immigrant you can become quite critical of everyone because you're not moving around yeah it's sort of really I mean England has been you know was Mecca wasn't it for many years for musicians and everybody came to London all the great people used to come to London and so there was a vast amount of stuff that was available In terms of concerts, you

1:11:40 know, I had all the greatest people. When I was at college, I had, you know, Segovia, Polini, you know, Michelangeli, Richter. I mean, I had all of them, you know, when I was at college. And, you know, it's a very thriving city for art still now, really fabulous. So, but it is... yeah it's quite tough in its way i think if you're a foreigner to kind of break through some of it as well yeah it's it's it's tough to be a foreigner i'm myself i'm always a foreigner yeah foreigner in this although i'm american now but you know what i mean like and then i was you know born raised in japan but i'm of a south korean descent you know race -wise so I've been always a foreigner but gives a different perspectives

1:12:38 on life yeah it does it gives you a certain distance as well doesn't it that you can see a little bit from the outside yes yeah yeah yeah so that makes people like us unique and maybe that's one of the reasons of being creative I don't know but I'm sure I mean the only thing I don't have a lot of distance is when people in England or you know in Europe think they understand the situation in Venezuela, which they don't. You know, it's like sort of armchair socialism, you know, like I call it muse socialism. People are very, very wealthy, you know, projecting the ideal into, you know, what's happening in Venezuela.

1:13:17 And I have very little patience for that because, you know, that's unfortunately not what we have going on there. But in general, yeah, you can go to a country and you can just see, OK, this is great, but I'm not sure this is so good. And you don't have that feeling of, oh, I have to be, you know, allegiance to everything that happens in this place. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

1:13:42 Now, oh, my goodness, we have like a few minutes left, but I want to ask this very important question. You've spoken about 19th century biases that still define. what pianists and their repertoire should look like, go for it, please. Go for it. Like, are you sure you're going to unleash me? I really don't believe in it. I, you know, I, I have never, well, as I'm saying, my, my, one of my piano teachers was very, very, yeah, that was his repertoire. You know, he was, you know, playing all the big romantic works and, And I am kind of more of a belief that you have to really love what you're playing because you're going to spend hours and days and months and years with this piece. And if you're not really

1:14:37 convinced it suits you and is for you and you love it, you shouldn't be made to play. So I give my students quite a lot of flexibility. choosing the repertoire. I mean, in fact, sorry, this is probably going to stop me from ever going to the States and Juilliard, but I had some students auditioning for Juilliard. I was appalled at the repertoire they were asking. It was just the same repertoire that would have been asked probably in, you know, I don't know, 1920 for people auditioning. It was, you know, the study.

1:15:10 the whole sonata romantic. And then at the end, you can put something else in it. There was little, very little artistic freedom. And, you know, people are expected, like, if you don't play Tchaikovsky, you're no one. If you don't play something carnival, you know, if you don't, it's like technique and traditional repertoire, like seem to go hand in hand. And of course, I love Bach, you know, I love some of the... traditional but not all of it and not every piece by every composer so for instance with Schumann that I was born and you know brought up by my teacher Weingarten on Schumann I don't like Carnival I just don't like it I just don't feel like I can relate to it as a person you know I just

1:16:00 feel it not oh Papillon I can see how it's charming but I wouldn't I just don't feel it necessary for me to know Carnival to feel that I'm a really accomplished pianist or you know so I think there is so much music even Janáček nobody plays it fantastic music and there are so many neglected composers you know still in repertory in college And then, you know, you end up going to a concert, you always hear the same music, you know, you hear the same Beethoven sonata played a thousand times, the same Chopin ballad, you know, same Rachmaninoff. Where is all the other music? I mean, like even the Chopin mazurkas. Why is that worse than the first ballad? I think they are some of his best. Oh, mazookas are the best.

1:16:59 And the nocturnes. And it's like, oh, no, you have to play the scherzo. And, you know, you have to. Why? Yeah. There are only four scherzos. And then by how many thousands of pianists, right? Yeah. I know. It's a little bit, I think, tiresome. I feel that we have this kind of, you know, you go to a competition and then, you know, people play. the same repertoire. You have to prove something. Like, you know, if you don't play a Chopin study, you're not a good pianist. Well, I disagree. I disagree. But to break that mentality, it took me a while. Yeah. Because constantly that sort of mindset was fed by institutions.

1:17:50 Yeah. It took a long time. But isn't it also fed by competitions? Because the competitions are pushing a certain repertoire as well. So I think the conservatory feels that they have to manufacture pianists who are going to be able to meet those requirements of what being a concert pianist. Of course, there are people who are different. Pierre Laurent Emard, you know, the French pianist who plays lots of Ligeti. And they said that, you know, he chose different repertoire. So people do choose. And, you know, people like Richter, he played what he liked.

1:18:29 I mean, you know, he played big game, but I don't think he would have played something because somebody said you have to. So I think Michelangeli, you know, played. And people like Brendel, you know, he didn't play certain things. He didn't have time because he played so much. So I just think that it is a dangerous thing to create this mould that doesn't fit everybody. And that doesn't mean that they don't have talent because there are a lot of pianists who are incredibly talented, but it just doesn't really suit them to play a certain repertoire. And then you're making such a big effort to get such little gain because that's not what they would play their best. So I think as a teacher, I think that the

1:19:15 real art is to find the repertoire that suits the pianist at the stage they're at. I think that's a real trick. And I hear it when I'm a jury in competitions. You know, you hear it. You have all these young musicians coming, like in the BBC, young musicians, and you can see what the teacher chose. And often it's a mistake because they're choosing something like... a study, really difficult study, or a prelude on fugue, which, you know, is not everybody's cup of tea to play in a competition first round.

1:19:50 And you think, but why did you, or just one piece, like a scherzo, when they could have chosen, you know, three other things, like a Debussy prelude, you know, a Chopin, you know, a more varying repertoire that makes you get a better view of what this... this musicality of this person is like yeah yeah i know i know yeah everybody feels that but somehow still we follow tradition yeah i know i think i mean you know it's a technique it's like ballet you know my daughter she's starting to be a contemporary dancer they have ballet every day because the ballet gives you a certain technique you know it's a different type so i agree totally that i'm not saying don't play traditional repertoire Question your choices

1:20:41 of why you think you have to play something that you don't love and doesn't suit you because someone is thinking for you, saying you should or you're not something. I don't think for me that. I mean, I was luckily too rebellious. I put up with it up to a point and then I was like, no, I'm not playing that. I don't like it. You know, I don't like it. You're an incredible artist on so many levels. So how would you like your artistic legacy to be remembered? You're still very young, but...

1:21:20 This is so difficult for me to answer. I suppose what I feel, I mean, in terms of my teaching, of my piano teaching or my musicians. What I'm trying to do more and more is really how can I help this person be the best version of themselves that they can be and find the path that best suits them in this profession, you know, that suits them individually, like the repertoire that really they can shine in. That's what I feel. It's probably becoming more my train of thought as I go in and think, how can I really help this person fulfill their dreams or be more confident in themselves, you know, believe in themselves, you know. Be more empowered physically as well, you know, in how they are presenting

1:22:40 themselves to the world as an artist, you know. How can they become a better artist, really? Not even a better pianist, but a better artist. And sort of shake it up a little bit. You know, the thinking in the institution as well. Right. Yeah, but in the end, you know, it's very difficult because they do have to earn a living. And earning a living as a concert pianist, as we know, and as we know, is sort of dictated by the expectations of what you have to be or play to get that. Yeah, I'm not sure that answers your question. And yes, a big question, Yukimi. I suppose my ego is not so big to feel, to kind of think that I'm going to be remembered, like, you know, a legacy. I suppose there'll be the books, and

1:23:42 I do have a project, whether they'll let me do it or not, something else. But, you know, remembered by someone around you, for example, not a big one. Well, I suppose I can have a laugh at my expense. yeah I suppose I suppose I'd like them to think that I did have I was on their side and I was a champion and had the best interest at heart I think that yeah I'm supposed I'm championing my students not so much imposing myself from a different you know from a hierarchy of Do this, do that, because, you know, it's more like coming to the level and thinking about where they are and, yeah, and offering support. So I suppose, yeah, I'm supporting them. They're supportive.

1:24:55 Yeah. Wonderful. Thank you so much. We're going to meet you soon, aren't we? Oh, yes, yes. I can't wait. I can't wait. I have so much to ask beyond this conversation. I mean, this conversation flew by so fast. I felt like it was only five seconds. Me too, actually. Me too. Yeah? Oh, wonderful. And I love knowing that you were a yogini. I love that. I need to know more about you and your yoga and all that, your path. yeah i mean i mean compared to you i was but i i but i continued for 10 years in the gym it was a gym but the teachers were great you know new york you'll find the best teachers yeah sure yeah sure you know so it was intense and i enjoyed it uh i want to get back into it but in a different

1:25:45 setting not that intensity you know ashtanga vinyasa all that sweaty stuff in the body as it's hard yeah yeah it's just too intense it's it's sometimes it just works against your mind too because it's so intense so i want to do something that is i'll send you something to your kidney i'll send you something and and you know i mean there's no reason why you know my class couldn't be in the afternoon so it would be in the morning in the states i just have to know that um there's a couple of people coming right or you if you can record it then i would love to record it yeah that's right yeah i could yeah yeah and we you know we go with the moon as well so we we used that would be nice yeah we're using the

1:26:30 cycle of the moon as well in the class to do certain things yeah i love that anyway but before you go um do you have anything to promote um Yes, I think I have promoted my books quite well. But any something that is, I know there's an eco -poetry collaboration with Dom Berry. Well, we did that in Dartington. It was quite interesting because he's an eco -poet. Dom, Dominic. And what we did is we used these poems to create an evening of poetry. Actually, also, we had a mindful bell. So I used Tishnath and pebble meditation throughout the performance to bring people back into their breathing. And it was a really good experience because the poems are amazing. It was like a response to the climate

1:27:25 topic. but yeah i mean in terms of what i'm promoting um yeah i'm doing you know i'm writing i think about this and you know the embodied musician and then and i and i'm you know i have sessions that workshops are coming up online um for you know teachers who want to know more about how to use um movement and coherent breathing with the students and that would be online so that would be available to people everywhere. Yeah.

1:28:00 And what's the best way to stay in touch with you? The best way is to just email me at my email, which you could, you know, use if you like. Find it on a website? On the website as well, which is elenariu .co .uk. And then, you know, I'm playing and I'm doing these workshops around, you know, menstruality and creativity. That's awesome. You know, it's a really interesting topic. for female performers. So maybe you'll come and do them in New York. You never know.

1:28:31 Yeah, that would be amazing. When you come in January, please do. Now, we have one more thing. Rapid fire questions. This is a fun question I'm going to ask and I want you to answer each question as short as possible. Okay? Alright, so level one. What's your comfort food? My comfort food? Chocolate. Great. How do you like your coffee in the morning? I don't drink coffee.

1:29:01 Oh, good answer. Cats or dogs? Cats. Okay. Sunrise or sunset? Sunset. Summer or winter? Both. Oh, great. Good answer. Now, level two gets harder. What skill have you always wanted to learn but haven't had a chance to? Skiing. What is your word or words to live by? I am worthy of this space. Ah, beautiful. Favourite venue you have ever performed in or dream venue? Actually, I really enjoyed a performance at the Royal Festival Hall. I really enjoyed that performance there.

1:29:49 What is the most important quality you look for in other people? Joy. Name a composer you wish more people knew about. Wow, that's difficult. Well, all the ones in my books. Yeah, great. Good answer. Level three, two more questions to go. Name one piece in your current playlist. It doesn't have to be classical. Okay. Well, I don't really have a playlist, but let me see if I can quickly think of one. Actually, you won't believe this, but because my daughter has been listening to this, she listens to very different stuff because she's a contemporary dancer. And don't ask me who is it by, but she's been playing this track that I've been continuously dancing to, which is this. And I won't remember. He's

1:30:45 got a terrible name. Teenage Dirtbag. What? It's a really good piece to dance to. I'm sorry, but that's what it's called. Okay. I'll look it up. And, you know, mostly, yeah, I mean, yeah, I don't really listen to a playlist as such. I'll just kind of. hear something and then and then and and you know as i said she has a playlist so i listen to lots of things from her playlist yeah oh with strange names like that one yeah i'm looking forward to listening all right yes last question fill in the blank music is blank soul food soul food yay ding ding elena You won.

1:31:41 That was beautiful. Thank you so much for joining us. You're fantastic. And you're sharing your wisdom, artistry and incredible energy. It has been such a meaningful conversation. So to our listeners, if you'd like to learn more about Elena's work, visit Elena Ryu. Thank you for tuning in. Please subscribe, rate, and share this episode. Your support helps us continue connecting through music, story, and creativity.

1:32:28 Until next time. time this is Yukimi song and you're listening to the piano thank you Elena thank you so much I'll see you soon I hope yes see you very soon thank you bye