Loneliness is an issue that quite often comes up in discussion with people who know and follow me. I work alone, I play alone, I like being alone most of the time, but isn’t the feeling of loneliness heavy and suffocating? It is true that I don’t meet my friends very often, I am not a big fan of mass meetings and that I avoid crowded places. But in another hand, I like chatting over the phone and mailing them.

My life would be surely unbearable for those who can’t live without their social network. I grew up without siblings, I was not very popular at school, I learned to live in an environment where social contacts were fairly limited. I played alone at home and unlike other children I did not know boredom. I discovered it later, ironically in a period during which I was opening myself up to others.

It’s not that I’m antisocial, far from it, but I feel good when I’m alone. The hours spent at the piano are always a pleasure and I give myself spaces of solitude after work, because every musician will tell you, we need at least half an hour after the last played note to be back to reality. Disturbing me at work: an error my friends don’t commit anymore. I’m in such cases grumpy and say the first thing that comes into my head (It does not even make sense sometimes) to get back to work as quickly as possible.

I am sure that we choose the instrument according to our own character. It seems to me that if I did not like the loneliness that surrounds me, I wouldn’t have wanted to become a pianist. I would have chosen an instrument that allows better socialization, as a wind instrument for example. The pianist even involved in chamber music remains a bit “strange”. And finally I like it!