SIf you are an independent musician, contacting presenters is a part of your daily life. Apparently, it sounds as easy as calling someone and introducing yourself. But in fact, it is much more complicated than it looks. Contacting an institution or a festival to book a concert is often an obstacle course we, musicians, are not accustomed to. I will try here to give you some tips to imrpove your approach with presenters

I realize how time flies and I have not managed to write for almost two weeks already. the past couple of days have been tough for me : a lot of decisions to make, a lot of work to do, so excuse me for not being very punctual at our weekly meeting on this blog. I must say that I spent much time in front of my piano; learning new repertoire, maintaining the old, I found back my student’s pace work! It’s time to make a quick review of the first six months of sabbatical.

The link between body and music is complex and inseparable. The perception and interpretation of musical works are carried out by the body. Any pianist can tell you: playing the piano involves the entire body and we often push it to the limits. We overuse our body, but what do we give in return?

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.

I know I have not written a post for a while… The recent weeks have been difficult and I had neither the desire nor time to write something. Today I’m going back to my blog after a bad flu which has left me weak and tired. As usual, I didn’t want to go and see a doctor, and that did not help. But here I am, at least partly. Partly, because I’m not playing the piano seriously these days.

Last week I wrote here about going on stage and I evoked the “lucky charm”. Today I will focus on pre-concert rituals as well as these charms. Some do not have rituals or lucky charms, and others elaborate complex rituals which become totally obsessive. Star’s whim or real necessity?

Concert evening, in the dressing-room. Tonight, I’ll be playing a recital methodically prepared during the last weeks. Final moments before appearing on stage. Someone is knocking at the door. A glance in the mirror,last check for the presence of our good-luck stuffs and other necessities. It’s time to go. A few more moments to wait backstage, and suddenly the stage manager asks if I’m ready, opens the door, and motions to me to go on stage.

It’s been a year already since I started writing this blog. After two months of well deserved rest, I am back on the web, I mean on my blog. It was a sincere pleasure to share my ideas and my wishes with you last year.

To all those saying that recording is easy, I say, perhaps they should pay a visit to a studio. Of course, you can cut, past, redo, but it is not always an advantage.

When I started this blog, I promised to share with you things of my daily life that no one or few see. However, I haven’t showed you the place where I spend most of my time yet.