EP. 4 DAVID KADOUCH - Storytelling as a concert pianist

David Kadouch is a concert pianist who has accumulated numerous prestigious awards and regularly performs in some of the most important concert series and festivals around the world. His discography and concert programs cover a wide range of solo and chamber music repertoire, with a recent focus on lesser-known and female composers. His latest album, "Amours interdites" (Forbidden love), explores stories of homosexual love by "composers who, in their daily lives, could not be themselves". 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Today we're at the Athenae Theatre in Paris and we're joined by pianist David Cadouche.

SPEAKER_02 0:08

Could you walk us through the defining moments of how your career got started?

SPEAKER_00 0:13

You know, it's a little things but big things at the same time. It's my studying with Daniel Barenboim, it's uh the masterclass with him that was filmed, it's the different competitions that I did, and it's the Victoire de la Musique here that I received that really put me into the map, I would say, and that's how I started out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:36

And do you think uh that kind of path is still possible today? Do you see more or less obstacles these days for young musicians?

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Um I don't know. I think uh we have youngsters that are coming out that are absolutely amazing, so it means that the path is still wide, uh you know, opened. Uh I'm not a teacher, so I don't know if the youngsters now they they have trouble getting into, but there are so many competitions, so many opportunities, scholarships, wonderful academies like Verbiers, like uh like uh Villecroze, like uh Nice, like so many wonderful places where you can still um you know learn, and I guess that's the most important thing somehow. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Yeah. Your concerts stand out because they all have a clear storytelling line throughout them. Can you take us uh through the process how you create uh these projects?

SPEAKER_00 1:31

I read a lot, and uh I have um in France we call it coup de foudre. It's when you know the Cupidon is lensing its, it's throwing his uh arrow at you, and sometimes I read something and I'm like, I want to speak about that on stage through music. So for Forbidden Love, my last CD was about love, about uh homosexual love that was dedicated to other people that I might not know about and the public might not know about, and I wanted to talk about that before it was about a book. So it's really about uh what uh looks like me and what uh you know calls my heart out. So it it's it's it's usually very per personal and and I you know to go on stage is is something that is requires lots of courage, lots of uh lots of love. And if you do it for a program that you believe in that resembles you and that feels like your personality, it's really wonderful, I have to say. It feels like you're giving yourself to the public.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

I think a lot of people watching today will know you from your amazing videos on Instagram and TikTok and so on. And uh I'm just wondering, do you just make those for fun? Or are you consciously trying to promote yourself as an artist as well somehow?

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Um you know, my main goal is I I want people to come to the concert. I want uh the concert to be an experience of community, of people that like the piano, but uh in a fun way. So I did this Instagram, you know, it's a little, it's a lot of self humor. I mean, I make fun mostly of myself and of the attitudes of pianists in general and musicians in general. So yeah, it's not to promote myself, it's more um I I wish people you know came to my concert, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

Yeah, yeah. But I feel like some young artists like us might be scared to be so open and you know humorous on social media. Uh especially in this business, maybe they worry they won't be taken seriously. Yeah. So can you alleviate those worries or how do you see it?

SPEAKER_00 3:40

Uh I do it because it's me somehow. Um, but I wouldn't advise it to everybody. I do it because I have fun with it, and I um I don't know whether it's harmful to me, but I just know that it's my path somehow, that I like to laugh about my job, and uh people seem to respond quite well. So to a youngster that would be afraid of humor on social media, I would say if you're someone that really laughs about your job and wants to laugh with other people to alleviate yourself from the stress of this job or from you know the worries of this job, which is a lot, you know, it's there's a lot to worry, um, do it.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

You now have more than 20 years of stage experience. So do you still feel the need to work on some technical aspects of your playing, or are you just learning new repertoire?

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Yeah, both. I mean, I I I learn a lot every day about my lack of technique of my you know, it's it's it's a never-ending job. It's uh you um you have to deal with those things all your life, your defects and your qualities, and you you get to know them a bit better every time. So I would say uh I'm not someone that plays the same thing every time. So I'm I'm curious in a way that makes me uh sight read stuff, and uh also because I I I love to play female composers, sometimes there are manuscripts that I don't know that I have to discover that people make me sight read, and that you know, I so I I study those pieces, and it's not uh something that I play all year long, but uh yeah, mostly I'm uh I'm struggling with both.

unknown 5:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:28

It's great to hear that uh that an artist who's been on stage that long is still struggling with it. Not that long, not saying that.

SPEAKER_02 5:36

At this point in your career, your calendar is full of concerts, you've climbed the mountain, but do you still get worried about the future of classical music in any way?

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Um I wouldn't say I worry because I mean I I worry in general about the state of the world. I mean it's difficult not to, but classical music is uh this kind of haven. I mean, I think the statistics they say that nobody we listen more to classical music than ever before. So, yes, it's because of those playlists on Spotify or on Apple or wherever you listen to your music, but still it means something about how people go to this music to make them feel better, to uh find themselves, to have uh sometimes you know, people say it calms them. Yes, maybe it's uh time where you can disconnect from your phone from from the world, and uh so I don't think I'm worried about classical music, and also because classical music, it's written. I mean, a bit of insonata will be there for you wherever you are, whichever, you know, the world will be it maybe in flames, but the bit of insonata hopefully will still be there and you can still confide in it.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

You've often talked about how you want to uh engage more with your audience in your concerts, for example, by talking to them. So are you trying to move away from the traditional classical music concert experience?

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Not move away, but that's what I was telling you about my programs being personal and being a personal affair to go on stage. Uh sometimes I play pieces that nobody knows, and I feel kind of the people want to hear, I don't know, Tchaikovsky and I'm coming with Ethel Smice, and I'm like, you're gonna love this also. And but I do have to tell them why I chose this composer because sometimes they they they don't know why, and there's this bunch of composers that they don't know, they don't know how it came up with this idea, and uh it feels nice to tell them, okay, I have listen, I've got this idea of this program with this theme, and let me explain it to you. Maybe it will make sense to you, and maybe you'll hear Tchaikovsky in this theme in another way, in a different angle. And uh by speaking, sometimes I feel like it it it enriches the listening experience for some people. Some other people they really don't want to hear anything, you know, any discourse before playing. But for me, I I I like it. It's uh, you know, my mother was uh guide in a museum, and whenever we went to the paintings, she would always ask us when we were kids what we thought about paintings, and there was no bad interpretation of it. And so I like this approach of art, which is let me tell you about how I feel, and that's really how I engage with concert.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

And finally, let's hear David Kadush's top comment.