In November 2013, before the concert and master class of pianist Yossi Reshef in the Philippines, I interviewed him for my classical radio program. It went on for less than an hour but I felt his deep emotion and his respect for music. I found myself pondering on his words long after the interview was done.
Here’s an excerpt from that insightful conversation with Yossi.
Culture Carousel: Did your parents influence you to play the piano?
Yossi: My father is an electric engineer and my mother is a teacher. My grandmother bought us a piano as kids because she wanted her grandchildren to play the piano. So since age four, I never stopped playing the piano.
My sister took piano lessons, I did not, but after her lessons, I would go to the piano and play by myself. But my sister quit playing the piano. At age nine, I had a serious teacher who taught me rhythm and notes. We had four years of repertoire lessons. That teacher made a big impact on me. Then at age 15, I went to study in Tel Aviv University Music Academy. After, I had a prime teacher by the name of Prima Salzman, she was the first lady of piano music in Israel. I am humbled and honored to be her student for five years. Then I went to the US to get my Masters and Doctorate degrees.
Who among the past and present pianists do you admire most?
Arthur Rubenstein, Radu Lupu among so many others.
You are an award winning pianist, a professor, a Hollywood film composer and music director, and you teach master classes? Which challenges you the most?
That is a difficult question because they are all challenging. I love teaching master classes because you have to be creative, you have to invent new methods of teaching for each student that you see. I love conducting orchestra, it’s close to teaching but its showing. I consider myself first a pianist because this is what I have been doing all my life.
The other jobs just come along the way. It’s all the same — taking the music and finding the correct interpretation according to your belief, and developing a technique to produce the kind of sound in your head. It’s a lifetime challenge.
Hollywood was a short term adventure. I had a chance to work with famous celebrities. It was nice. I still have a lot of friends, directors, actors and producers. But it was a tiring experience to be on the set of a film for a month! The amount of tension was unbelievably high. It was fascinating. My work was to play the piano, but I had to teach the actors how to move their hands, according to how I played. It was very challenging, how to teach playing the piano to someone who does not know or has never played the piano. I had to invent a whole system of notation for acting and I had to coach them every day. It was very creative to write music for film because you have to think what kind of sound best depicts the scene. You write the music after the film is made. You watch it first, then you create the music. But I have not done that for the past five years. Once you do that, you cannot do anything else.
I don’t live in America anymore, I have moved to Europe, and my life is in a different place. It’s good to experience it once in my life. I love movies and drama. Acting and playing is interpreting text, that is why I have a lot of friends who are actors. We have a lot in common.
How many times a day do you practice?
If I have a new piece, usually six months, sometimes one month, it depends on the situation. But six hours of daily practice is good.
What advice can you share with young musicians?
First, believe in yourself. This career is one of the most difficult, sometimes it takes years to get recognized.
Next, practice, even if you don’t have a concert because practice makes you better. Also, don’t miss any chance to play for other people, when you are ready, and not before.
Most important is to really want it, without question. If you doubt it, it will be easy to quit. I have seen people doubt themselves and they gave up. If you think this is what you want in life, and you have something to say through your music, then you must dedicate yourself to it. You have to give up going out with friends because you have to practice. I am not saying it’s not good to go out, because of course you need a break.
You have to be really good at it. It takes 10 hours to be good at something, I read somewhere. It’s somewhat frustrating because there are always new challenges. It’s the only profession, that if you get better, it becomes more difficult because you have to pay attention to more details. And the details are what makes things work actually.
- You really have to want it! You have to expose yourself to as much music as you can. Go to concerts, master classes, listen to recordings symphonies, not just your instrument, listen to other composers, not just the composers that you are familiar with. I have so much more to say, but usually when I want to say something, I just show it through sound, through my music.