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Creative Types with Virginia Trioli - Season 3 - Episode 03: Andrea Lam
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00:05Andrea hello. Hello Virginia. I can't wait to talk to you about your life at the piano because it
00:12really has been your whole life from a very young age hasn't it? I don't remember life without the
00:17piano. It's always been there in every moment. Yes but you don't like the term prodigy. I am
00:24someone who loves music and showed an early talent for it but I wouldn't say prodigy. Now I will be
00:30the
00:30judge of that. You're not just a player you're a teacher you're a collaborator you're a recording
00:36artist and all of those connections are really important to you aren't they? I just find that
00:41every aspect of music inspires the other so I feel so lucky to have all these different tendrils of
00:46music going on. Well I know you like to work out the music you're going to play in your time
00:51alone
00:52do you mind if I come and crash your alone time? Oh please I love sharing my alone time.
00:58Good okay I'll see you then. I can't wait. Bye.
01:05I'm Virginia Trioli and I've spent my life paying attention to creative Australians
01:10and wondering what is going on in that wild mind of theirs.
01:16In this series I'll showcase artists and performers at the peak of their powers and tell
01:21the story of their triumphs, their stumbles and why they make the glorious work we love so much.
01:29Andrea Lam is one of Australia's finest classical pianists. She made her debut with the Sydney
01:35Symphony Orchestra at the age of 13 before embarking on a distinguished international career.
01:43Now she finds a new skill as a mentor. She's fantastic. As a teacher. I kind of want you to
01:49throw that all out the window a little bit. And as a star of the hit ABC TV show The
01:54Piano. There's
01:55something special going on. It's incredible. I'm thrilled to be unashamedly celebrating the art
02:01of making. Because we are a country of so many brilliant creative types.
02:20Andrea hello. Hello Virginia. Nice to meet you here. Nice to meet you here too. Sorry to crash your
02:26thinking time. Oh you're very welcome to this beautiful part of the world. But this is where
02:32you go and where you like to walk and do your mental practice. This is one of my places. I
02:37feel
02:38like when you're here and you just see this sort of limitless horizon your brain just opens up and
02:46it is everything seems possible. So what do you do here with your thinking time? What are you working
02:51through? When you sit at a piano you're kind of locked into a space. So you're you're creatively
02:57thinking a lot but physically you're in the one spot. So to be able to be out here and to
03:02think
03:02about the same music in a different context is really liberating and interesting and then I often
03:07think of things I hadn't thought about. You are the most room-bound musician going around right?
03:13That's true. Almost every other musician could could take their instrument somewhere. Even a harp.
03:17Yes. Could go somewhere. Yes. Very hard to move a piano. It would not do well right here.
03:33Andrew this room is very important to you because you won your first Estedford here.
03:38I did. I did. It's amazing to come back to a place that was so significant in childhood.
03:44So what's an Estedford for those who don't know? An Estedford is a fancy word for a competition.
03:49Right. Yeah. And how old were you? I was 10. Oh gorgeous. What were you playing here?
03:54I played a piece by Alfred Hill, an Australian composer called Basseus and I remember it was
04:00like it's kind of my jam. It's like very slow intimate music and I was surprised that I could
04:05win a competition with that. Nothing flashy and nothing with like a lot of fast notes. Can you remember any
04:10of
04:10it? Oh my gosh. This is like 35 years old.
04:23And you're and you're right. It's not that flashy piece. It's not. Yeah. You want it. I want it.
04:30You and I were talking on the beach about how that walking time is so important for you because
04:35it's your mental practice. Then you come to the keys. Yeah. And what is it that you're then thinking
04:41okay now I know partly how to solve this this puzzle this problem. So the Bach aria from the
04:49Goldberg Variations it's such a mammoth piece. It's always talked about with reverential tones.
04:56It's so complicated. It's it's like every maths puzzle combined with some of the most heartbreakingly
05:04beautiful music and it's so epic. So it goes to this and then responds.
05:16You're constantly zooming in and zooming out. Ah yes. To like try and find you know the detail of
05:21like that and that's the detail of all of all of the notes. How does the whole picture look? Yeah.
05:28Every pianist has confronted this puzzle. Has confronted this challenge. Yeah. There's the score.
05:33It's been played thousands of times before. So as a pianist who wants to be distinctive how do you do
05:39that?
05:40When I was growing up I always thought I had to have like an angle or I had to make
05:45it special in
05:45some way. But as I've gotten older it's just what rings true. You know what you know everybody wrote
05:52something or everybody created something with some kind of intent. Like they wanted to share an emotion
05:57or share a story. So it's tapping into whatever the crucial elements of the art are and then how to
06:03bring that alive. So what is the creative challenge then for you as a pianist in making music
06:09distinctive that has been so well played before? With the Moonlight Sonata it starts you know
06:16it was so revolutionary because it's just this arpeggio.
06:22It's just stripped to the basic elements and it is not a fanfare to begin.
06:27And so it's like the like the Philip Glass of classical music.
06:31It just like...
06:33It just creeps into the room.
06:35It just creeps into the room and it was like completely original at the time. Nobody started a piece like
06:39that.
06:39But it's taking... And then the same thing with the Tchaikovsky concerto.
06:43When you have the first entrance of the pianist it's just...
06:48It's just the chord at its most dramatic but it's just taking it to its simplest elements.
06:56And I think that you know that is a connection that I would never have recognised as a kid.
07:02But just finding connections between Beethoven and Tchaikovsky or Bach and contemporary music.
07:07Yes, they're the two sides of the same coin.
07:09They're two sides of the same coin. They're using like the same genetic material.
07:13Uh-huh.
07:14But in a way to make an entrance at its most simple level.
07:18Yes.
07:18Opposite ends of the spectrum.
07:24So the pieces that are most loved and persist and stay in our minds.
07:29What's the secret sauce to them? Why is that?
07:33I think that they have something that's immediately moving or appealing or makes you think differently.
07:42Advertising helps in movies and cartoons.
07:44And Bluey. I love that Bluey has so much classical music.
07:48So much so that my kid then one day was like,
07:51Oh yeah, I know that from Bluey. What's that piece?
07:53And it was a Mozart. You know, Rondo O' La Turquette.
08:03And it's like that.
08:04And holsts the planet of the planet.
08:07Everyone knows that now because of Bluey.
08:09Exactly. Like I love that. And that's a way for it to live on.
08:13But I think it's got to have something that captures the imagination immediately.
08:17Something that either makes you feel better or makes you think differently.
08:21Like has some kind of visceral effect.
08:23I think the, you know, the Gershon Rhapsody in Blue is still so beautiful.
08:28You hear it and you're like, Oh, that's gorgeous.
08:30Show me what you mean.
08:31So it's the, um, this theme.
08:44She really is, I mean, for want of a better term, she's a freak show on the piano.
08:50So it's very rare to be able to do what she does.
09:00Like that.
09:02A freak show on the piano. What do you mean?
09:04There's nothing she can't do. Like she's, she's so gifted musically and technically.
09:11It's funny. Like she's got these tiny little hands.
09:14And there's been so many times when I've shown her things that I was playing and she goes, Oh, your
09:19hands are big.
09:20I can never do that.
09:21Yet when she sits down to play, it's like a Mack truck rolling down the highway.
09:27I mean, she's strong, man.
09:33From American standards to symphonies and more modern pieces.
09:38Andrea has a broad love of all piano music, but it began with a very early mastery of the classical
09:46repertoire.
09:48So you met a very young Andrea Lamb when she was in grade four.
09:52Yes.
09:53I was teaching at MLC school in Sydney and there was this new, new young violin player actually in my,
10:00in my junior string orchestra.
10:03And her name was Andrea Lamb.
10:04So I first knew Andrea actually as a violinist, not as a pianist.
10:09And I taught her all the way through to the end of her, uh, end of her high school.
10:14And she was just like this amazing star.
10:17So Andrea was always one to watch.
10:28Well, Andrea, this looks like your favorite seat in the house.
10:33It's like a big toy.
10:35Yeah.
10:36That's the, the joy in your face is indicating, Oh, I can play with this.
10:40I think I was so excited to finally be able to reach it and to start making noises.
10:44How old are you here?
10:45I think I'm two.
10:47I have no memory of life before the piano.
10:49It's always existed as far as I know.
10:52There's no BP.
10:53There's only AP.
10:54Yeah.
10:55And yeah, that's the era of AP.
10:59And then my mum played as well.
11:01So just seeing, you know, your, your parents are so important to you at that age and seeing
11:05your mum and someone you love with this instrument and making these noises.
11:09I think it was a combination of being fascinated by the sounds and also just wanting her attention.
11:13Well, this beautiful man was really important at this stage in your life too, because your grandfather introduced piano to
11:23your mother, of course.
11:24Yes.
11:24And over classical music, the two of you connected very powerfully.
11:27Yes.
11:28He always loved classical music, but had no experience with it.
11:32So I think when they had their daughter, my mum, they named her Eunice after Eunice Gardner.
11:38So I think he always subliminally.
11:40Eunice Gardner, the pianist.
11:40The pianist.
11:41Yeah, exactly.
11:42So I think he always subliminally wanted to make it happen.
11:45He manifested it, as they say.
11:47So do you remember his reaction and his feelings about your emerging skill on the piano?
11:54I remember going to visit him once and he's a very soft-spoken man.
11:59And then on his bedside table were all of the recordings I'd ever done.
12:04You know, all of the radio broadcasts that he'd put onto tape and then put next to his bed.
12:09And then the limelight magazine with all of my concert circles.
12:12And there was music always playing in the house, classical music.
12:15There was always.
12:15He always had the radio one and he had this amazing collection of classical LPs that he always played.
12:21So it was always around.
12:22By the age of 13, you're ready to play with a full-blown orchestra.
12:26Of course you are.
12:26The Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
12:29And this is you in the ABC Quest competition.
12:33And you're talking about making it through to the finals and the piece you're going to play.
12:40I'm so glad that the viewers liked me and voted for me and I hope they'll support me again.
12:45And I'm going to go out there and do my best and we'll see what happens.
12:49Aww.
12:49I'm going to play the Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2, The First Movement, which is a vibrant and scintillating work.
12:58And Shostakovich's writing is so brilliant and full of the fun and joy of life.
13:02And each time I play it, I love it more and more.
13:05Aww.
13:08I want to know all the feelings that you're feeling right now.
13:11Oh.
13:11All of them.
13:12It's really weird to see yourself when you're that young.
13:16And we don't have, like, I don't have as many records of myself at that age.
13:20I mean, I haven't seen, I've seen that once before, I think.
13:24But I feel kind of proud.
13:26Oh, good.
13:26Like, it's nice to be at an age where, you know, I'm really proud of that and doing that.
13:32That's so interesting.
13:33Yeah.
13:33I know you don't like the term prodigy.
13:35Yes.
13:36Playing with an orchestra at 13 would seem to be a bit prodigious.
13:40But then you hear about, you know, Mozart and Mendelssohn and, like, these insane geniuses.
13:44And the music that we study is all by such brilliant artists.
13:48So to sort of think of yourself as a prodigy, it felt a little bit weird.
13:53But I've got something to counter that.
13:56I reckon this is a pretty powerful argument against what you're saying.
14:01But you tell me, you tell me when to stop.
14:04I can go all day down here whenever you are.
14:07Goodness gracious.
14:08Will that do?
14:08Yeah.
14:09No, you're good, you're good, you're good.
14:11We always talk on this show about the 10,000 hours.
14:14Oh, that's like the beginning.
14:15It's just like, you've done that by the time you're at 10.
14:19All right, Andrew, because of you, we're changing it to 150,000.
14:22Yeah.
14:23Does that sound better?
14:23That sounds more like it.
14:24Okay.
14:29She wasn't a childhood prodigy in that, you know, she was 10 years old and playing list
14:35sonatas or anything.
14:37But there was a sense of musicality about her that was just beyond so many other people.
14:44So I use that, I use that term prodigy not in, not in the way that you could, you know,
14:50just a supreme virtuoso, but in fact, a supreme musician.
14:54What's interesting to see that the run of your, of your scholarly life as you're advancing
14:59through your piano career, you were accepted to Yale at the age of 18 and did musical studies
15:05there.
15:06What, at that stage, were you chasing?
15:09Did you have a clear idea of what you were after?
15:12I actually didn't.
15:14I knew that I loved it.
15:15And everybody said, you know, keep on going as hard as you can, you know, while you're
15:20young.
15:22I always took academics really seriously.
15:24So I loved that at Yale, you could do both, do music and, and also see how it is contextualized.
15:30That academic part of your brain, keeping that nurtured, that was always really important,
15:34wasn't it?
15:34It is.
15:35Yeah.
15:35It is.
15:35I feel like, you know, with all, actually with all the artists that I admire, it's this
15:41insatiable curiosity and this like wanting to figure things out as well and wanting to
15:47understand things and be challenged by things.
15:50So that, that I think is always there.
15:52Well, I want to show you a community of women that I know became very, very important
15:56to you.
15:56And this is the Clermont Trier that you joined.
15:59Yes.
16:00Have a look at this and tell us about these wonderful women.
16:07I love this piece.
16:10I love this piece.
16:21I love this piece.
16:29Actually, Emily and Julie are identical twins.
16:33So we're close to it.
16:36So we're close to it.
16:36That was a really, really lovely point in my life.
16:39I'm so grateful for the piano trio repertoire is fantastic and spans from Mozart to the current
16:45day.
16:46And I always wanted to be in a piano trio.
16:49I love that this, you know, it's just three of you.
16:51So it's very intimate and each of you has your own identity, but you're working together
16:56to make a larger sum of its parts.
17:02Andrea had spent 20 years in her beloved New York City, building a successful and celebrated
17:09career.
17:10But like so many other artists, the pandemic shuttered all her work.
17:15She had to return home with her family.
17:18That was one of the things that it's still painful.
17:21It was such a beautiful relationship.
17:24You know, it's they're not just friends and they're not just family.
17:26We made music together.
17:27We traveled together.
17:28We became mums at the same time and and supported each other through that.
17:32So it was it's really hard to be so far away from them.
17:37The pandemic losses just mount and stay, don't they?
17:41They really do.
17:42But, you know, I think that it makes it made a lot of people really think about what was
17:46important, I think, and make changes that they might not have made otherwise.
17:50I'm very grateful to be an Australian now because of it.
18:02You said a wonderful thing about the piano, though, which is that happy or sad, this is
18:07this is where it all makes sense.
18:09This is this is where you go.
18:10And in fact, that reminds me of a beautiful project that you did with your former teacher
18:14at MLC, Matthew Heinsohn, which is the sad piano project.
18:19Tell me about that.
18:20Yeah, this was written during COVID and kind of, you know, everybody was going through a
18:25lot. And this was his reaction to it.
18:27I think there's so much solace and beauty and comfort that people get from sad piano music.
18:33Like it's not it's sad in the way that, you know, Moonlight Sonata is sad or Claire de Lune is
18:37sad.
18:38All of these like beautiful pieces that really mean a lot to people.
18:41So I wrote these sad piano pieces and then it's like, well, I'm not a pianist.
18:48I can't play them myself.
18:49Who will I ask to play them?
18:51And I thought and I thought.
18:53And it's like, actually, I do know an incredible pianist from a long time ago.
18:59And her name is Andrea Lamb.
19:01Can you play me something from?
19:03From sad piano?
19:04Absolutely.
19:05This was the very first one that he wrote and he sent me and I immediately loved it.
19:10It's very simple.
19:12It's.
19:17First, it's so rare to just have one melodic line in.
19:37Just really simple and pure.
19:40Yeah.
19:40Lovely.
19:41So, of course, it had to be Brahms that you selected in order to say goodbye to your grandfather.
19:47You played it down the phone to him while he was in Australia and you were in New York.
19:51That's a very difficult thing to do.
19:54It's a piece that I often turn to when I'm not quite sure how to process things.
20:02It's a piece I learned when I was a child.
20:05It's so beautiful.
20:07And also, I find something new in it every time I come to it.
20:11Every time?
20:12Every time.
21:31I love teaching.
21:34I think it's so interesting
21:34because it's like problem solving.
21:36Everybody comes in with their own experience
21:38and their own strengths and weaknesses
21:40and you have to try and coax out
21:43the best versions of themselves
21:45and that is often
21:46it's different for everybody.
21:48I want you to imagine breathing in
21:50and then coming out with this
21:53that really have this intensity
21:55when you play.
21:55So can you hop up just for one second?
21:58So even
21:58I think breathing in
22:01and then
22:04like have it be
22:06really dramatic
22:07really commit to that
22:11so that it has that
22:13so that you have that tension
22:15right from the very first note.
22:16It's amazing to what you teach
22:18you come alive when you're teaching.
22:21What I picked up though
22:22is how important
22:24the body is.
22:25You're not playing with your hands
22:27or your fingers
22:27you're playing with the body
22:28the whole body.
22:29There's so many different ways
22:30of using the body
22:32like in different music
22:33you want to focus on
22:34on the fingertips themselves
22:36and then other music
22:37you want to focus on
22:37bigger joints
22:38and creating a large sound.
22:40So it's having this awareness
22:41of how your body interacts
22:42with the instrument
22:43I think is crucial.
22:44Just imagining
22:45you know
22:45if you're using gravity
22:46if you have come a higher
22:48from a higher point
22:49you'll get a more generous sound.
22:52That kind of thing
22:53instead of
22:55so just coming
22:56having this sense
22:57of using our opposable thumbs
22:59to our best advantage
23:00and really using that leverage.
23:02So you can't be physically shy
23:03with the piano
23:04it has to take
23:06all of you into it.
23:07It really does
23:07I mean I think that
23:08fitness is actually
23:10really important
23:10as a pianist
23:12because it is
23:12very physically taxing
23:14so you want to figure out
23:15ways that you can release
23:16as much of yourself
23:17into the instrument.
23:18Right down to the soles
23:19of your feet
23:20yeah yeah yeah
23:21so you're feeling
23:21your whole body
23:22sinking into the keys.
23:23When did you realise
23:24that you really loved
23:25teaching?
23:26When did that land with you?
23:27I really enjoy
23:28different ways
23:29of talking about music.
23:31When you play
23:32it's through
23:33the music itself
23:33but then teaching
23:35you have to
23:35figure out
23:36what the thought process is
23:37and then communicate that
23:38mainly verbally
23:39so it's a whole different
23:40way of communicating
23:41through music.
23:42And this
23:43like how would you
23:43describe this section
23:45from here to there?
23:48I'm thinking scandalous.
23:50Oh yes
23:52let's have this
23:53be scandalous
23:54and then
23:54this major section
23:56should feel like
23:57you suddenly
23:58like came into
23:59the sun
24:00after that.
24:01Don't make it pretty.
24:03We'll see how
24:03we can go from there.
24:07Yeah.
24:10When you feel
24:11the other person
24:12bouncing off
24:13your ideas
24:14and then you're
24:14feeding off each other
24:15you can hear it
24:16if they understand
24:17what you're saying
24:18and you can feel it
24:19as well.
24:20You can hear it
24:21if they've received
24:21the idea or not.
24:22Exactly.
24:23Exactly.
24:24And then taken it
24:25and made it their own.
24:26Good, good, good.
24:27You want them to
24:28find the intent
24:29behind it
24:30so that's always
24:31incredible
24:32when that happens.
24:40beautiful.
24:42It was excellent.
24:43How do you feel?
24:44Um, good.
24:46Good.
24:49I love that
24:50it's not about
24:51competition
24:52or who's better.
24:54Andrea became
24:54an unexpected star
24:56on the first season
24:57of the emotional
24:58and often inspiring
24:59ABC TV show
25:01The Piano.
25:02The other surprise
25:03was the affectionate
25:04chemistry she shared
25:05with her co-host
25:07Harry Connick Jr.
25:08When you mentored her
25:09you brought out
25:11something
25:11and she got
25:12so much already.
25:16The thing that's
25:17been amazing
25:17is that
25:18people have responded
25:19so much to the piano.
25:21It's meant so much
25:21to them
25:22and moved them
25:23in some way
25:23and for a lot of people
25:25introduced them to piano
25:26or reconnected them
25:27with music.
25:28Um, so that's been
25:29the most extraordinary
25:30thing.
25:31When we did the piano
25:34it wasn't about
25:35how good
25:36or accomplished
25:38these hopefuls were.
25:40It, it, it really
25:42was about
25:42how the piano
25:44brought everybody
25:45together
25:45and how the piano
25:46changed or enhanced
25:48their lives.
25:51You won
25:52the Aria Award
25:53just recently
25:54for your album
25:55Piano Diary.
25:57Congratulations.
25:59That's a mighty
26:00achievement
26:01and must have felt
26:02wonderful.
26:02It was very unexpected.
26:04With Piano Diary
26:05and this is why
26:06I really love that album
26:08and I've listened
26:08to it many times now
26:09it actually feels
26:11like peering
26:12into your diary.
26:13It's incredibly
26:14revealing
26:15and very intimate
26:16and very close.
26:18One piece
26:19that you play
26:20in your very private
26:21piano diary
26:23is Gershwin.
26:24So the,
26:24the American connection
26:26in you is very strong.
26:27It's, yeah.
26:27I spent most of my
26:28adult life there
26:29so it's definitely
26:30in there.
26:31Well, it's,
26:31it's in you musically
26:32and it's in you creatively.
26:34That's true.
26:34And that is a really
26:35rich creative environment
26:36for a pianist.
26:48She's very comfortable
26:50in her own musical identity
26:52which allows her
26:52to play any style
26:54at any time.
27:00So when you listen
27:01to her latest album
27:02with all of those
27:03different influences
27:04it really is like
27:05a peek into,
27:06into who she is
27:06because she's so curious.
27:08She has a,
27:08a childlike wonder
27:10about her
27:11that, that,
27:11that translates
27:13into the way she plays.
27:27When does it feel
27:28best for you?
27:29How, how often
27:30do you achieve
27:31flow state?
27:32Oh, very rarely.
27:34Yeah.
27:35It happens once
27:36in a while
27:36and it's the most
27:37amazing thing
27:38and then...
27:40Describe it for us.
27:41For those who don't
27:41know what flow is
27:42but every artist
27:43I've ever spoken to
27:45craves it
27:46and achieves it
27:46as you say,
27:47one or twice.
27:49It feels like flying.
27:50Like it feels
27:50totally free.
27:52It feels,
27:54yeah,
27:54like you're just
27:55completely in the moment.
27:56Because everything
27:57about the piano
27:58and the work
27:59that you do
28:00as a pianist
28:00needs an audience
28:01to hear it,
28:02an audience leaning
28:03forward and attentive
28:04needs you
28:04in the right state
28:06and then it's
28:07connection, communion,
28:08it's bringing
28:09everything together.
28:10Yeah, it's, um,
28:12it's a really special
28:13privilege to be able
28:14to connect with people
28:15in that way.
28:15I think in a way
28:17that is unencumbered
28:19by it's just left
28:21to your own imagination
28:22and your own responses
28:23and your own,
28:24your own feelings
28:26and whatever
28:26you're going through
28:27and it's such a gift
28:28to be able to be
28:28in that space.
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