OPINION LEADERS ISSUE 10
Summer Issue 10 of the Opinion Leaders Newspaper
Summer Issue 10 of the Opinion Leaders Newspaper
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LAYLA<br />
RAMEZAN<br />
“I am at my most honest and true self when at the piano”<br />
Layla Ramezan has always sought to create a<br />
connection between her Persian origins and<br />
the contemporary music which she encounters<br />
daily. As pianist and president of the Geneva<br />
based Matka Contemporary Ensemble, she<br />
has instigated several intercultural exchange<br />
projects with Iran and collaborated with<br />
composers such as Tristan Murail, Michael<br />
Jarrell, Luis Naón, Nicolas Bolens and<br />
William Blank. Her musical education began<br />
in Tehran with Mostafa-Kamal Pourtorab. After<br />
moving to Paris in 2000, she attended the<br />
École Normale de Musique de Paris “Alfred<br />
Cortot,” followed by Lausanne’s Haute École<br />
de Musique, obtaining two Master’s degrees<br />
in performance and accompaniment. She is<br />
sponsored by Albert Roussel Fondation in<br />
Paris and Engelberts Fondation in Lausanne.<br />
She is the founder and artistic director of the<br />
“Barbad Piano Prize” competition in Shiraz for<br />
the young pianists. Layla Ramezan tours and<br />
performs in Europe, USA, Canada and Iran and<br />
appears as soloist with the Tehran Symphony<br />
Orchestra and the Tehran Orchestra for New<br />
Music. Her performances had been<br />
broadcasted by Radio France, RTV Swiss<br />
,NPO Netherlands and CBC Radio Canada. Her<br />
primary recording project is <strong>10</strong>0 Years of Iranian<br />
Piano Music(Label Paraty Production (Harmonia<br />
Mundi)), which will span four volumes, the first<br />
of which was released in January 2017 and<br />
it exposes the 50's and beyond Iranian piano<br />
music.<br />
Q: Layla please tell me, when and<br />
mainly what was the crucial motive<br />
that opened you door to the wonderful<br />
world of music?<br />
A: The first time that I heard the piano,<br />
I fell in love with the sound of the instrument.<br />
I insisted immediately to my<br />
parents that they buy one. Eventually,<br />
they gave in and I started to take piano<br />
lessons when I was seven years old.<br />
Q: How do you combine your Persian<br />
roots with classical music and<br />
your apparent contemporary influence?<br />
A: For me, Persian traditional music<br />
and European Classical music are two<br />
very different worlds of music. The one<br />
type seeks freedom through structure<br />
and written notation, and the other rejects<br />
these notions with the hope that<br />
something new is created from this. My<br />
interpretation is a collision of these two<br />
worlds. I am always trying to express<br />
and inspire myself with one world or<br />
the other, with a focus that strays away<br />
from stereotypes. For example, all of<br />
the Traditional and Folk Persian music<br />
of my childhood in Iran, has given me<br />
a particular sensitivity to rhythm in<br />
Western Music.<br />
Q: What describes best your musical<br />
character? Are you the same<br />
person in everyday life with Layla<br />
whilst performing?<br />
A: I always try to be very honest in my<br />
interpretation and faithful to the score<br />
which I am interpreting. I can say that<br />
I am at my most honest and true self<br />
when at the piano.<br />
Q: You have been many times performing<br />
on the occasion of Iranian<br />
events. Are there state representatives<br />
in arts and especially in<br />
music?<br />
A: In recent years I have had performances<br />
in Iran in various different<br />
cities. Some of these performances<br />
were organized and supported by the<br />
“Iran Music Association” (anjoman e<br />
moosighiy e Iran), which is one of the<br />
musical state representatives. Sometimes<br />
these concerts are supported by<br />
private foundations such as “Sharhr e<br />
Aftab” in Shiraz. However, in general<br />
when you perform in Iran as an artist<br />
you need permission from the government.<br />
Q: Would you like to name people<br />
that have influenced you until<br />
today, but also people that our<br />
readers should be aware of their<br />
names and their contribution to<br />
music?<br />
A: I would like to mention my husband,<br />
Blaise Ubaldini, renowned French<br />
composer and clarinetist, whose way<br />
of seeing music is always a source of<br />
strong inspiration both in my life and<br />
my projects. My first professor, Mustafa-<br />
Kamal Pourtorab, had a very important<br />
role in the development of my artistic<br />
personality and Svetlana Navassardyan,<br />
the great Armenian pianist, who<br />
taught me during my years in Paris.<br />
Among the great composers across<br />
all centuries, I would like to mention<br />
and quote Mozart, as he said, “By the<br />
power of music, we will walk cheerfully<br />
through the dark night of death”. Also,<br />
the great musical personalities such as<br />
Pierre Boulez, Daniel Barenboim and<br />
Giorgy Sokolov, without forgetting the<br />
great proponents of Iranian music such<br />
as the composer Fozié Majd and the<br />
researcher Mohammad-Reza Darvishi.<br />
Mr. Darvishi travelled across Iran<br />
over a period of thirty years in search<br />
of the roots of Iranian regional music,<br />
creating his prize awarded book named<br />
“the Encyclopedia of the Musical<br />
Instruments of Iran.”<br />
Q: What is your involvement with<br />
young artists, how do you promote<br />
music to the young generations?<br />
You have been part of groups like<br />
the “Triofan3mg” that one could<br />
say that radicalize<br />
in the promotion<br />
and performance of classical instruments.<br />
A: I love to teach the piano and to give<br />
the benefit of my musical experience<br />
and knowledge to my young students.<br />
I always try to pass on, the love of the<br />
very pure music of my childhood combined<br />
with the knowledge I gained studying<br />
in Europe. I am also the Artistic<br />
Director, and one of the founders, of the<br />
« Barbad Piano Prize » in Iran-Shiraz.<br />
My goal is to increase the motivation<br />
there to create a healthy competitive<br />
environment for youth. In addition to<br />
this I would like to create an opportunity<br />
for Iranian pianists to study in world<br />
class international music institutions<br />
and conservatories. I also founded the<br />
chamber ensemble “Triofane3mg”, with<br />
French clarinetist Blaise Ubaldini and<br />
Swiss violinist Valerie Bernard. We created<br />
Triofane3mg in order to perform<br />
some pieces of the classical and contemporary<br />
repertoire that often are not<br />
performed for the public, and to present<br />
this work in venues that aren’t necessarily<br />
made for these types of performances.<br />
We would like this remarkable<br />
music to become accessible for everyone,<br />
especially the younger generation,<br />
who can appreciate and understand this<br />
type of music like any other style.<br />
Q: Do you believe that the use of<br />
technology directs children’s interests<br />
to specific types of arts/music<br />
minimizing potential choices? How<br />
do you predict the future regarding<br />
this issue? Undoubtedly music has<br />
also evolved through the progression<br />
of technology, but is the “mixture”<br />
of music and technology always<br />
towards the correct direction?<br />
A: For me, music cannot evolve without<br />
progression in technology. The piano<br />
is a result of the evolution of the<br />
harpsichord thanks to technology. Today<br />
I see my husband, like many composers,<br />
writing music with the help of<br />
programs on his computer. I think that<br />
we should benefit from the technological<br />
revolution without forgetting the<br />
old musical traditions, a lot of which<br />
are a strong source of enrichment to<br />
music written today.<br />
Q: Do you agree with the opinion<br />
that art flows in certain people’s<br />
veins or that it is inherited somehow,<br />
or you believe that it is purely<br />
cultivated?<br />
A: Everyone can discover a talent in<br />
music, and from this point of view, it is<br />
something innate. But those who have<br />
a musical family are given an advantage<br />
to help develop this talent very<br />
quickly. I, however, was not raised in a<br />
musical family.<br />
Q: Please talk to us about your origins,<br />
your life livings in Switzer-<br />
<strong>OPINION</strong> <strong>LEADERS</strong><br />
land, its influences and the best and<br />
the worst part of it’’.<br />
A: I am Iranian, born in Teheran. I lived<br />
in Iran until I was eighteen, and afterwards<br />
moved to Paris, and Lausanne,<br />
where I still live, to continue my piano<br />
studies. My life in Europe has been<br />
very enriching and I have been able to<br />
interact with many different cultures<br />
and nations. It has also deepened my<br />
musical knowledge and allowed me to<br />
study at prestigious institutions under<br />
the tutelage of great masters of the piano.<br />
I married a French musician, who<br />
has an interest in language and other<br />
cultures, which has helped me see my<br />
own country and culture through different<br />
eyes and ultimately, to create<br />
stronger ties to Iran, and an appreciation<br />
of the life I have in Europe. This<br />
is why I have endeavoured to create<br />
several intercultural musical projects.<br />
Studying in Europe has allowed me to<br />
take an interest in the piano repertoire<br />
of my native country and I have created<br />
the project “<strong>10</strong>0 years of Iranian Piano<br />
Music.” I will record a total of four CD’s<br />
dedicated to this repertoire, which will<br />
be distributed by Harmonia Mundi.<br />
Living far away from your family and<br />
home country is difficult, because you<br />
often feel like you have to make an effort<br />
to be understood or accepted. There<br />
are good and bad sides to living away<br />
from your country of origin.<br />
Q: What has been your motto in<br />
life?<br />
A: Trust in yourself, before anyone else<br />
does. ■<br />
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