BOXING GLOVES AND A SMILE

Four days until I return to the States following an absence of twenty odd years.  The last time I visited was the morning after Lockerbie; I recall how we successfully, sometimes comically, hid the frightening news from an elderly couple in our party already nervous about our long flight.  I also remember being awoken half-way across the Atlantic by the unique sensation of an infant’s sharp teeth biting into my toe; somehow it had ended up at my feet and I never understood how it came to be quite there.  We spent a couple of weeks cruising the oversized plates of Florida’s restaurants in the company of some confident music world people, while I swerved on an unsteady path between massive intimidation and massive hangovers.

Over time, priorities emerge.  I am returning to the States as a proud parent and also as the composer of eight published piano books.  The latter is the reason for my trip.  I am attempting to inform the American piano community of the repertoire I’ve composed here in London as an American composer who lives abroad.  My email campaign earlier this year did little to spread news of my work, so I am now convinced that I must instead use my two feet and travel, I'll hand my books to piano professionals and music acquisition staff in college libraries.

Each of the three towns I'm planning to visit holds a different challenge so the preparations have verged on the schizophrenic.  I have a concert in New York that’s been organised by my good friend, artist Julia Warr, who recently made a film with my music.  Julia is suddenly and excitingly planning things so I will also perform the soundtrack to a live projection of her film during this show.  I’m giving a lecture recital at the University of Missouri- St Louis to Dr Barbara Harbach's "Women in the Arts International Conference", so I need to teach myself the art of public speaking.  

And then some very lovely icing on the cake awaits.  In the small town of Warrensberg just outside Kansas, a critical piano music project is just about to begin and I’m taking a four hour train ride (allowing me to have my only real view of America this time) in order to interview the originators for International Piano magazine. So I must learn to use the digital Dictaphone I bought for this task, as well as the camera I’ve borrowed to take shots for the magazine.  After the interview I will get to meet the pianist James Cockman III who was the first player in the world to take up my work and who is also a guest editor for one of my books.  It is a strange and lovely world that this pianist happens to live a sneeze away from where I was visiting anyway!  Even though I ran out of time to timetable a meeting with him, we worked it out so that James will kindly drive me to the airport and I will switch on my Dictaphone and interview him about his life in piano while he drives.

There are ten key music colleges and libraries in the three locations where I want to show my books and do what I can to encourage the faculties and players to take up my repertoire. 

I’ve been reading a book about Bach’s early life which describes how he travelled around in great discomfort to further his life in music; often on foot for over a hundred miles, and usually with little or no welcome at the other end. Taking inspiration from this, I will try not feel intimidated by the lack of a welcoming committee.  My cause is the continuation of the piano repertoire in the line of the great composers who wrote tunes before me.   Several colleges I have contacted have still not given me the green light to go in, but go in I will! I have not spent 19 years creating a whole new repertoire to then do less than the maximum it takes to push it forward.   

In addition to my lecture notes, Dicataphone and camera, I am packing my boxing gloves and a smile.

Nervously getting funds in place

Yes, there is a recession.  Yes, funding is being cut, not least to the Arts. Yes, I managed to print 800 books this year, thanks to a great cash flow model designed by my music press, without which I would not have a chance at being an independent music publisher.  Yes, I'm currently low on funds due to the set up costs involved in creating the books.  Yes, I'd been invited to play a lecture recital in the States; my American debut, which came without any Honorarium.  Yes, I said "yes" and committed to the performance date at International Women in the Arts Conference, University of Missouri-St Louis, before I had raised the money to go. Yes, I then applied for "composer travelling abroad bursaries" and yes, I was turned down twice, first by PRS (Performing Rights Society) and then by the British Council.  Yes, it was pretty scary that I might not honour the conference booking and would therefore damage my reputation, let good people down and also miss out on valuable associated opportunities for exposure. Yes, I then decided to canvas my close network of fans and ask them to buy batches of CDs from me (I suggested that having a pile of CDs to hand would make a convenient stock of presents for Christmas) and I also asked my sponsor (more of the sponsor in the next blog) for emergency assistance and...yes, I raised the necessary  funds...meaning, yes, I will, after all, be giving publicity to my piano books and piano competition in up to ten learning centres in Missouri and New York City. Ten days til I go! YES!

(The structure of this blog is inspired by Sue Hubbard's poem "...yes" from The Idea of Islands)

USA DEBUT

November 12^th

3.30pm – 4.20pm

‘Lola Perrin Piano Suites’ Lecture Recital

Women in the Arts Conference

University of Missouri-St Louis

My USA debut features my description of how I’ve come about releasing eight piano books this year as an independent publisher.  I’ll demonstrate my work through a performance of Piano Suite VI: ‘Theory of K’ which was originally composed for the symposium ‘Music, Science and The Brain’ at Plymouth University, 2008.

NEW PIANO REPERTOIRE PRACTITIONERS

During my trip I will also visit three piano practitioners, located in St Louis, Warrensberg and Kansas, who are all active in uncovering new piano repertoire.

COLLEGES AND LIBRARIES

I will be visiting a number of piano professors and music college libraries in St Louis, Kansas and New York City to show the piano community my books. 

NEW YORK PERFORMANCE

I will be performing a private concert on November 15th in NYC.

www.lolaperrin.com

www.lolaperrinsheetmusic.com

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How to be alone in London, or, one strange journey

 I live above shops in an area of north London where, if I open my windows, I can hear four exotic languages; the Farsi of the kebab shop, the Dari of the Afghan junk shop, the Mandarin of the Chinese take-way and the Turkish of the grocery.  The invasion of the voices into my home is  in keeping with modern-day London; a city that’s bursting at the seams every which way.

Even round here where the roads are wide and the sky is big, the pavements of our leafy streets are crowded.  We are at the beginning of a long bus route that snakes its way for miles to the centre. Boarding that bus is possibly one of London’s roomiest experiences; often I am the only passenger at the start and it feels life-enhancing to have all that space to myself.  However, one minute of the tranquil void is all I get; by the next stop the bus fills up with a long queue of people.  Three or four stops later, it’s standing room only.

I leave the bus, with up to a hundred others, and make my way into the tube station for a speedier journey to the centre. Walking down the escalator on the left like a good citizen, every few steps hard-edged bags belonging to those who are dutifully standing on the right protrude, forcing you to either slalom round the obstacles, or bash into them.  Next challenge, sitting in the tube seat you have to carefully position your thighs to avoid intimately intrusive contact with the thighs belonging to the stranger in the next seat.  Or, if you can only find standing room, it’s a matter of preventing your knees from kneeing the knees of the people sitting.  Leaving the train and you can’t walk in a straight line either in the station or out on the street, there’s too many people. So you have to dodge one way, then squeeze round another; more slalom courses.

The journey that started so spaciously on the empty bus unexpectedly ends, most symmetrically, in another void; one that is impressively sublime and peaceful.  I am one third of the way through performing a recital series of my piano suites in a large, gorgeous, historically significant, ignored- by-the-listings, concert location; a church right near the heart of town.  One Friday per month for the past two months, at my early evening offering of an hour’s lyrical new music on a world famous Bösendorfer piano, no audience has turned up to hear the concerts introduced by guest speakers.  The third concert in the series is approaching and I’m wondering if once again, I will sample the rarity of being all alone in the capital.  The question is do I prefer being alone on a bus, or with the Bösendorfer at my concert series?  One strange journey...

Lola Perrin plays her Piano Suite IV Music from Fragile Light Spaces, introduced by Nazarin Montag, on June 3rd at 6.30pm, St Mary Magdalene Church, Munster Square, London NW1 3PL.  Tickets £6/£3 on the door. The suite was inspired by Rachel Whiteread, Nazarin Montag and Roberto Battista: three artists concerned with the depiction of spaces.  Lola is a contributor to International Piano magazine

Photo©Martin Mitchell