We’re thrilled to have pianist Nathan Williamson join us for the 2021 Liberation International Music Festival. We spoke with him recently to get to know him better and learn why music matters to him. Nathan is a pianist, composer and artistic director. Alongside regular solo, chamber and concerto performances, Nathan is in demand for new work from a wide variety of artists both at home and abroad. He also stages and facilitates projects at local and national level, ranging from collaborations on new repertoire, performances for the concert hall and theatre, and music-making for musicians of all ages and abilities.
Nathan’s career has led to performances at Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, De Doelen, Barbican Centre, Purcell Room, LSO St Luke’s, and the Aldeburgh, Lucerne, Bolzano and Spoleto festivals, and collaborations with artists including Claire Bloom, James Gilchrist, Guy Johnston, Arisa Fujita, Linda Merrick, The Gryphon Trio, Njabulo Madlala, Boris Kucharsky, Alexander Baillie, Ensemble Endymion, the Allegri and Sacconi Quartets, as well as working alongside numerous living composers in performances of their work. Since 2016 Nathan has been a member of the renowned new music ensemble Piano Circus who, alongside their position as artists-in-residence at Brunel University London, have commissioned over 100 new works from leading composers and undertake regular international tours.
At what age did you decide to become a musician?
I was 12. I was trying to compose at school one day and had a weird, almost ‘out of the body experience’ where about three hours vanished in a flash, and suddenly there were 6 bars of music in front of me which I had no recollection of writing. It was only because there was no one else in the room that I could definitively conclude I had written them. Suddenly every waking moment was about music.
What do you love most about being a pianist?
Studying old repertoire I have known for a long time and playing it in new ways, and learning new repertoire which no one has ever played before. I also love going to places I have no connection with to play to people I have never met and will never see again. But those could apply to any instrumentalist. The best part of being a pianist per se is playing entirely on your own.
Where are you from originally?
I was born in Cambridge but my family as a whole hail from the Suffolk coast, where I (and most of them) now live as well.
What is your favourite place on Earth?
Assynt, in the Scottish Highlands. And Paris.
Who is your favourite composer?
I don’t have one particular favourite, but the ones who speak to me the most are Schubert, Brahms, Beethoven, Varese, Berlioz, Rameau, and various others.
What or who inspires you most?
The day to day, year to year ups and downs of being alive is quite enough inspiration for me!
If you hadn’t become a musician, what job would you have wanted to do?
An anaesthetist or a psychoanalyst. I am fascinated by the affect of things on the human body and the mind.
What is on your bucket list?
To have finished some music I am really proud of in a way which no one else could have written. Aside from that its honestly just to live every day to the most. I am happy to just do my best wherever life takes me and am not particularly interested in personal achievements.
Which historical figure would you choose to have dinner with?
The composer Rebecca Clarke. I would want to talk to her about being a performer as well as a composer, why she did not compose more, and the various events of experiences which led her to make the decisions she made.
What can we look forward to from you next?
I am writing a new piece for the Rossetti Ensemble to be premiered at the Alwyn Music Festival on Saturday October 9th, am doing a lot of work with the singer James Gilchrist, including two CDs of British song post 1945 coming out on SOMM, and am learning the 24 Preludes and Fugues by Christopher Brown, a magnum opus of about 2.5 hours duration.
You can see Nathan’s stunning performances in this year’s festival on Saturday, 29 May in the Carnival of the Animals (available to watch until 1 July) and on Sunday, 6 June in a stunning solo recital (available to watch until 6 July).
