938 Live
Melanie: Welcome to passion people, I'm Melanie Oliveiro from 938 Live. Today on passion people,
we shine the spotlight on Croatian classical pianist, Maksim Mrvica. Maksim started tinkling the ivories at the age of
nine and when civil war broke out in Croatia in the 1990's, he had no choice but to keep on practising against the backdrop
of bombings, death and bloodshed. Maksim soldiered on and won several national competitions in the process and soon after,
released a debut album of classical Croatian piano pieces. This album, Gestures, was so well received that before Maksim
knew it, he was in London, recording his next album, The Piano Player! The happily married 30 year old Maksim who tied
the knot with fellow Croatian Ana, was recently in town to promote his latest CD 'A New World'. I started off my chat
with the statuesque pianist by asking him this question:
Mel: Which song on 'A New World' did you feel you had alot of challenges performing; it was very complex, lot oflayers?
Maksim: 'A New World Symphony' is technically quite demanding but I'll tell you, the 'Ride of the Valkyries' is one of the most difficult
pieces I recorded.
How so?:
Yeah, the Ride of the Valkyries because the arrangement is so complexed and so difficult for the piano.
So how did you overcome it? What did you say to yourself?
Practise, practise, practise. It's always the same thing when it comes to music.
Maksim, you have a baby girl, tell us all about her, starting with her name.
Her name is Lee Loo and she was born on 1st August.
Alright, how do you spell Lee Loo?
L-e-e-l-o-o.
Is it Croatian?
No. (laughs) It's nothing like Croatian.
How did you get her name?
Well, it's the character from the film 'The Fifth Element' which is like, fifth element supreme being. It's a nice story about it and we really like it.
What character was that in the Fifth Element?
Milla Jovovich? She's a fifth element who unites all four Earth elements and pure love and something like that.
For a few years, my wife and I were planning...we always said you know if we had a baby girl she would be called Lee Loo so..here she is!
Do you know how to change nappies?
Err...yeah but sometimes I don't. (laughs)
What new things have you learnt about fathering?
Everything, I mean it's completely a new experience and no matter how many books you read, it's completely different
when the child comes. I had a fear that I will be afraid to hold her because she's so fragile but when she came, it completely
changed it's something unique inside of you changes you know because it's like she's a part of you, so I'm nt afirad to carry her
or change diapers or do anything.
Would you prefer her to be a classical musician like you? Why not?
(Immediate no). It's been a really hard path for me in my life. Classical music is beautiful but it's extremely difficult especially coming
from a country like Croatia to succeed in classical music.
But seeing how you are her father and if she gets bitten by the classical music bug, it will be easier for her to make it in the international areana.
Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it's difficult because obviously, she carries the same sirname so she would have an exposure but in the same time, she will be compared
and that's the trouble you know, when you have someone who is successful in your family and you always get compared and that's really not nice.
But what is she does want to become a musician?
Then she will be. I mean I can't stop her, it will be really horrible for me to stop her if she has love for classical music. Obviously, she will have
you know, because she will hear so much classical music in her life but whether she will be a professional musician, we'll see.
Do you want to have more children?
I would like to have one boy one day.
What will you name him? Maksim junior?
Lucifer I think, I don't know! (laughs).
Lucifer! (laughs)
(Maksim laughs).
Being in London, because you're based there most of the time, you must miss the beach alot.
Very much that's why I come on the plane every two months to Croatia. Now we spend it like 3 months in Croatia
all summer because of Lee Loo. Of course, Ana will find it easier with her mother and my mother helping. Now actually,
I miss London! (laughs).
What do you miss about London?
It's a big city you know and alot of possibilities, you can do whatever you want and Croatia, especially my hometown is small
and nothing like London but again, it's the Mediteraanean and it's nice weather.
In London you know, the music scene there is ever evolving, it's so huge, you run into pop stars. Have any of them
approached you to do some collaboration, a music collaboration?
Not really but I think it's quite difficult because my type of music is different than the pure pop so when you combine,
voices like pop singers with the classical crossover, I don't think it works. I'm more of an instrumental player.
But who would you like to work with ideally?
Again I always dream about classical musicians with whom I would collaborate maybe Mistislav Rostopovich who's the biggest
cellist in the world.
Do you have plans to break America in a big way with your 3rd album because of of course your albums are realeased there,
you told me that you were going to guest on Jay Leno and everything? Do you have plans to really tour the circuit in America to make it there?
My world premiere from the Roundhouse concert two years ago was shown on CBS, a public broadcasting system in America and I think feedback
was really good. I don't know I mean it's up to my managers and my record label because America's such a big market, obviously, it's one of
the most difficult in the mining markets so yeah, they will decide and they will plan my promotion.
But it's going to be quite exhausting because like you said, there's alot of hardowork as well.
Alot of countries there yeah. (laughs).
All the states, 50 of them.
When you are on tour Maksim, non-stop touring, how do you take care of your hands?
I have creams and I have special pills to relax the muscles for example in my last tour which wwas the Rachmaninov
Piano Concerto which is a classical tour and which is an extremely demanding piece for the minutes, technically very
difficult and because I had concerts to concerts like 6 nights in a row and that for my arms, can't be really good so
I like creams to relax the muscles but you get used to it you know,a few days, my arms got used to it so it wasn't a problem anymore.
Do you do any weights or something to...
Umm, I'm not allowed to do them before my tours, when I practise alot, I can't work out.
Why is that?
Because I practise so much and my muscles, they are very tense so if I lift a chair or I have something in my arms, then it's
painful to move the fingers, I can't move very quickly and it's very dangerous for the pianist.
Mark King has insured his thumb, Mark King from Level42. Have you insured your fingers?
Well, we;ve been thinking about it yeah, but not yet.
How much will you want to insure them for?
(laughs) No Idea.
But do you believe in insuring your fingers?
I think because it's one thing that I'm doing in my life and it's my tool so if something happens to them,
it's a big problem for me!
Are you more comfortable with your gothic-king-sex symbol status now?
(laughs) I'm comfortable in my clothes, I mean, the clothes I normally wear, I'm not comfortable in the suits
or something fark and smart, it's not for me.
But with lots of girls screaming at you, are you comfortable with that now?
Well I am comfortable, I mean for me, it was really surprising when I started this but you just don't get used to it.
I don't know, I just hope that they really like my music and for me as a musician, that's more important than screaming. (laughs).
But what about the websites? There's so many websites dedicated to you. Have you seen them?
Yeah I mean I like to go on my websites and..you know, just to see what they think and the opinions because after all,
they are my audience and they are the ones who buy my albums to listen to my music so I always want to know what what do they think.
When I had my child, they put it officially on my website and it was so lovely you know, all the messages are coming from
all around the world to congratulate me and my wife and it's just amazing. Thanks guys for that. (laughs)
Since you released your album 2 years ago, your main goal was to get more young people interested in classical music,
not just classical crossover but classical music. Have you seen this as a reality?
Why yes, I mean most of the audience who come to my concert are young people and the first tour was the crossover pop tour
with the band? and the second one was the classical Rachmaninov so all these people who came for my pop concerts, they came
to watch me play Rachmaninov second with some local orchestra which is a classical piece and I really enjoyed it and the comments
afterwards were really nice, they really enjoyed this classical piece and it made my very happy you know.
So you're sort of like your goal and dream is coming true.
Yes, definitely.
--end--
To listen to the audio, please head over to the discography page.
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