Who is Arsha Kaviani ?
I like to create unique musical experiences centred around the piano. I’m equally happy in an intimate setting, improvising on a theme suggested from a member of the audience on an upright piano, as I am playing to a packed Royal Albert Hall on a glorious Steinway Model D. I had a very unorthodox route to where I am as an artist having been raised in Dubai by Iranian parents. I grew up surrounded by music ranging from Beethoven concertos to Nirvana, Bach, Persian music and beyond, which inspired me to start improvising and composing at the piano from an early age.
After moving to the UK for formal training, I studied at Chetham’s School of Music and then at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Royal College of Music and Trinity Laban Conservatoire, where I specialised in performing, composing and improvisation.
I’ve since performed with orchestras like the Tonhalle in Zürich and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and toured with the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne, whilst also hosting multiple concert series in London and Oxfordshire. In my work, I aim to challenge the conventions of classical music, integrating a wide range of influences from pop to jazz and traditional Persian music and interpreting them through my lens, in the classical idiom. All of this is shown in my upcoming album Accents and Echoes where I rework, transcribe and improvise on music that is dear to me from various genres that include not only Shostakovich, Bach, Scriabin and Medtner, but also Massive Attack, Portishead and Khruangbin.
Through my production company, Maison Musique Kaviani, I also collaborate on interdisciplinary projects and receive commissions to compose music for private clients, film scores, fashion, media and beyond.
As a performer and composer, challenging the conventions and hierarchies of classical music is very important to you. Can you elaborate on this and share with us some of your most memorable moments or performances?
I believe that a performance is a dynamic collaboration between the performer and the audience. For me, it’s essential to consider the energy and atmosphere of the room and allow the performance to be shaped moment by moment by these factors. While I love nothing more than playing in a large hall filled with thousands of people, there’s something just as special about intimate settings, like plonking a piano in the centre of a room and inviting the audience to gather round. Here, I have the opportunity to share not only prepared pieces, but also spontaneous improvisations inspired by suggestions from the audience. During intermissions, I often invite the audience to write melodies, harmonies or other suggestions on manuscript paper for me to improvise on. People share anything from poems, colours, fugue subjects, stories and cinematic scenes. This way we are creating something unique together, rather than a cookie cutter programme which I tour in 25 cities, and it stops me from physically slipping into autopilot and keeps me very much on my toes mentally.
Can you share some insights into your creative process when transcribing works into your unique style?
One of my heroes for transcription and technique is the legendary virtuoso Leopold Godowsky. His transcriptions of the Chopin Études for example, and his equal treatment and demands on both the left and right hands (whereas the former usually plays a simpler, accompanying role), opened my mind to the possibilities of what can be done with 10 fingers and three pedals. When transcribing, I prioritise the effect of something over staying “academically” true to the score. I think the piano is an incredible imitation machine.
Your upcoming album Accents and Echoes promises a blend of classical concertos, film scores and pop songs. How do you ensure cohesion within such varied repertoire?
The cohesion in my music stems from my belief that music is a very complex and universal language, spoken in many accents (hence part of the album name!). My process involves absorbing and internalising these works, then expressing them through my (hopefully unique) lens. Each work on the album has different needs and requirements but belongs to the same language, and there’s a more direct tonal relationship between many of the pieces and how they flow through the album.
The album ends with my piano sonata Accents and Echoes (the namesake of the album) and serves as a nod to the musical accents and echoes of melody, harmony, rhythm and feel that I’ve encountered throughout my life so far – it’s about taking
a million different influences whilst finding my own voice within it. The sonata started as a simple prelude which then snowballed into a 21-minute composition with a triple fughetta. As such there are themes of late romanticism and very contrapuntal, deliberate writing interspersed with modes of the orient and beyond.
Your production company, Maison Musique Kaviani, has seen you work with figures as diverse as world-renowned photographer Damon Baker and author and philosopher Robert Greene. How have you approached these works and can you share any challenges or surprises?
Damon Baker is an incredibly inspiring friend of mine, a true artist’s artist, and arguably one of the world’s finest portrait photographers. We share a similar goal of capturing raw emotion within our own work, albeit through a refined lens where beauty and hope coexist. Damon’s photography played a pivotal role in crafting the album art for Accents and Echoes. He photographed me during the process of writing the thing, and after – it will all be available on the physical copies of the album. He has this ability to peer into the soul during the creative process and there’s nowhere to hide. I am often commissioned to do “musical portraits” that try to encapsulate an individual’s personality or a set of emotions, and so, in return for his wonderful photographs, I did a “musical portrait” of him: this is very much my favourite kind of collaboration.
Maison Musique Kaviani keeps me busy. Currently I’m scoring two films: a hilarious thought-provoking new film, written by my multi-talented friend Jack Dylan Grazer, and a marvellously clever film by the brilliant Anna Biller (of The Love Witch fame) based on the Japanese ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan.
I’ve recently embarked on a two-album project with the incredible vocalist Hannah Williams who shot to fame when Jay-Z sampled her haunting voice in his album song 4:44. It’s a commission by a private client to write around 20 songs across two albums for Hannah to bring to life. The client felt like they wanted to hear music that didn’t exist and that’s one of the main things we do; we try and bring to life these things from a pure set of ideas into a finished product, using the finest musicians around.
Not many people know that the philosopher Robert Greene is a Messiaen buff and adores Scriabin. We’ve had many conversations about music and beyond and are planning a live collaboration involving music and conversation. In the first lockdown I thought the value I could provide my followers was to have him philosophise and give some great advice on life. We talked about Scriabin, our shadows, Dostovesky and I even played a little bit of Bach’s Art of Fugue at the end.
Something I’m also incredibly excited about composing, arranging and helping to produce is an album for the exceptionally talented singer-songwriter Charlotte Rossé, that’s been championed by Dame Shirley Bassey. Charlotte is unique in that she inhabits the cross section between classical (she is a classically trained opera singer), contemporary, pop and alternative music. The sole for Project Eternity, our working title for this project, is to write music that rises above trends and fads, and that hopefully in 50 years’ time new artists will be making their own cover versions of the songs.
What does your dream invite look like?
I would love to have an artistic residency somewhere that not only encompasses recitals and concertos, but also the opportunity to engage deeply with local musicians of multiple genres and disciplines and talents from across the artistic spectrum through performance, teaching, collaboration and vibrant conversations that extend from and go beyond music.
How do you see yourself contributing to the performing arts landscape in the coming years?
I aim to keep an open mind and remain adaptable and receptive to new ideas, technological advancements and the evolving needs of both artists and audiences. This philosophy has inspired me to start my own label called SRSLY. With SRSLY I aspire to address the significant gap in the market by championing genre-agnostic music that respects both the creators and consumers, so fingers crossed I can help be a part of delivering this.
IAM was in conversation with the pianist, improvisator and composer Arsha Kaviani.
For more information about his latest engagements and recordings, including his debut album Accents and Echos (released on 28 June), visit www.arshakaviani.com
