Fun
It is no secret that the life of an artist is an extremely busy one, with incredible demands always being made on one’s time. For Nana Miyoshi there is not only the study of the piano, but also her school studies, which include things like improving her English, along with all of her many other academic responsibilities.
Still, with so much of her time given over to practice and school, she still manages to lead a full, balanced, and satisfying life that includes a lot of fun. Here’s how.
With your having such a demanding schedule, what do you do to have fun?
I think first it’s important to understand that whether it’s working on my career, or my academic studies, everything in my life is part of an overall goal to become a full-time concert pianist, so I consider every experience a part of that. That’s why I don’t really divide my life into work and play. Everything is there to help my mission of becoming the best artist I can be.
When you ask me then what I do to have fun, I have to say that everything is fun because it’s all related. If I’m at the piano, that is of course my main occupation in life, my job. It’s the thing I work on the most. Still, even if I am playing with my two cats, something I enjoy doing, and which relaxes me, I’m relating this time to music. I watch their movements, and the way they interact with one another, and it can actually inspire me to see patterns and movements I relate to left- and right-hand movements at the keyboard.
If I’m cooking or eating in a restaurant, I look for nuances in the food and ingredients that can actually, again, bring me back to the keyboard. I’ll be waiting for a bowl of soup to cool a bit, and think “Maybe I need to slow down that passage in the Schumann just a bit. That way it will seem even more meaningful.” Or I’ll be visiting a museum, something I never tire of doing, and the structural composition of a painting will suggest to me a new way of looking at the structure of a piano work.
The same is true of attending performances. I look and listen, always searching for things I can relate back to my own work.
True fun for me means being able to connect as many aspects of my life back to music as I can. This makes everything fun, because I approach it all—school, eating, shopping, practicing, museums, performances, even playing with my cats—as opportunities to learn about life, and myself, in such a way that I can put more intellect, emotion, and maturity into my music.
As the saying goes, “If you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life.”
Photos: Fun, New York Style: From left, Playing with Graziella, one of my teacher’s cats, on the terrace at The Lambs; feeding goats at the Central Park Zoo; attending a performance of The Great Gatsby on Broadway.