Natasha Paremski performs with `life, death, hope, spirit and prayer'
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Natasha Paremski is the first to admit that the life of a concert pianist is far from easy.
``But it's definitely exciting,'' she said during a jet-lagged phone interview from her home in New York. Paremski had just returned from back-to-back concerts in the Netherlands and Germany.
``There have been mornings, when I'm traveling, that I've thought, `Oh, my gosh, I'm not
really sure where I am,'' said Paremski, 18. ``I think, `Should I phone the reception desk and ask them what city I'm in? But then I stop, because I don't want them to call someone and send me to an asylum!''
While touring has its hectic moments, ``it's also very freeing,'' she said. ``I'm actually doing what I feel I'm destined to do. Even when it's hard, I still love it. Flight delayed? No problem! Luggage lost? Time to go shopping!''
Part of what makes Paremski such a brilliant and fascinating pianist -- and why she was chosen to receive a Gilmore Young Artist Award -- is that she brings so many elements of her dynamic personality to the keyboard. She is funny, charming, well grounded, determined and not afraid to tackle pieces that make pianists twice her age break into a cold sweat.
``I'm opening all of my Gilmore concerts with Beethoven's `Tempest Sonata,''' she said, ``which I've found is the hardest, by far. Not technically, but in terms of requiring intense concentration. It's a very elusive piece of music.''
Paremski will also play Chopin's B-flat-minor ``Funeral March Sonata,'' which she said ``will put you in a depression no matter how happy you are.''
So why does she include it in her concerts? ``It's just such a monumental work,'' Paremski said. ``Every time I play it I feel I understand it more and more. It has life, death, hope, spirit and prayer.
``There is a reaching for the unknown. It's almost like it does reach it, but it doesn't know that it reaches it. If you just take the fourth movement, which is a minute long, it is so eerie. But it is not eerie because it is still. It is eerie because it's like hearing voices in your head and the wind over the graveyard. A gripping sort of restlessness.''
Paremski, who started piano lessons at the age of 4, began playing when she was just 2 years old.
``Music has always been a part of my life,'' she said. ``My family lived in an extremely tiny apartment in Russia, a fifth-floor walkup. The piano divided the living room from the bedrooms.''
After moving to California, the family couldn't afford to buy a piano. They rented a grand piano.
``It was this old, old thing, but I just thought it was the best instrument in the world,'' Paremski said. ``I would play and play and play.''
That fierce sense of determination and passion eventually led to her Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony in February 2004. Paremski, who was 16 at the time, performed Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto.
``It was an incredible experience,'' she said. ``All I could think of is that Rachmaninoff had played the American premiere of that same concerto in Carnegie Hall. It was very humbling and emotional for me.''