Playing solo can be nerve-racking
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/353842/039playing-solo-can-nerve-racking039.html
Sharik Hasan ventured into the world of music quite by
chance. At an early age, the piano in his house happened to catch his fancy and
ever since, there’s been nothing else that has intrigued him in the same way.
He speaks to Metrolife before his solo piano recital
at Jayamahal Hotel on August 31 at 6 pm.
“My mother used to play the piano, not professionally but
out of interest. As a five-year-old child, I found it fascinating. My parents
saw that I was naturally drawn to it and asked me if I wanted to learn it. I
started taking lessons and then the passion just continued,” recalls Sharik,
adding that when he has around 16, the passion faded for a year. “I stopped
because there was a lot of pressure around the classical music examination I
had to write. That killed it for me,” he explains.
It was in Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music in Ohio that he heard jazz
for the first time. “I was doing mathematics and literature
major but I suddenly felt
re-exposed to music in a new way. I saw young people
pursuing music professionally
and loved the freedom that jazz offered. A few years later,
it became an obsession,”
he shares.
Given his present reputation, Sharik owes a lot to the music
education he has
received, which has extended to the best music schools like
Trinity School of Music and Berklee College of Music, Boston. He acknowledges that staying just in India would
probably not have allowed him to reach where he is today. “I’ve always
wondered ‘what if’. If I had chosen another school in America, I
might not have gone back to music.
Maybe I would have anyway reconnected a few years later. But
what I didn’t see or get in
India
was exposure to music of high calibre. My life just wasn’t going in that direction
when I was here,” confesses the young pianist who is presently based in New York.
Collaborations have often come his way and quartets have
also been formed.
But ask him whether he feels more comfortable playing solo
or with other musicians and the reply is impartial.
“I like both because each one’s very different. Playing solo
can be nerve-racking
because you’re under a lot of pressure. When I started
playing with other musicians, I lost my nerve. It was like engaging in a
conversation instead of delivering a
monologue,” notes Sharik.
“As I got better, I found something appealing about going
solo, even though I struggled with it. You get to be more introspective and it
lends a flexibility to take the music in whatever direction one wants,” he elaborates.
Having once lived in Bangalore,
he fondly talks about what the City means
to him. “Bangalore
is home and I’ve been playing here for ten years. People here are culturally
aware. The City was responsible for my growth when I came back from America
because it had so many venues to play in. Plus, I have
personal connections with the audience,” he reminisces.
Sharik Hasan
http://www.berklee.edu/events/detail/12818/sharik-hasan
Sharik Hasan started his tryst with the piano at the age of
5 and by 16, had completed the curriculum of the Royal School of Music, London. He then went to
the United States to attend Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music.
In 2007, Hasan moved to Paris
for two years to study at the Bill
Evans Piano
Academy where the young
pianist integrated quickly into the jazz scene, playing in international
festivals with his trio. He was subsequently awarded a scholarship to Berklee
College of Music, where he was selected to be part of the Berklee Global Jazz
Institute under the tutelage of Danilo Pérez. He has performed at venues all
over the world including the Blue Note (New
York), Panama Jazz Festival, and Nancy Jazz Festival
(France).
Starting in the fall of 2012, Sharik Hasan will pursue a
master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music on scholarship.