How can so much talent fit into someone so petite? Well it can, and more so.
Gabrielė Sutkutè is a winner of twenty international piano competitions at which she also received numerous special awards. She holds the Philharmonia MMSF Piano Fellowship award, “Help Musicians” postgraduate performance award and the Craxton Memorial Trust award.
In conversation and in awe, having watched a rehearsal session in the church which was energetic, vibrant and stimulating, I asked:
What do you do to relax?
I hang out with friends and sometimes we all need those days when we lie in bed. I like to go to the park and museums, and I used to dance professionally, but not anymore. I go to dance lessons which I love.
You have won many competitions but which one do you still strive to win?
I will tell you when I win it.
Can you remember your first memories of playing the piano?
I know the photo where I was three years old. It shows me sitting at a piano with an intent look, which I still have when I sit down to play. In terms of memory, I can remember when my grandparents took me to music school and I liked the piano a lot. My teacher used to give me lots of pieces to play and my mother asked her one day, “Why do you give Gabrielé so many pieces and not the other students?” The reply was simply, “Because she can do it.”
I still have my first piano at home and when my parents said they would upgrade it I said if they did I would give up playing.
Tell me a little about your family
I have one sister and luckily all my grandparents are still alive. Most of my family are doctors; my parents and my grandparents. My mother used to play accordion and my dad the piano and he said he would never let his child go to piano lessons because he hated it so much! But here I am.
What things upset you?
When people are very selfish. We live in a competitive world, especially the music world, but when someone is aggressively competitive towards you and wants to put themselves first and diminish you that’s not good. I am competitive but I think in a more healthy way.
Do you have a favourite concert venue?
Wigmore Hall: beautiful acoustics and beautiful piano. The acoustics matter a great deal. Here at St Mary’s I am surprised that it isn’t echoey at all because churches often are.
If you had not become a concert pianist, what might you have done?
My family are mainly doctors but I am afraid of blood so that rather put me off the market for that career. I think I would always have been in the arts, some kind of performing rôle as I like to be on stage. When I am on stage I feel at home – that adrenalin rush is great.
In twenty years’ time where do you see yourself?
Hopefully performing and having lots of concerts. Collaborating with other artists and teaching at a conservatoire in London. I see London as my second home. We will see what happens.
Image Credits: Kt bruce , Kt bruce .
So petite people’s talent is limited?
Pointing out differences, whether it be race, gender, size or whatever is unacceptable. How would it have appeared if you substituted the word petite for ‘fat’?