Meet the Artists: Piano Phase Project

January 26, 2023

2022 Artists, Piano Phase Project

In this new series, we’re meeting the 2022 CMF Artists and getting to know a little bit about them as musicians and find out what they get up to away from music.

Piano Phase Project is a piano duo creating musical installations in contemporary settings, giving the audience an insight into a new format of classical music concerts, with opportunity for listeners to become participants. This liberal and democratic presentation of music allows listeners to freely move around the space and experience a classical music concert in a completely new environment and fresh, forward-thinking approach.

How long have you been playing your instruments for?

We both followed an Eastern-European educational pathway and started to play piano when we went to school, so for us that was at the age of 7. Monika attended a daily music school whilst Anna attended an afternoon music school where she went after finishing, what we then called, the ‘normal’ school.

What is the best thing about being a musician?

Making music! We love doing just that and fortunately it usually means we meet a lot of fantastic people whilst travelling to some interesting locations. And also that’s how we met each other 🙂

Can you tell us a little bit about the kind of music you play?

We base our performances mainly on classical music but we’re working to expand our repertoire step by step. We include improvisation and percussive instruments (some of them are DIY), so we’re looking into what you could better call Classical+

Favourite composer?

Since we’re called Piano Phase Project we must say Steve Reich! But in all honesty, that’s one of the hardest questions and I think it changes depending on what we’re currently working on.

Biggest inspiration?

Each other 🙂 We are great friends after hours as well and we feel like our personalities help us becoming a better person every day.

What are you most looking forward to about being a CMF Artist?

We’re particularily looking forward to the upcoming performances and making connection with other CMF artists. Taking some admin work off our shoulders also means we can focus more on creating high quality music installations which is the most important thing for us.

Best concert you’ve ever been to?

Jacob Collier! A perfect blend between complex harmonies and funk beats and lots of fun.

Which tracks would you take to your desert island?

We would take Piano Phase, listen to it for a month, and go crazy!

What do you do in your down time?

We take spontaneous trips, go to gym and go see some artistic events. We also like to chat to each other!

Which TV shows are you binging at the moment?

With Monika on board, it will always be Friends, always.

If you were only allowed to eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Probably chocolate 🙂