Hello everyone! It's us, Dorottya Nizalowski and Fanni Nizalowski from Hungary and we are here in Hong Kong, at the 13th World Harp Congress.
– So, you are playing lots of kinds of music from all around the world. Do you have a favourite style, or favourite times of music?
– My specialty is really playing improvised music, so a nice thing about improvisation is you play exactly what you want to play in that moment, which you want to hear in this moment. It’s like finding your favourite radio station right then. And so many different styles can come in, so if I want a little bit of blues, I have a little bit of blues, if I want something that’s a little bit like a fugue, then I can have a little bit of a fugue. So I… This is just that I don’t have necessarily a favourite. My favourite is playing improvisation, which means playing everything. It’s like if you said what is my favourite meal, maybe would be a buffet, because then you can choose a little bit of this, a little bit of that, so yeah.
– And I heard that your first concert in Europe was in Hungary. Is it true?
– It is true, yes it is. The first time I came to Europe was with Aristid von Wurtzler with the New York Harp Ensemble. And we came to make, actually, it wasn’t a concert, it was a recording, a recording with Hungaroton records. And so I came for this and played in this. That’s also when I went to Scotland the first time, I took a train, and a boat to the train. And I went to a wedding with Deborah Henson-Conant. We went together, because we were talking in the States beforehand, and I said ‘Yes, I’m going to Europe for the first time!’ and she said ‘I’m also going to Europe at the same time’, so we decided we would meet in London, and then drive to Scotland, and go to this wedding, which was full of musicians, and made many changes in my life. But it all started in Budapest.
– And I know you have lot of friends all around the world, and you have lots of concerts, is it very tiring to travel all the time and how many harps do you bring with yourself?
– Wow, that’s a big… many questions. Well, usually when I travel I don’t travel with a harp. I try to find a harp at the place. If I’m driving for a concert then I drive with my harp, otherwise I usually just find through the network of harpists, or through Salvi or Lyon&Healy I have a harp, so that makes it very easy. Otherwise it would be very complicated. And I usually only use one harp on concerts. And is it tiring? Yes, sometimes it’s tiring, like life is sometimes tiring, because it’s always about keeping the energy, but I feel very lucky, of course, I’m very lucky. To be in the harp world for a long time and to… Yes, harp world is a beautiful place, because it really is a world, and you can’t live there all the time, but to go there, you instantly have a connection with these different people. So it’s very nice. So, I’m not tired, really! Because it gives me energy, yeah, yeah.
– Thank you very much, and thank you for your music!
– Thanks very much!