>> It’s one of the perks of the job – sometimes you come across really talented people who seem on the very cusp of greatness. That’s how it felt when I met RNCM pianist Arsha Kaviani in Manchester this week. In his final year at the college, he’s playing with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra in Doha on Saturday and then Dubai next week. The interest in Kaviani is partly due to his birthplace – Dubai is not blessed with talented homegrown classical musicians – but also because he’s confident, charismatic, and really very good at what he does.
So it’s no surprise that his debut with the Qatar Philharmonic features Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3, widely regarded as one of the most technically demanding pieces in the canon. The concerto featured in Shine, the biopic of troubled virtuoso pianist David Helfgott – it’s the piece which appears to send him mad – but there’s no such concerns for Kaviani. He just takes it all in his stride – which is why I’m looking forward to seeing him next time he performs in Manchester.
“Sure, it’s not an easy piece. But growing up in the Emirates, where there was no cultural tradition of classical music, I didn’t know that I was supposed to fear it. I had no one telling me that I couldn’t do it.”
Click here to read the full interview with Arsha Kaviani in The National
