Music
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entered the conservatory. It is actually a funny
story – before I had learnt my ABCs I learned
Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si.”
“I had perfect pitch, which was why the conservatory accepted me at that age. My father
took me to the director and told him to play
something for me so I could recite the notes. The
professor played one note on the piano and I said
‘La’, from the Solfège. He wasn’t impressed. My
father said, ‘Play more – two or three notes together’. He played another note selection and I
again recited them ‘Do Fa La’.”
“After doing this a few times my father told
him, ‘I mean, really play a piece’. He did and, as
he was playing, I recited the notes in real-time.
The director was completely taken aback and
just slammed both hands onto the keys, I
automatically said ‘La Mi Ti Do Re Mi’,”
Atilla grinned. “He looked at his hands and
thought for a moment and then looked at me
wide-eyed.”
“I may have missed one note because it was
so quick but, otherwise, I was absolutely correct.
I didn’t understand why he and my father were
laughing – I heard and I responded. I wondered
what they thought was so special about that.”
“Being born with this perfect pitch has proven both a blessing and a curse, as that small
conflict illustrates. It has always been difficult
for me to work with other musicians, as I can
immediately hear when they are off-key. . . it
drives me even more crazy when singers are offkey,” Atilla groaned.
“When I was young, playing with other musicians, I was always giving them bad looks when
we performed because it actually hurt me to hear
badly-played notes, no matter how small. And
my fellow band members were all older than me
so they didn’t put up with it when I told them
that they were playing incorrectly. It was difficult for me to explain what I wanted to tell them,
so I just gave up and suffered in silence – rather
loud silence, I may add.”
ArtSuisse
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ArtSuisse
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Musique
“At thirteen years old I was sent to the conservatory in Lausanne for classical piano, where I
studied for more than ten years. During most of
this time I continued to travel with my father until I was 18, when some quite well-known bands
began to take interest in my voice and asked me
to sing with them.”
“I joined Jean Couroyer’s band, which was
the first time I’d taken a single step outside of
my family’s nest,” Daniela continued. “My only
problem working with this band was that I had
to sing hit music for people to dance to, and we
played 20-year-old ‘standards’, which were very
difficult for an 18-year-old to learn quickly and
then sing correctly.”
“After this I had my first taste of jazz when
I joined a band called Axis. They were young
people playing newer music and I loved it. I was,
unfortunately, still at the conservatory at this
time – Whew! what a problem that was!”
“Professors at the conservatory maintained
a very serious atmosphere, where it was absolutely forbidden to even talk about pop music.
My teacher asked what I was doing on the weekends – ‘do you know you have your exams?’ he
would warn me. He was very serious of course,”
Daniela chuckled.
Daniela revealed that she found herself
caught-up living two separate lives – seven hours
each weekday of classical music in one life and
on the weekends a contrasting wild life with pop
and jazz music.
The conservatory was, as Daniela stated,
“...too heavy in classical, with absolutely no other
music allowed”. She found it very difficult to live
these parallel lives.
For a touch of contrast, I turned to Atilla and
asked him if Daniela’s musical origins were similar to his.
“My father essentially built the Istanbul symphony orchestra,” Atilla replied. “He conducted
the orchestra and was a teacher at the Istanbul
conservatory. At four and one-half years old I
Romande. A cause de cette influence, j’ai commencé à composer des morceaux pour piano
quand j’avais dix ans. Nous avions un piano à
queue à la maison et j’étais plus intéressée à jouer
de la musique qu’à jouer dehors avec les autres
enfants. Ca c’est parce que je ressentais le besoin
de créer à un très jeune âge. »
« A treize ans j’ai été envoyée au Conservatoire de Lausanne pour piano classique, où j’ai
étudié pendant plus de dix ans. La plupart du
temps, je continuais à voyager avec mon père,
jusqu’à mes 18 ans, quand quelques groupes assez
connus commencèrent à s’intéresser à ma voix et
me demandèrent de chanter avec eux. »
« J’ai rejoint le groupe de Jean Couroyer ;
c’était la première fois que je mettais un seul pas
en dehors du nid familial. Mon père comprit que
j’avais besoin de découvrir de nouvelles choses et
d’étendre mon répertoire. Le seul problème que
j’avais à travailler avec ce groupe était de devoir
chanter des hits sur lesquels les gens pouvaient
danser, et nous jouions des « standards » vieux
de 20 ans, ce qui était très difficile à apprendre
rapidement et à chanter correctement pour une
jeune femme de 18 ans. »
« Après quoi j’ai goûté pour la première
fois au jazz quand j’ai rejoint un groupe nommé Axis. Il s’agissait de jeunes gens qui jouaient
des morceaux plus récents et j’ai adoré ça. J’étais
cependant, malheureusement, toujours au conservatoire à cette époque – Eh bien