I started playing piano at the age of four. I was listening to a lot of jazz, which was the style of music I grew up with. I started by improvising, trying to improvise the sounds of my favorite piano players. One of my favorites, who I was listening to back then, was Oscar Peterson, so I fell in love listening to the Oscar Peterson Trio. At the same time, I was studying classical music as well.

I wasn't listening to much classical music when I was that young, but later on I really respected the quality, the different stylistic diversity of this era that led me to composition. So I'm an improviser and a composer.

This is an excerpt of a 7,000 word interview which will be published and podcasted across a network of participating university journals and national arts/literary magazines.