Mark Pinkus is  a classical pianist from Montreal, Quebec. CBC called his music "Beautiful little stories without words". He has sold over 200,000 albums to this date, and is in preperations of releasing his next. His c.d Free Spirit hit top 30 on the U.S radio charts, and these are just a few of this amazing pianists accomplishments. We had the opportunity to talk to Mark about his music, his startings, his inspirations, the proccess of getting his music to the level it's at and much more. If your looking for an inspirational read, check it out.

You started writing music at a young age. It’s quite hard to find teachers who encourage original compositions as opposed to “the classics,” but you did manage to find a teacher who encouraged you to perform your compositions for the world. How valuable was it having someone behind your music?

My piano teacher's name was Anne Eggleston. She lived down the street

from our house in Ottawa. Anne was a composer and performer of original

classical music. At her house she had two grand pianos and a harpsichord.

She was delighted to hear me play for her my piano compositions. I started

composing the very moment I sat down at the piano at the age of 7. I was

supposed to be practicing the pieces Anne suggested but I wasn't very

interested in playing other composer's music. Very often I wouldt tell

her at my lessons that I didn't practice what I was supposed to but that I

had a new composition ready to share with her. My creative energy and

spirit for writing music was far more important than anything else. I

didn't have the concentration or the patience as a young boy to focus on

other written material or technique. Anne loved to organize house concerts

where her students would perform for family and friends. I have a copy of

the program Anne made up for the concert which dates back to the early

1970's. On the program her students performed Bach, Brahms, Scriabin,

Beethoven, Haydn,and Ravel etc. and Pinkus played Pinkus. When Anne passed
away the large tree in front of her house paid tribute to her life. The
tree was  filled with singing birds and every time I passed by the tree I
thought of Anne. That was how Anne's musical soul sang for the world. I
was truly very lucky to be taught by Anne and to have a teacher that
supported self-expression.

Your music has no words, but does a great job of conjuring up images into the mind of the listener. What do you draw inspiration from when writing your songs?

A broadcaster here in Canada named Clyde Gilmour called my music

"Beautiful little stories without words." My inspirations come from all

over the place. Mostly when I have an emotion that's moving inside me, I

go to the piano and express those feelings. I am an extremely visual person

as well. My mother is a watercolour painter and the outside world with all

its shapes, forms, and colours inspire me on many levels. Nature is one of

my biggest teachers. So many compositions are inspired by the infinite

dance of nature. Relationships, travel and the unexpected bring out a lot

of creations as well. My favourite moment is when the inspiration is

channeled immediately into the creative process. Inspiration gives me the

wings to fly.

There are a lot of classical pianists out there, but few take it far as you have. What do you think it is that stops a lot of pianists from creating their own compositions and performing and releasing them?

I have always said that there are two directions about deciding what to

do with your original music. YOu can play it only for yourself(of for a

few friends) and then put it back into a drawer, close it and hide it or

you can decide to put out a recording and share it with the world. It is

important to respect either way. Nothing about self-expression is to be

forced. When you create your own music and share it on a big scale, there

will be at times some criticism. This goes for everyone. It has been like

that since the very beginning of the commercial art experience. Some

composers are afraid to share their inner world and don't feel that their

music is good enough. My motto here is: Put it out anyway! You have

nothing to lose. There will ALWAYS be someone that will be very touched by

your music. It all comes down to the composer's personal decision. The

other reason whay a lot of composers don't "go all the way" by releasing a

recording is simply because it takes tons of perserverance, patience,

organization, energy and money and if you don't visualize the final

product and follow through step by step it's not going to happen. Dreams

take hard work to realize. I released my first recording Starting to

Believe, even when I didn't believe in myself. I did it anyway.

You’ve played shows to sold out crowds at places like Montreal’s Place des Arts, do you remember the feeling of your first sold out show? Do you still get the same feeling when you sell out a venue?
I don't like to see one empty seat. I usually sell all the tickets
myself one by one will in advance of the concert. As a result all my shows
sell out. This is a business and I"m very driven to sell out concerts. It
is not easy sometimes selling out larger venues alone but I do it. When I
performed for the first time in front of a sold out audience at La Place
Des Arts here in MOntreal, I was nervous backstage but very prepared.
Before I walk on stage I say to myself,"I'm a fish swimming in the  deep
vast ocean
and so is everyone else in the audience."
That calms me down and I tell myself whatever happens, happens.
I'm excited to perform for the audience and I actually like the fact that
I can barely see the audience in front of me. The lights shining on stage
block out the faces of the audience. I know there are people there but not
seeing them helps me feel like I'm in some invisible space. I still get
nervous before a sold out show. The nervousness varies. I do my best to
create an immediate intimacy with the audience and in that way I feel like
we're one big family sharing all together the experience of the musical
ride.

Your cd, Free Spirit, hit number 30 on the USA radio top 50 chart, which is a huge accomplishment. How was it finding out your album was such a success?
When my cd Free Spirit came out in 1997 I put my promotional hat
on(like I do for all of my cds) and turned my apartment into a
distribution warehouse. First I contacted either by phone or by email
every radio station across the USA that played on air new
age/semi-classical solo piano music. Then almost every day for about 2
years I would package and send out the cd to the radio stations and then
follow up soon thereafter to find out when it would be broadcast. My life
was mostly walking back and forth to the post office. I was extremely
happy to see the cd hit #30 on the charts after all that hard work
promoting the cd. No one else was going to do it. So I learnt simply by
doing it and I got extremely good at it. The radio, satellite and internet
producers in the USA have been very supportive and open to playing my
music on their stations. The cd Free Spirit was distributed by Avalon
Music worldwide and by Universal Music Canada in Canada. All together the
cd and cassette sold about 50,000 copies. If you really work hard and be
consistant very good things can happen.

 

Global Television’s syndicated TV series entitled “Men of Music” did a 30 minute special on your life? How was that process? 

The Tv special was a whole new experience for me. This time I was the

one being interviewed. I was a radio announcer and host of a trilingual

radio show for the Italian radio network in Paris, France. I got to

interview people all the time on my show. So now the roles were reversed.

Some of the producers, sound engineers and friends I worked with on

various projects were also interviewed and having their perspective and

comments added to the tv show made the experience even more enriching. I

remember being asked the question: "What inspires you to write music?" And

I replied,"By not playing music." Also my friend and producer Gideon Cohen

commented saying "Mark is a madman, and I feel he still has a lot of

madness to express." Those weren't the exact words but I liked that

comment by Gideon. We all have a box of craziness to bring out and express

it through our music. I'll never forget however the comments made by the

the great classical pianist Arthur Rubenstein who is my favourite

classical pianist.

He said in one of his books on his life: "There is more to life than

playing music." I couldn't of said it any better.

You’ve recently completed a book, composed to teach beginners, can you tell us a little bit about your book?

I walked into a huge music store here in Montreal and wanted to find a

very simple introduction book on how to learn to play the piano. I asked

the salesman to show me what they had available. I looked at all the

beginner's books and actually found them to be to complicated. I decided

to write a book that would be a much more preparatory approach to assist

beginners in learning to play. The concept of the book was to fill the

pages with games I invented with the goal to have lots of fun as well as to

learn about the world of music aside from actually playing. Since I

teach as well,

I would try out the games I invented on my youngest students. We had a

blast. They were so happy to play and learn. Their progress was

unbelievable. Each page of the book was like jumping into the unlimited

universe of the musical language. No scales or technical exercises to

learn..just games to play! The book is like a cookbook. Every page had a

different game to try out and explore. I wanted to call the book "Music

lessons for boring piano teachers." Way too many teachers are too

technique conscious and the student's spirit and inner creativity and

expression is smothered and kept within. It's all about having fun

especially at the beginning stages to install in the student's heart the

joy of music. To see playing an instrument as a close friend. All my

young students, even at the age of 4 and up learn to compose and perform
and with total joy. One of my students Leo Leclerc at age 9 came out
with his first original solo piano cd. Teaching Leo was such an
inspiration for the book. Once you show the child or adult the universe
within of self-expression and explore that journey, anything can happen.
I feel that teachers don't bring out enough of that creative spirit and
imagination that is so waiting to be shared and brought out. That's the
magic fo being human and of the human spirit.

Your music gets rotations on XM/SIRIUS, MUSIC CHOICE, DMX, and on CBC GALAXIE, this is a medium that a lot of artists don’t get the opportunity to be placed on, can you tell us a little bit about that process?

The process is very simple indeed. Once you have a recording finished

all you have to do is contact those stations via email and let them know
you'd like to send tham a copy of your music for the producer's to
listen to. It's good to know what program your music would fit in in
advance. They like to know you've done your side of the research. And
then follow up by contacting them to see if they received it and when
will they put your music in rotation. Of course they have to like your
music and feel it is professional enough to broadcast. All of the
stations can be contacted via their websites. All it takes is some basic
promotional skills and the desire to contact them and see what happens.
The advantage of being on their program at first opens the door to
contact them again when your next release is available. The chances are
excellent that they will play your new release as well being already
familiar with your music.  Stations are
usually very interested in receiving new material. Stay positive and
send your music to the proper person in charge of the specific
program that suits your style of music and the rest is full of surprises.

You’ve had a lot success in our beautiful country, but you’ve also gotten a lot of recognition overseas, how did you tackle that task?
My other motto is: "Don't think local, think global." It drives me crazy
seeing bands and solo artists spinning around and around for years playing
in the same city and trying to make it all happen for their careers
locally. The world is your stage! The local scene is a microscopic pebble
of sand on the beach. I contact as many producers as I can around the
world. I've
been doing this since 1990 when my cassette Starting to Believe came out.
I began by going around with a small cassette briefcase and visiting
stores in the neighborhood and selling my cassettes at $5. I was a
travelling cassette salesman. Then when the cd format came out, I began
with the internet to research everywhere in the world and stations I could
get my music on. My father once said to me," Keep throwing the mud against
the wall and eventually it will stick."  Here's the formula I use:
Research, contact, deliver the merchandise, follow-up, and finally thank
the person for playing your music. Nobody wants it to be complicated and
the music industry is so challenging to begin with that the simpler the
commuciation the
better for everyone. Always be kind, to the point and efficient when it
comes to contacting the producer of the program. I am still following the
same procedure and with my next cd coming out this fall, I"ll be back at
it again.

What advice do you have for up and coming pianists looking to follow in the same path and releasing their own music?
The vast majority of people in the entertainment industry talk a lot
about what they want to achieve and yet I am amazed of how so few actually do
what they set out to do. It is so easy to talk about a music project for
example but to do it is another thing all together. I don't usually give
out advice unless I'm asked to, but here's my final comment: Talk less and
get on with the project! The wasted energy you spend talking about it
could be implemented into doing it. If you really want to share you art
with others, you're going to have to dive right in and get on with it. And
lastly, no matter who criticizes you or who shows indifference to you and
if others don't think you're capable, or don't believe in you, well, move
on anyway with your dream. Obstacles are a part of all of our lives. It's
ok to walk through a storm and there will be many storms along the way
when you share your music to the world but just remember, no matter what
others say or do to stop you from fulfilling your dream, keep in your mind
and spirit that a rainbow is shining above your head after the storm. And
that illuminosity and colour in the sky is thanking you for going your own
way.

To find out more about Mark Pinkus and his music visit http://www.markpinkus.com/mp/