[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] conversations with Tyler is produced by the mercada center at George Mason University Bridging the Gap between academic ideas and real world problems learn more at arcades.in conversations withth tyler.com hello everyone and welcome back to conversations with Tyler to today I'm here with Anna vich of Croatia who was
one of the world's great classical guitarists Anna welcome thank you so much it's great to be here now what is it about the compositions of Bach that make them such great classical guitar pieces it's a very good question my love for box music actually started when I was very young growing up in Croatia it was part of our you know repertoire that
we studied at the Academy and in the school of music I was introduced to it from a very early age and I just connected with it immediately for some reason you know throughout all these years box music is something that I always play and always continue to play and I think it's just you know we're so used to hearing Bach on violin piano cello but we're not so used to hearing
it in guitar and it's a completely different quality when you hear it on a classical guitar all the voices come out very clearly the Baseline is obviously very very important so I think it just comes out completely more beautiful organic way on the guitar you know and I think also it has to do with the performer of course if you love box
music if you connect with it I think it comes through to what you do so I think the audience recognizes that so for me personally there's a special connection with box music you know from a very very early age and it continues to be so so probably will always be that way you know so growing up I listen to a lot of you know chist violinists pianists how
they interpret and I try to apply that on classical guitar which is not easy you know so just that in itself is a challenge for me it always challenges me box music in general challenges me to become a better musician so I think all those things together combined just makes it very special you know so personally like I said for me it's the
most beautiful music that was ever you know created so but say Beethoven doesn't typically work well on classical guitar right so what sort of technically makes Bach feasible for your performances is that the Limited dynamic range or a lot of it also has to do with the quality of the arrangement you know obviously B didn't compose for guitar so
we have a lot of arrangements and that's when the arranger comes in you have to be familiar with the classical guitar how it works so I perform a lot of arrangements by a Croatian arranger Walter dashal who is actually a chist so he comes from a different world but he understands guitar very well on a cello you cannot bring all these voices out as
clearly as on a classical guitar so I think that's part of it you know you can bring the Baseline can you can bring the middle line you can bring the upper line very very clearly I think that's part of it you know but also as a performer you know you have to find ways to make it interesting to make like I said all the voices come out very very clearly I
think that's number one you know so obviously as a guitarist you know we don't have a lot of repertoire so we have beautiful pieces that were composed originally but mostly from Spain you know there's a lot of Spanish repertoire for guitar but bah in itself is a challenge why is Benjamin Britain's nocturnal so successful a piece for
classical guitar it's an amazing piece it's a fabulous piece very very difficult technically musically I mean you have to work very hard to make it sound you know beautiful that is probably one of the most difficult pieces in Guitar repertoire so it's a challenge I think for every guitarist I myself been working on it for many many
years I still don't feel comfortable playing it but it's a very very challenging piece yeah is it possible to compose well for classical guitar without being able to really play it I think so you know there's many many pieces beautiful pieces for guitar composed by composers that didn't actually play the instrument but I think they understood it very very well or
they perhaps worked you know with the classical guitarist sovia was very important in our classical guitar world he brought many many composers a lot of music for classical guitar so he was a catalyst for classical guitar con by Rodrigo is one of the most famous pieces for guitar and Orchestra personally for me the piece that represents guitar
completely you know the technical aspect the musical aspect so yes it's possible it's possible to do so yeah what's the correct way to think about the actual innovation of sovia because classical guitar seems to take off after he produces recordings what exactly did he do that was a breakthrough he did so many things I think he was the I don't want to say the
first or the only one you know there's so many great artists so many classical guitarists that brought classical guitar to where it is now so they're all equally important but I think Segovia is just at the highest level I don't think classical guitar would be here in this level and recognized by so many people if there wasn't Segovia so we owe
actually a lot to him and through repertoire through the level of Performing technique you know I think he still stays one of the the most recognized classical guitarists of all time so he always will be for me personally he was a idol you know it was something that I aspired to be and I grew up listening to his recordings and many many other artists we grew up with
him if you would wish for one composer to had written for classical guitar who didn't who would that be well I mean I you you know like I said I listen to a lot of Bak scarlati beov rahmanov I wish all of them composed for classical guitar Vivaldi you know so I mean we're lucky to have Arrangements but sometimes I wish that you know we had more
repertoire to choose from you know for classical guitarist is difficult so we have to rely on arrangers that arranged all these beautiful pieces for us you know so you mentioned limited repertoire for you what are what might call the limits of transcriptions so there versions of The Goldberg Variations for guitar kazuu Yamashita he's done almost
everything on guitar misorski Stravinsky it actually seems to work where is it going too far with the transcription well you have to be careful of course guitar as every other instrument has technical limitations so whenever you play something and again we're all human so we have to try something that was composed for piano it's very difficult to play play on
classical guitar no matter how well you arrange it of course you still want to sound natural you still want to sound good so obviously Amash is an amazing guitarist you know so he can play anything he would like to play when you choose the repor you have to be very very careful you have to be mindful of you know your own limitations and what
you're capable of so for me personally I'm very very careful you know I want something that I play to sound good technically and musically so yes there are limitations but I think it's everybody's Choice it's a personal choice what you would like to play Goldberg Variations are very very difficult you know it takes many many years to get it to the level where you
want it to be so also musically you know dynamically we obviously don't want to sound like a Pianist but you know we have to apply that into our own instrument and what we do except for the G Tob string as you know guitars tuned in perfect Force how much of a limitation is that and why aren't there more alternate tunings In classical
music the way you find saying country blues guitar there are I mean there are certain musicians that experiment with that but I think as a classical guitarist this is what we do you know we usually stay in standard tuning so there's not many alterations you know but for me it's very inspirational to listen to you know other styles of music jazz blues even country you know so I
learned from that it's my inspiration to listen to not just classical music but other styles of music you know but there's certain standards in classical guitar and we must follow that so what do you think of playing with seven or eight strings like Andre Molin or Geron sire right he he plays Bach with extra strings why not why not I mean yeah I
guess it's a personal choice you know like I said many of them experiment you know with alternate things but for me personally I think six strings are enough you know so I try to stay within that limit you mentioned in one of your interviews that you were working on transcribing in some Beetles for classical guitar what might you
transcribe and why would you pick that piece because I do I do love beetles I think everyone loves beetles of course and and there's some beautiful songs of course yesterday is one of my favorites I played that piece that Song arranged by torimitsu he arranged a book of you know different songs not just by Beatles but other artists as well so but I chose
that one there's another one Here There and Everywhere You know I'm not so scared in that regard so I try to do it but I leave it to the people that actually know how to describe well and like I said before you know the arrangement part is very very important you know so if the arrangement is bad obviously it's not going to sound so good so I would rather leave that to
someone that you know actually knows how to do it but I experimented a little bit with that Mark prender Gast in his book on ambient music makes the argument that a lot of earlier classical guitar Works Rodrigo alobos that they're really anticipating very recent Trends on ambient music and they're much more pathbreaking than classical music
critics had realized even up until now what do you think of that argument There's Something About This creation of a hovering sound world that say vobo did that we still haven't caught up too fully in our musical understanding and it's a precursor of briano say among others yeah I mean you know whenever you choose you know repertoire a piece that
you like to play I think it's important you have to study and learn about the composer and what they were trying to do and a part of it that I think we still struggle as guitarist is analyzing the music is very very important looking at the score you know understanding what is going on I think you know pianist and violist chist are taught to do that from
very very early age we as classic leaders don't fully understand that yet so I think that's a very very important part also you know learning about the composer learning about the history when they lived why they composed in a certain way so going into the background is very very important you know so I think as classical guitarist we still
have to learn how to do that so it's an important part guitar is a very interesting instrument I think sometimes we just want to sit and play and not so much going to the depth of the actual piece and learning about all the aspects of the piece you know like I said the background is very very important and then you know the music that you play
comes out differently you know it's a different quality when you actually know what the composer was intending to do what can you learn studying the score without a guitar nearby or without touching the guitar what happens in your mind you just see everything much clearer I think it's good to do that before you actually start learning the
piece what I just started doing recently is just you know look at the score look at the notes write things down and maybe I'm just a visual person that kind of understands music more that way and then when I actually pick up the the guitar and play it on the instrument again it's a different quality you know because you understand more where all the ups and
downs are and how the music moves and it's a very important part of you know studying the score and even you know visualizing the music and memorizing it that way without the actual instrument is important as well so it makes you learn the piece in a more secure way and again you know it's a very very important part of what do and studying
the score is important you once said that you don't practice past seven hours a day what would happen in that eth hour if you were to go there I would probably go crazy but is it mental is it physical or I just had a conversation with a friend of mine about that how the amount of hours are actually not important as much as the quality of the practice so as a child I
used to practice many many hours because I didn't know you know I didn't find the way kind of experiment over the years so at this age you know I finally learned that it's more about concrete work you know focused work working on things that give you trouble either if it's technical or musical and then you practice in sections that takes less
time you practice very slowly before playing fast and then you put it all together but it just takes a lot of years to get to a point where you kind of know what you need to work on so 2 or 3 hours of focused practice is more efficient than you know 7 or 8 hours because sometimes there is a danger of just playing the piece through and not
really working on sections and things that we should work on I think at the eighth hour I think we should all stop what's the main physical constraint on what you do is it the wrist the back concentration memory what gives out first so to speak it's all of those things together I think of course as we age you know there's physical limitations our mind decreases as well
so but you can you know be careful and be vigilant about that and for example our body of course cannot sustain you know s or eight hours of continued practice I mean it's just too much you know there's injuries that happen so people have to be very very careful you also have to make sure that your posture is correct you know your back is
straight and your shoulders are relaxed your hands should be relaxed so that's a very big part of it you know our body the as we age so we have to find a way to compensate that also you know our mind is a very very important part actually I think it's more important than the physical because everything comes from your mind you know if your
mind is relaxed if your mind knows what it's doing then everything else will kind of fall into place so you know for example when you perform live your mind has to be very very relaxed because if your mind is constantly worrying that creates a lot of tension in your hands in your shoulders in your back so everything has to come together but you
again that's something that takes many years of experience so learning how to as we talked about efficiently practicing how to relax on stage but you know there is a way to preserve that you know over the years and I think as you age there is a different quality you mature your music start sounding different more mature so it's a good question what's the hardest thing about
keeping your nails in shape you know I really don't worry that much about it I try to keep them short as possible I don't like to have them too long because they tend to break when they're too long so every year they seem to get shorter and shorter so I just use a nail file you know and and file them a little bit maybe every few days and so when I
practice I try to practice not too loud because that damages the nail so you have to be careful sometimes I take vitamins you know to make them stronger but I really don't do anything special with it is just keeping them short I find it's very helpful also gives you you know a larger sound when you perform but other than that I really don't do
anything yeah now as you know you're an extremely accurate player but obviously you had to get to that point how is it that you teach yourself how to handle mistakes without falling apart or it leading to more mistakes is that something you practice or it just comes with experience or you're born with it or how do you do that it's also a
combination of things when I practice at home I'm allowed to make mistakes and because nobody can hear me I'm alone in my room so obviously when I'm on stage I cannot afford that to happen so I have to find a way to make that not happen for me number one is the preparation you know the preparation for the concert many many weeks in advance many months
many years actually I think it's your whole life that you're preparing it's not just a week before or two weeks before so all the years leading up to to this I've learned things you know I made mistakes I did some things wrong but you learn from it and then you don't do it the next time so yes the number one is good preparation finding the repertoire
that fits you that you connect with that allows you to be honest you know to be true to who you are and then you automatically feel more comfortable and then you know if the preparation part is not done well then I will of course feel nervous and when I sit on the stage I will feel insecure so I have to be 200% well prepared so what I practice you know I go through
sections I already know you know which parts of the piece are giving me trouble and then I don't feel secure enough with and then I make sure that I practice them very well you know until they're 20 30 40 times as much as it take so when the preparation part is over then you are ready to go and present the piece to the audience so I never really play
something that I'm not fully secure cure with and then you know when your stage like I said your mind has to be very very relaxed you cannot worry that something will happen because psychologically it will happen if you constantly worry about making a mistake the mistake will happen so you have to find a way to ease your mind before you
go on stage and perform for the audience because the audience will sense that and again many many years of experience you know it's learning and sometimes yeah mistakes will happen but you have to relax and just keep going Find Your Way in the music that's where the memory comes in your memory has to be very secure because naturally we get nervous
when we are in front of the audience you know and it's a completely different feeling so I have to say 90% comes from your mind so your mind has to be very relaxed so let's say you meet an aspiring young classical guitarist and they obviously have musical talent and they have a good work ethic what else is it that you look for to see whether or
not that person can make it I think you kind of sense when someone has something special in the past I've judged competitions and I guess because it's my life and you know I do it since I was five I just know when I see someone that has you know something special of course there's always an aspect of a natural talent but some people are just more
prone to being talented for music you know or for a certain instrument but a lot of it is also you know the commitment the perseverance that's a very very important part if somebody wants to be a professional artist or professional musician I mean even if they're not you know as talented they can still find the way to make it work
so I think working hard having a good working habit and making sure they're very disciplined is important so I don't know how but I just know when I see you know that natural technical ability and somebody that plays with ease but again there is really no guarantees in this industry you know sometimes you have to work for many many years to get to a
certain point where you know you feel comfortable performing in front of the audience and so I think it's just everybody's different you know you just have to find your way to navigate through this maze yeah how does your approach to teaching differ from what other classical guitarists do I love teaching yeah I love teaching so you do
a lot of master classes right you must have students also yeah I usually do if I play at a university I'll do a class with a local student or or a local University I do love it and I wish I could dedicate a little more time to that I think I've learned a lot from just teaching it's amazing you know sometimes when you have to explain something to a student you learn
automatically yourself when you do teach what is it you do that's different from what other classical guitar teachers might do well I think you know number one is to make the student feel comfortable because a master CL setting is a very nerve-wrecking setting I know from my own experience when I used to play in front of artist in school you
know always felt nervous so I try to you know just put them at ease so that they can learn and register what I'm saying more easily and you can just see the difference I mean and I also like for them to ask me questions either technical or musical and the message that I want to convey to them has to be very very clear so I try to be as clear as possible usually a master class
lesson is about 30 minutes so you don't have a lot of time so you have to try to give them as much information as you can in that short amount of time you know which is not easy so you try to connect with them in those 30 minutes as much as you can but I think you know number one is to just make them feel comfortable what's the best piece of economic advice
you could give to a talented young person who wants to make classical music their career not musical advice economic advice like don't go on streaming or give as many concerts as you can or whatever that's a very good question you know when I started the world looked very very different so the world has changed I think today everything is
online you know it wasn't like that when I started and when my you know some of my colleagues started today they really have to actually all of us we have to learn how to present ourselves online and there's many many different aspects of that world so from my own experience you know I always wanted to have a touring career you know so I focused on
that you know I didn't Focus so much on recording I just wanted to be out there and perform as much as I can so I did that you know and then you know the YouTube came and I had to find a way how to present myself online I don't do too many online performances I do a few because I still want to continue to perform and tour and play live for the
audience you know because there's nothing that compares to that you know online is great you can present yourself to the listeners but you still have to be successful performing live you know in front of people so most of my performances online are live you know they're not pre-recorded because I find that you know when you play Live this is who you
truly are there's one take and that's it so it sounds natural and that's what I like to do personally but it's everybody's Choice what they want to do you know so the only thing is that of course you have to make a living with this you know so you have to learn you know a few tricks I mean they're not tricks but it's just you have to find
your way to navigate but for me still number one thing is to always work on my ability you know my craft and I always want to get better and because the the audience the listeners they always expect more every time you perform you have to be better and I respect my audience they're very loyal to me and so I'm loyal to them and I always try to do
you know the best I can so that always comes first now if I type your name into Spotify only seven pretty short items come up how do you think about that decision because streaming doesn't pay much right no and it's maybe a substitute or does it enhance the demand to see you in concert or do you prefer people watch you on YouTube I think you
know over the years I find it that people like to see and to hear of course YouTube is amazing I mean you know everything is on there so I remember 2005 was the year that I played one of my first concerts in the States you know and that's where kind of the YouTube was just starting out and they put up that video on YouTube and it's amazing what
happened since then you know so I'll Focus on live performing I'll just go out there you know I'll maybe release you know one video a year because I still want the people to come to the concerts come to the live performance you know I don't want them to just be at home and look at the video so I still want to have that connection with my
live audience so maybe you know it's not good to do too much you know not to have too many videos not to have too many recorders because you still want the audience to come and see you in person you have to find the way to balance balance that but you know the recording was never my priority also because honestly I don't really you know enjoy the recording in a studio that much
again I prefer to be live you know in front of the audience there's nothing quite like it but I mean no I'm not saying no to the recording completely of course it's just I think we just live in a different time you know when the videos are perhaps more appealing to the listeners you know because classical guitarists also like to watch the hands
they like to see what the right hand is doing what the left hand is doing so you know I think the visual and the audio is equally important you know so if you ever were to do an explicitly crossover album what would it be I thought about it as you know classical charts are often dominated by crossover albums yeah I mean there's some really good
crossover albums yeah I mean if I would do something I thought of and just playing with like a you know rock guitarist or I mean it's something that to merge those worlds would be interesting you know maybe collaborate with I don't know there's so many great you know electric guitar players I think it would be interesting to merge those two word classical and electric so
that's perhaps something that you know will come in the future but one has to be careful with a crossover I think that was perhaps more popular you know a few years back this was a kind of a new term that came you know crossover music and then everybody was doing a lot of that but perhaps now it's not as popular as it used to be so because there's a lot
of crossover recording so you also have to be careful to do something interesting something different you know there's that aspect to consider but I still have to do what I feel most comfortable you know I don't want to do something just because I want to sell a lot of Records it's not what I want to do you know it's just not my personal
choice I want to do what feels right you know and what I give to my listeners you know I cannot do something that's off the charge even though it would be fun maybe in the future how do you know when a concert hall is too large well I know when the guitar doesn't project well Guitar is a very soft instrument even though my
guitar is a bit louder than the regular it's just the way it was built the wood that it was chosen and the technique of building so it's a bit louder IT projects very well for guitar the ideal Hall is about 500 seats and that's already pushing it you know so when you have a haul that is a th you have to use amplification I mean it's impossible to play with
amplification we have some beautiful systems today where you don't even know that the guitar is Amplified so I have no problem using an amplification as long as it's natural but of course for guitar is the best to hear it without amplification the most natural sound you know which is up to like 500 seats so we have rehearsals before the performance
we try out the haul there's always somebody listening in the audience so there's a lot of time that is spent doing that and then you just make a decision either you will play without the amplification or with the amplification but you know it has to be natural although you are young you've been playing professionally for quite some time over that time period how have
audience has changed hm that's a good question well it's interesting in the past two years I've noticed a change you know when I went back to playing live after a while after you know the pandemic started I feel more appreciation I feel that they're kind of hungry for live performances I feel that they listen more attentively I feel that
I don't know it just feels different so this is just in the past few years I wouldn't say that they change what is interesting is that depends where you're performing you know every culture is different so if you're performing in Europe the audien is are usually very serious and you know very quiet and they listen very very carefully and in the
States you know they're also of course very appreciative but after the performance they either stand up and they're very responsive you know they appreciate as an artist it's very special to feel that attention after the performance so we clap more Americans yeah I mean in the states people are just it's beautiful I mean at the end of the concert everybody's happy you know
you can feel that you know I love that feeling and the Japanese in Asia they're more they don't really feel comfortable doing that but they're also very you know attentive and I think more of it is just depends where you play you know so which country and which culture if I listen to classical guitarists from early to mid 20th century they seem to
me far more subjective in terms of tempo phrasing sovia he's playing the right notes but you can be surprised fairly often by what you hear in terms of how he presents the music do you feel today that guitar competitions have led to too much homogenity of style amongst younger guitarists that they're technically perfect but you're surprised less often
it might be I think when you listen to sovia even if somebody else puts it on for you and it wasn't you you just know when you hear it when you hear bream you just know it's bream when you hear Williams you know it's Williams so perhaps that is a little bit lost today I I don't want to be a judge but I think it's important for each of us to find
you know something unique about our way of playing and all these things that we talked about studying about the score about the background about the artist about the composer all these things are important you know working on our sound the quality of our sound and experimenting with a lot of different things you know all this makes us unique
there's no one way to play guitar with competitions they're important part of building a career but there's a little bit of danger with that it's because in a competition setting it's not a concert setting it's a competition so all these young artists perhaps they feel like they have to play in a certain way you know to win the first prise so as long
as that doesn't interfere with what you still want to accomplish and what you still want to develop it's okay you know so you just have to be careful for the competitions not to be a part of your life it's not everything the first prize is of course great but it doesn't mean always that you're the best you know so the individuality of the performer is is
very important so for me personally you know I stopped doing competitions very early for that reason because I didn't want to just be someone who will I don't know go to competitions you know I wanted to develop my own way of playing so I hope you know that you know young students still find the way to develop their own way of playing it's very
important because at the times of you know seoan and Bre it was a different time they had to develop their own way you know they find their own way you know it was just a different time that they were living in so what would you change in Conservatory education for classical guitarists I wouldn't necessarily change anything I mean you
know we have some great places in the states wonderful guitar departments with great teacher and you know many many young students come from there and the guitar in the states is very strong also in Europe I wouldn't change I just the only thing I would it would be helpful once you graduate it's kind of difficult because you're on your own you have to
find your way you know so at least for me personally was like that so I had to find ways to decide what I'm going to do either have a you know teaching career or performing career so it would be nice to have a little bit of help that way after you graduate another thing that is important is that in a conservatory setting we don't learn so much about
what needs to be done you know in a life performing setting you know how to deal with your nerves how to relax you know all those things are important so I think we don't talk as much about that in a conservatory setting and then again when you graduate you're kind of on your own so you have to learn from your own mistakes that would be helpful I think
for you know every young student that would like to pursue a performance career other than your father who's your favorite electric guitarist there's many of course my dad comes first I listen to Stevie rayon I listen to joose Satriani Stevi many others mom's theme I mean it's just I love like electric guitar so someone like Momin he'll sometimes play
like bakra Paganini riffs do you get anything from that or is it just amusing to you or do you learn something you know there was a time when I listened to him a lot because I really appreciate that he loves box music and you can tell in his playing you know sometimes it's just I think is is fascinating you know he's actually someone that I would like
to collaborate I mean it might never happen but it's just interesting to me you know cuz perhaps we share this Same Love for box music and it would be interesting to you know collaborate with someone like that so yes I do learn I do get a lot from you know people like that you know it's interesting because electric guitar and classical guitar are
completely different so you would think like okay is there anything common but yes there are there are things you can apply in your own plane you know so absolutely I mean I learn a lot from these people yeah so if Paul McCartney plays Blackbird and that's taken in part from Bach do you get something from that or you're just chuckling what does he
bring to that I think not just him you know but everybody that is trying to create something I learn from that I don't know it gives me inspiration there's other examples of course but it just makes me think in a wider way more interesting way you know if I was just listening to classical music all day my mind would be just kind of restricted
you know so I don't know anything anything there's so much great music music out there you know and sometimes I hear something in the background and then I think oh you know maybe I should apply that into what I do because it opens up your horizons I maybe it's just my imagination but I think you just play differently so you have to surround
yourself with a lot of music you know classical music is not the only type there's many many many other music so yeah so that's just one example you know I I listen to it then I listen to it again I think you know what is he doing why is he doing that and it just gives me inspiration you know sephina do you like Croatian pop yeah oh great you know
about her you did some research no yeah I do love pop music yes a cretian music yes like Oliver droi I love him he's a beautiful singer with probably the most catian hits ever and when I feel a little nostalgic I'll listen to you know cretian music seina yes she's very famous and you know so there's many many other musicians they're all great you know because I
come from from that part of the world it's also means a lot to me do you ever think of yourself as somehow bringing a Croatian perspective to classical music because Croatia it was in the austr Hungarian Empire Mozart but in a way it's slightly outside of the normal classical tradition there's not a famous Croatian composer and has that shaped
what you've done that you're Croatian I think so I think coming from that part of the world I think a certain way of you perform and you play music I mean yeah there's not perhaps one you know major composer but it's just my the culture that I was brought up with and even though I lived in the states for 20 years I still have that in me you know
so perhaps I you know perform music in that way it's just natural it's just who I am so I think it's more that just coming from a certain culture you know studying and learning about the music the way I was thought and it was a very I don't want to call it rigid but it's a negative word but you know we were taught from from a very early age to
work hard you know I was taught in the right way I had you know great teachers so all that kind of shaped me who I am you know and to be serious about what I do you know and to be completely focused on it so I think perhaps all this comes through a little bit you know through my music and what I do but we have a lot of beautiful music many many beautiful
artists and then it's a long tradition of classical guitar in Croatia long long tradition so you know many many guitarists come from that part of the world I'm proud of that you know given that YouTube is such a wonderful instructional medium can you imagine America developing more of its own like house music tradition you know house
musique as the German said is that in the cards how is YouTube going to change guitar playing and classical guitar instruction and performance well I think it has changed it already a little bit I think we just have to be careful not to have too much of it in our life you know I think sometimes I find myself myself even personally like you know looking
for videos and watching and then I have to stop and say oh I still have to go back to what I do of course every influence is good but if it's too much then it's not so good and you still have to preserve what you're doing and stay true to that so you know I think sometimes I meet students that you know don't have a teacher so they learn from
YouTube and then sometimes they learn in the wrong way which is it's a mistake you know it's something that if you learn in the wrong way it's very very difficult to change it and fix the mistakes later you know so you have to be careful what you search for in YouTube and from whom you learn and because there's so many videos you know so for me I think there is a little bit
of danger in that you know so because in Europe you know you usually had one teacher and you would work with him for many many years and there was no YouTube we had live concerts that we would go to and that's how we learned you know but we didn't have outside influences sometimes it's very difficult to even conceive that you know we live in a
world that now everything is just there you know you just type it in and it's there so it's great it's wonderful but again we still have to be true to who we are and develop our own ways so I don't know what's going to happen I think it will be there for many many years you know YouTube is a very important part of our lives for me personally it's has
helped me a lot in you know in my career and I just hope that people still would want to you know go out and visit live concerts and be there in the same room with the artists you know so llo pogar once said quote Geniuses are made not born now if you think of yourself your brother's an excellent guitarist your father an electric guitarist one of
your brothers is a Pianist there's yourself all from the same family how do you think about this is it common training Something In The Water jeans what's your take well perhaps many things together I think there is something about about that yes I think there were times when I wasn't sure if this is something what I want to do I think you know growing up and starting
very young is difficult because you're always looked at you know someone talented and then there's a danger that you won't develop your talent to the full extent you know sometimes the term child prodigy is not always true you have to kind of outgrow that you have to still develop your talent talent is not enough I'm you know fully convinced that
it's not enough you have to work hard throughout your whole life to develop whatever you were given yes if you have a little bit of natural Talent of course it's helpful but you have to work at it you know so I think from your 20s and further you have to work hard I mean you have to find ways to always develop your natural ability that's something that
never really stops so I think it's true as you made the transition from Prodigy to adult and professional performer was there a moment where you deliberately recommitted yourself and decided you weren't going to quit or was it just inertia you kept on going what was the key moment there I think there were a few I think yeah there was definitely a
point where I decided okay I know this is going to be difficult but I have to continue that's all I know I mean my whole life that's the only thing I know you know I never really had a chance to do anything else in my life so you know of course I love it it's great to have music in your life but you have to make a commitment you know you can't just say
oh I'll see what happen Happ s you know it's a commitment because it's a difficult profession like I said before there's no guarantee sometimes you won't make it you know sometimes you'll work hard and then nothing happens and there were times like that when I thought you nothing is happening am I doing something wrong or but you keep going
you know you keep going and I never really looked back there were difficult times but I yes I made a decision okay I have to do this you know there's no other way I will do this and take necessary steps and the perseverance is very important part of what we do you have to keep going but I think that came kind of in my teenage years when I said
okay I'm doing this I'm I'm probably going to do this for the rest of my life so whatever comes I'm going to have to deal with it you know so yeah but I think for everybody it's different you know but for me personally it was that way I had to really like consciously make a decision the last two questions first what will you do next you mean
longterm or shortterm well each and then I'll still ask you one final question Christmas is gone taking a little break because the last concert was in December 4th so usually during the holidays we have a break so just getting ready for the New Year's and next year you know everything starts again so I'm going to have to prepare for my concerts from my
tour start practicing very very focused work and have a nice lineup of concerts that I look forward to and I very much was excited to be back on the road you know and to perform cuz I really really missed it during these two years I think every artist missed it so that's coming up next year and I'm trying not to make any long-term plans because it's just
impossible to do that right now you know I'm taking every day or month at a time and see what happens So speaking of recordings you know I would like to release a new recording in the next year or so hopefully that will happen but the main goal is you know just keep performing and touring if it's possible we'll see what happens next year and if
the venues are still comfortable doing live performances you I saw you live in concert last month at the 92nd Street Y in New York City and I very very highly recommend to all of our listeners that you absolutely go see Anna live that's the single best thing you can do and see her more than once but most generally if a listener reader they want to learn
more about you hear your music what should they do where should they start final question tell us all what to do the two main places are my website and then YouTube you know if they would like to hear me live it's there's a lot of performances of YouTube and my schedule is on my website and if they would like to hear it live that's where everything
is posted so those are the two most important places where all the information comes from then you know of course I'd love to see the audience back in the Halls you know that's a great great feeling so we hope we have more and of course with you know restrictions and being very careful at this time but I'd like to see the audience back in the
Halls definitely Anna vich thank you very much thank you so much this was wonderful thank you thanks for listening to conversations with Tyler you can subscribe to the podcast in iTunes Stitcher or your favorite podcast app and if you like this podcast please consider rating it on iTunes and leaving a review this helps other people find the [Music] show