‘They’ve been my mentors!’ Ivana Gavrić on the Creative Careers Centre at 25
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Upbeat sat down with acclaimed pianist Ivana Gavrić to find out about her time at the Royal College of Music and how the Creative Careers Centre, which turns 25 this year, changed her life.
Happy memories
I have really happy memories of the Royal College of Music. It was a positive, enriching and challenging (in a good way!) time in my life; I love the building, I love the view out of the practice rooms – that incredible view of the Royal Albert Hall. I dreamt that I would play there one day – and I did! My time at the RCM was intense, but inspiring. In my first year as a postgraduate, I lived in College accommodation and shared a kitchen with other postgraduates, who became friends for life.
[quote quote="Through the Creative Careers Centre, I was able to perform with a violinist at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre – a really important step onto the London stage." author="Ivana Gavrić"]
Early opportunities
My teacher, Niel Immelman, was the centre of my world at that time, and it’s been really hard not to have him around – he passed away last summer. Niel helped me develop my piano technique and really taught me how to be ‘a pianist’ – how to create some sort of structure in this crazy job, how to manage and choose repertoire, and how to practise.
The Creative Careers Centre (then known as the Woodhouse Centre) was just opposite Niel’s room and it was a friendly place that I could pop into. As a pianist you spend many hours on your own practising, so if you’re feeling a bit lost it’s a place to feel inspired and enthusiastic.
I also had chamber music coaching from Nigel Clayton and John Blakeley. Through the Creative Careers Centre, I was able to perform with a violinist at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Theatre early on in my time at the RCM – a really important step onto the London stage.
Playing in concerts at the College in the main concert hall was a great experience and a learning curve. It was just a joy after studying an academic course at Cambridge. I finally had time to dedicate myself to what I loved, and felt that it was all coming together, even though I’d temporarily taken a different path by going to university as an undergraduate. I was doing the thing I wanted to do and my academic studies helped shape my playing in a positive way.
I also learnt (by doing) how to introduce my pieces before playing – an extremely useful skill which we were encouraged to practise at every performance. It’s something I used to absolutely dread doing in the first RCM concerts, and I used to get more nervous about speaking than playing, but it got easier and I recently did it without any prep in my third language: German!
Forging connections
Pianists tend to focus on piano competitions early on in their piano journey, and turn to chamber music only later. I did everything in the opposite order: I played a lot of chamber music to start with. I had never been taught by teachers who favoured competitions – I sometimes wish I had tried them, but in hindsight, this was exactly the right thing to do for me. My chamber music experience, however, helped me enormously when playing concerti, because I learnt how to work with colleagues, when and where to slot in and/or to take charge. As a soloist you don’t get much rehearsal, so you have to be efficient, friendly, knowledgeable, inspiring. I still draw on those College experiences, which helped me a lot.
In my time at College I also worked with Roger Vignoles in his singing class, and there is not a day when I don’t think back to those classes, where I learnt about breathing, phrasing and telling stories. We pianists can get so bogged down with the physicality of playing that sometimes we forget how to communicate with our audience, and how to breathe!
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Career highlights and plans
Playing Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto, no 5, at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra was one of those great career highlights, especially as I walked up to rehearse that day, looking back at the College where it all started. Niel and I had such a special relationship with that repertoire and I was really happy with how the concert went.
Grieg’s music has become my love and I got to play his Concerto with the Philharmonia at the Royal Festival Hall a couple of years ago – just a joyful occasion to play that in my home city. My Wigmore debut was also really special – so many people who were important to me in my life came to hear me that night – and together with the release of my first album, it launched my career.
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I’m currently recording my sixth solo album, with my supportive team at Signum Records: a real labour of love that’s coming out in summer next year, but the single, Chaminade’s Autrefois, is out now. I’ve also started a collaboration with Tim Horton, whom I got to know while I was teaching at Dartington – we’ll be giving a series of two-piano concerts around the UK and in Switzerland.
[quote quote="I’m so grateful to Diana and the Creative Careers team for these opportunities." author="Ivana Gavrić"]
Building on opportunities
In a recording you dig very deeply into a work, fine-combing it to capture your very best nuances of every note, every phrase. I have the Creative Careers Centre to thank for this love of recording. In the week I graduated, I auditioned with a photo of my hands and got an ‘amateur’ film hand-double role – they didn’t tell me what the film was at first. It was incredible: it turned out to be the film Breaking and Entering, in which the Oscar-winning Juliette Binoche plays a Bosnian pianist living in London – the coincidence was just extraordinary [Ivana is originally from Bosnia]. Anthony Minghella, the director and an Oscar-winner, too, grabbed me by the hand – he couldn’t believe the coincidence of it all.
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This led to being asked to record Bach at Abbey Road – that was my very first professional recording experience! I had Abbey Road Studio 1 all to myself, working with the Oscar-winning film composer, Gabriel Yared, who’d written the music to The English Patient. I’d listened to that soundtrack on repeat during my finals at Cambridge because my flatmate was obsessed with it, so that was yet another extraordinary coincidence. I learnt from the best people in the business right at the start. I just happened to get the ‘gig’ through the Creative Careers Centre because I decided to give it a go and send in a photo of my hands!
I’m so grateful to Diana and the Creative Careers team for those opportunities – I love recording because of that experience, and I try to capture the same calm mindset in every recording since. Who knows what things would have been like if I hadn’t had that opportunity?
[quote quote="Use the Creative Careers Centre as much as you possibly can! The team has been so good to know – they’ve been my mentors since I left the College." author="Ivana Gavrić"]
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Make the most of the Creative Careers Centre!
Current students: use the Creative Careers Centre as much as you possibly can! It’s one thing to excel at College, but the real learning comes when you leave. The first few years can be tough, and I was lucky I’d built foundations I learnt through the Creative Careers Centre: how to present yourself, how to be punctual, reliable, how to sell yourself (which is difficult and embarrassing but you have to find your way of doing it – the phone will ring, but not as often as you might like!). Those resources aren’t really there once you don’t have the support of the Creative Careers team [up to five years after graduating], so the more you can build outside of that little bubble the better; the real world is much bigger. Build up contacts and try everything – know the standard repertoire and the more obscure repertoire – because you never know which direction you’ll end up going in and how you might evolve as an artist.
And make the most of your time as a student – you have more time to work with than you realise. It can be a lonely profession so learn to make opportunities yourself, find that entrepreneurial instinct and confidence. Push yourself to the max and make the most of everything that this institution has to offer you. Put yourself in the path of luck – so that you’re there to grab the opportunities with both hands when they come your way.
The Creative Careers Centre team has been so good to know and to get to know – they’ve been my mentors since I left the College. The music industry is a family, so it’s great to make those early connections, as you never know with whom you will be working next!
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RCM Creative Careers Centre at 25
The RCM remains grateful to the late Paul Woodhouse and benefactor Peter Willan for the generous gift and support which enabled the department to begin its mission. A series of 25 events is planned throughout the 2024/25 academic year to mark 25 years of the Creative Careers Centre. Find out more: Royal College of Music’s Creative Careers Centre celebrates 25 years of support for RCM students and graduating musicians | Royal College of Music
Publications Officer Joanna Wyld is a writer and librettist who has written CD liner and programme notes for organisations such as the BBC Proms, Southbank Centre, Wigmore Hall and Salzburg Festival.
