Why youth matters in the European Cultural Debate
Some of you may wonder about my life as a pianist—or as a classical pianist. The other day, I was surprised by someone’s question, remembering that at eighteen I applied for a national scholarship competition. At that tender age, my dream was to specialize in Barcelona in Spanish music, guided by the Catalan pianistic tradition.
Five of us reached the finals, and during the final round, certain behaviors revealed a harsh truth: some competitions are decided long before the performance—in the world of business—and everything else is just a formality. The young Russian finalist had a separate rehearsal room and even a different piano for warm-ups. The rest of us exchanged glances—we knew exactly what was happening.
Fortunately—young readers—the course of life teaches us that dreams evolve, transform, and take unexpected paths. Life offered me far richer experiences than I had imagined, surprising me repeatedly with plot twists that neither I nor my friends could foresee: a style and tradition profoundly rooted in our time and its accelerated Zeitgeist.
Today, having learned Catalan, I can immerse myself autonomously in the codes of musical meaning that remain inaccessible unless you were present to study centuries of correspondences. Life also taught me that even had I won that scholarship, it wouldn’t have answered the questions I truly had. I found my answers elsewhere—with other people, in other circumstances—and within myself. Because not everything you desire is what you need, even if you don’t realize it yet.
And yet, life gave me something far more meaningful: the chance to dedicate my academic research to the music of Mauricio Sotelo—composer and friend—whom I have cherished since meeting him at sixteen. Just when I thought I might leave the piano behind, life reminded me otherwise.
The iconic restaurant Els 4 Gats took an interest in the way I made music—almost by accident. My university students would laugh knowingly and visit in the evenings, aware of my “double life”: a door in front of the piano that always led to unexpected and surprising guests. A double life in a place once frequented by Picasso, Albéniz, and Granados, which helped me understand a new perspective: improvisation.
So I made myself two promises: to improve slowly and steadily, like the finest wines, and to develop my own poetics through drafts and personal texts, already available on platforms and in the booklets of my albums. To enjoy the path ahead, now that I feel ready to walk it through my fingers, pouring into music all I experienced in the years I devoted to other equally—or even more—important pursuits, shaping myself from within.
Now, the piano accompanies me quietly, over a low flame: without competitions, with truth, with my own voice—like all the authors I truly admire.
I had a very singular and heartfelt meeting with the new board of the European Performing Arts Students Association, to get to know them, to understand how they are doing, and to offer some perspective.
Supporting the voices of young people and youth has been one of the backbone pillars of my work. The AEC has changed somewhat since the years when I was involved; back then, it was something very close to a club of executive men sustained by an office of women — another classic, perhaps? Fortunately, things are changing, although much remains to be done. It makes me happy to see that young people are still there to challenge, to break barriers and patterns of thought, to unsettle — and, why not say it, to restore a sense of humanity to many aspects of our field.
I could tell you many things; however, I will stay with the present: since 2021, there now exists a youth organisation that did not exist before, formally established on 17 June 2022 in Brussels. This is particularly significant when seen in parallel with other fields of knowledge in Europe, which have had well-structured European student networks for over a century, defending collective rights and freedoms, from professionalisation and fair remuneration all the way to representation at the European Parliament itself.
Now is the time to professionalise the performing arts network, at a crucial moment in the European debate around labour rights in our sector, authors’ rights in the face of AI and major platforms — because the music business has changed its masks, but not its hands. It is also time for the sector to understand that working for rights and freedoms does not diminish dignity under the classist gaze still imposed by conservatoires anchored in the past; rather, it means being citizens committed to the wellbeing of their societies.
The democratisation of music and access to music education, as well as the construction of an artistic career, have gone through many phases, and even today many challenges remain. That is why it is so crucial that so many hats finally shake off the dust.