Sanja Milosavljevic: Good people of the world, my name is Sanja MIlosavljevic and I’m going to be your host today. Today, my guest is Aisa and she is a pianist. And she was born in Japan, but she works and lives at the moment in Great Britain. This whole project is supported by the US Embassy in Serbia and the main goal of this project is to share as much as we can – different voices and different point of view – so we can maybe see that other people have some similar issues like we do, or are dealing with some problems that we are all dealing with also. So, enjoy our conversation. Hi, hello Aisa, how are you?

Aisa Ijiri: Hello, I’m very well, Sanja it’s so nice to meet you and thanks so much for inviting me to your wonderful show. It’s such an honor.

Sanja Milosavljevic: Well, thank you for accepting this invitation because I like to share stories of successful ladies, but they don’t have to necessarily run their own business, I’d like to show that maybe you’re not an entrepreneur in this ordinary sense of meaning of that word, but you are in creative industries and you are basically your own boss. So at some point or on some level you are also an entrepreneur. So thank you once again. Can you tell us something about yourself, like what is your educational background, how did you become interested in art and music?

Aisa Ijiri: I was born in Japan like you introduced me to your audience. My mother was piano teacher, so I started being interested in music, especially in classical music and piano ever since I was a baby. Because I grew up in an environment where people were playing music, there were concerts and people coming down the halls for piano lessons, so I grew up with her students, my mother playing the piano, playing Chopin and that’s how music was always around me. I started- my first audition to the music school was when I was two years old. And it was Yamaha school and I was like a baby, holding the big music bag and going to the city for the lesson was always the highlight of my week. And I just remember every moment of my audition. I was the youngest student who ever entered – I was only three years old. That’s how I got into the music, into the theatre, chamber music, ensembles, education… I started to be part of the competitions since I was six years old and my first concert at the most beautiful concert hall in Kyoto was when I was seven years old and played Bethoven’s sonata in G-major, which is one of my favorite sonatas and Bethoven was my inspiration ever since I was maybe four or five years old. So that day really changed my future. It was the first time I went into a big concert hall, walking into the stage dressed up in this beautiful dress in front of five hundred people and it was nationally broadcast and quite a peak moment – but I was only seven years old. I was too young to be nervous and I was so happy to play my favorite sonata by Bethoven in front of all this audience and family and friends who were there to share in the music I was going to play. And also the interesting thing was I never played in such a big concert hall and acoustic and the sound of the piano really inspired me. Like really it’s taken me to the most inspired music soundboard. And that moment – “Wow, if I could do this in the future, I’d be the happiest”. This was the dream to be in this beautiful, beautiful song world. And do some music, the entire time of my performance in front of these 500 people, they were all bathing in my music and focusing on it. We were sharing this musical journey together. Even though I didn’t know them, I felt like we were all friends because we were sharing this time and these emotions together. Which lasts for only once. And that day I told my parents I wanted to become a concert pianist. But they were like “that’s a very tough path to walk”, it’s a huge commitment from such a young age. And I remember my mother said she doesn’t recommend it, but she’ll be there to support. Because she knows how tough it is to become a professional at whatever we do – sports, musician, dancers, it’s a really huge commitment from a very young age. 

Sanja MIlosavljevic: So- sorry, have you ever regretted? Because I agree it’s a huge commitment and you have to be mature enough to just go through that path because it’s not easy to be one of the best piano players in the world. So, how hard is it to make this kind of decision? 

Aisa Ijiri: I loved it so much, it was not hard at all. I knew that this was my like everlasting love. It was- this was me. I knew. And I knew this was my path, but I also love sports, so I also did figure skating, swimming, running, sprinting and I was national champion for sports, for the sprinting. And I did also swimming up until I was 15 years old, training in the national team for the juniors. I’ve done lots of other things, especially in sports. So I was not just doing the piano, although piano was my passion, it was my- yeah, it was my life. But something to always keep giving me inspiration. And also through the competition prizes and all the awards I was given in the young age, that took me to different parts of Europe and New York. Many concerts since I was 12 years old. My first concert in Europe was Budapest. And my kind of musical journey took off in Europe and I studied in Poland, Germany, like Poland where Chopin was born and Germany where all the great composers were born also. And then I had the opportunity to win this big scholarship from the Swedish government when I was 14 years old and moved to Stockholm to study at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. And so then like the whole journey, like music had given me was also the journey to learn new cultures, meet new friends, discover new places, learn new languages and study in Stockholm and travel around the world and then come to London where I did my Masters and got this diploma and where I established myself as a concert pianist. So despite my- everything I kind of wanted to experience because of my passion, because of my kind of mission, just took me to the places and the- of course there are many time it was very, very difficult and I had many trials to overcome on the way. But, no I never regretted. It was a really strong passion that I knew that I’ll never lose.

Sanja Milosavljevic: Can you tell us is there any kind of a connection between discipline that sports bring into our lives and like building a career as a piano player? Can you make any kind of a connection? Because I strongly believe that the people that are professional sportsmen or sportswomen, they have- they’re maybe more resilient and they know how to lose and they know how to fight for their goals, so is it- can you find a connection between that kind of a discipline and commitment between sports and like your art, or your career as a pianist? 

Aisa Ijiri: I think both I suppose, because I’ve done quite a lot of competition for the sports are between sports and performance for the music there’s a lot of connection. Because in both fields we have to really train hours and hours and hours, months and years for one moment. We have only one moment. And mainly I was practicing, piano reading and preparing for the concert, but anything can happen on the day – we can catch cold, sometimes we don’t sleep well, but we have this moment to keep all we have. And we have to mentally, of course physically, emotionally have to prepare for this one moment. Sports is also the same, being prepared for only big- now there’s a lot of talk about the Olympics, but we prepare ourselves for one match, one moment. And anything- we can get injured. Because I have also in the competition when I was sprinting, there’s moment because we maybe over-train or anything can happen to the body too, but we have to really give our best. When we give our best, we have to be center of our inner world. We have to be really center. In this sense I feel a lot of connection before the concert and before any competition I did for the sports, I always meditate. For the sprinting it only last for- I only competed for the juniors, so my record was 12 seconds for 100 meters. So I mediated for 12 second, I imagined how I prepared myself, how I set, how I run, how it feels with audience and supporters, heat, I imagined how I was running and how I would perform in this 100 meters. Also in the music, I close my eyes before going to bed, imagining the music, listening to the music in my heart. To imagine how I want to perform it at this concert. So, I do similar training with the meditation to really picture how I would perform for this one moment and this is very- this mental preparation is very, very similar. And the differences I remember from my own experience – when we lose because in the competition for the sports, in the end of the day their purpose is – we have to win. But in the music, it’s not about winning. Maybe we have to win against ourselves, do our best, but it’s not competition, it’s not about medals or numbers. Because it’s art – we cannot compete. So, our- it’s quite interesting because in one way when I lose in sports, everything is clear – we can see who was the fastest. Everything is clear. But in music or art, we can never compete. It’s all about people’s impressions, feelings, interpretations. If we have ten people, there are ten ways to see the same picture with the different views, different emotions, even the same performance, same music or- it’s even I think a lot of time like the sky. Even if it’s the same sky, it looks completely different because of the emotion we are feeling at that moment. So yeah, it’s really interesting to compare to this, but yeah. What’s in common is that we really have to be center of ourselves in order to perform our best in both fields.

Sanja Milosavljevic: How is it hard to be in the center of ourselves when we are living in this pandemic period of our lives? How do you- for me, from time to time it was very hard to just align with myself. But how was it for you, especially because you are in a delicate field, you are an artist – how did you align with yourself, or how did you manage to find that inner peace?

Aisa Ijiri: Um, just to tell you the background of what happened at that time. Actually the last country I was before the pandemic was Serbia! 

Sanja Milosavljevic: (laughter) I’m sorry! Perfect!

Aisa Ijiri: It was the moment it was starting in Asia and I was so worried about my family and what was happening in Asia and I never expected this to happen in Europe because I remember that week everything was going on in Asia. I was in Belgrade and I had a really, really beautiful show – I love coming to Belgrade. I’ve been coming to Belgrade so often since 2013 when I first performed for Kolarac and for the concert and the RTS for the music show. But just before the pandemic, I think it was before 3 weeks it was announced. I was playing on the RTS and had the interview with N1. I was meeting all my friends in kafana (laughter) and we were- you know, we had a wonderful week. It was for the TV shows and friends and music. It was a wonderful week, and also it was the week when I was talking about my upcoming concert at Serbia embassy in Tokyo and I also ran festivals in Tokyo and in Tuscany in Italy. So I was talking a lot about my festivals and what was going to happen in 2020 – it was all about concerts, I had a tour in the USA. I was talking all about this on RTS. Three weeks later, everything happened and I remember I came back to London and I saw the news from Italy where because of my festivals – Italy is also kind of my home, Serbia is also my home, so I have a kind of home where my heart, you know, belongs to. So and I was ‘wow, this happening in Italy, wow’. It was so shocking. And there I was in London. I never knew that London was going to be one of the worst-hit in that moment and I was reading all of this and listening to all of this. Next moment, all my concerts in the USA, Tokyo, Italy, UK, everything started to get cancelled and I had this really nice lineup of concerts and festivals last year. Within like five days, everything got cancelled and there I was in shock – ‘wow, I lost so much jobs in five days’. And I was preparing all this music already for one year. And wow, what shall I do? What should I do? And- but, it was very interesting because also a mixture of a lot of emotions because beginning of the pandemic I think we were all scared of what would happen in many ways because of the COVID and because of health and because of the restrictions and because of our work, jobs, finance, we were worried and scared of many things. And in the beginning I remember it was just shock. And then actually because everything was top in London, we went very high in the lockdown and my online life started and I went back to Japan because Japan was currently much safer than all the- yeah, much safer. And my family lived in Kyoto and the countryside and I had the two pianos, so I could do my work wherever I am. And just things I had to learn which I’m not good at are these technical things. Getting this new microphone which I showed you – this one – for example. Getting used to, you know, recording- doing things online, most of the classes, online lessons, live stream concerts – from home. Everything was so new, but I think we all tried to just keep going, surviving, kind of taking a positive step forward. So I’ve learned a lot of the things probably I’d never learn if this didn’t happen. And of course I started to get more appreciative of live performances because I really miss- I have missed and still miss my musician friends and this exciting, inspiring moment of creating music together, recording and filming, making this beautiful performance together, going up on the stage, feeling ‘wow, this acoustic’. I was telling earlier about in this interview –  acoustics and this amazing magical sound and the audience and the energy and feeling, applause from the audience – of course I miss it all. But I think we try to keep going and try to share emotion between friends, audience and us. Connect and to feel us kind of- let us feel united. Where we cannot be united physically, yeah but we try to let us feel united because actually we need to support each other, we need to feel. And also I think it’s important that we feel- yeah, that we feel we are not alone. We are all in this together in the world.

Sanja Milosavljevic: Yeah, of course. So, is it hard to be in the creative industries, or is it hard to be an artist in the- we all know what is happening. And we all know there is less and less money invested in culture and it’s not just in Europe, it’s also in the US. We know that some universities are shutting down their humanistic sectors, so how hard is it to be an artist today? I mean, I’m not an artist. I have zero artistic side in myself, but I will- yeah, I’m always admiring the painters and the musicians and graffiti artists, so not just art in literature, but art in general. So, is it hard to be an artist today?

Aisa Ijiri: I mean- me, I think that in one sense to be an artist was always slightly hard. I mean- (laughter) in the sense that of course many people also appreciate- we need it. Because art and music, this is like food for our soul. Food for our heart. But in this moment of this pandemic, because we need also most- life is so focused on practical things. Just to, you know-

Sanja Milosavljevic: Survive.

Aisa Ijiri: Yeah. They need practical things and it’s easy to forget how important it is to have art and music because this is all enriching our hearts. If we don’t feel content, if we don’t feel good, we also don’t feel good in daily life. And this performance- arts, music, we appreciate more and more that this is a really- the clinic for our life as well. It’s hard because as you mentioned financially because all the concert has been- opera houses, theatres, concert halls has been closed and so many of my concerts since last year still postponed, postponed, postponed. I don’t know when I can go back – most of us, we don’t know. And in some small period of time, I have one of the concert didn’t get cancelled – music in Vienna. It happened, but it was like short, maybe one month or maybe one half months we could go back for the social distancing. They had to lock-down again. So we don’t know when we can actually go back, but as a creative side because we have so much to express, because we were not able to express during this pandemic. But this emotions, these deep emotions, but also in this moment we all reflect deeply about our own lives. What really matters in life, what is most important. So as an artist I feel like I have so much, a lot of messages to share through music. So now we are piling it up, all these impressions, messages, emotions, it’s all piled up, so I’m working quite a lot with composers and my artist friends to create something new. So as I’m a- for the live performance, so I’m waiting for this moment to perform live, but at the same time recording new music, making new videos. It’s a hard balance because also we have to live through different projects, to keep our life possible. So, it is difficult balance because it’s really easy to give up. Because it’s- 

Sanja Milosavljevic: Aha, I agree…

Aisa Ijiri: It’s easy to give up in general because it’s a very hard time that orchestra cannot go back to their work for- to be more than a year. I think it would take longer time for opera houses and bigger places to open again, yeah. So we have to keep going with doing some master classes, connected with- because I also work with the College of Music in London. I have also my students, also I have other projects – I started live shows to invite my artist friends, musician friends, composer friends to share their stories, their music, their new music videos. And actually next one will be on this coming Saturday and I’m going to feature the culture of Serbia. 

Sanja Milosavljevic: Oh! I think- I actually think I’ve seen this, I think on Instagram. You put something on Instagram about that. So what is it? What is it going to be like?

Aisa Ijiri: Yeah, so on my live-show I basically introduce musicians, artists, like they are my great, great friends, very talented friends who are in the same situation I am and they are sharing their stories, music, videos and it’s really great. Because we can be in Belgrade, Tokyo, London or Washington D.C. but we feel like we’re sharing this beautiful story together and sharing, sending this message to the world. And next one in this coming up Saturday – the reason, actually the inspiration came from my concert which was going to happen on 14th of January this year. This was also your New Year.

Sanja Milosavljevic: Yeah…

Aisa Ijiri: But because I’m in London and this new strain in the UK, or is- it was just unexpected. I was supposed to travel back to Tokyo, but everything was banned and it was just impossible and also Japan also went into the state of emergency because of the new strain .And just it was so pity because we were all looking forward to this very special concert that was to take place in the Serbian embassy in Tokyo. They’ve been always really, really wonderful and warm and so supportive. And it became…ah, it was so pity – I’m in London, they were in Tokyo and my friends are in Belgrade. And I think – we should do something because in Serbian embassy they also have very exciting creative programs for their interviews Serbian cooking – Serbian traditional feast. And so I came – let’s do something to feature Serbia. Because maybe some people don’t know so much about your Christmas and New Year’s traditions, food…so that is coming Saturday. I’m doing that special show to introduce Serbian traditional cuisine. And also music and what I’m now working on with my dear musician friends in Serbia and to share. Because the food and music actually- this is something which we put our soul together. Yeah, with music we don’t need to speak same language, with the same music- or when we share the food, when we share the music, because it’s full heart. You know? We feel we can share the same plate, we can share the same music. Yeah we fill united, we feel happy that we can share emotions. So this coming Saturday, I’m going to-

Sanja Milosavljevic: I’m going to participate, I hope I’m- so, are you going to leave a link so we can follow the event, or? How is it going to be organized?

Aisa Ijiri: Yes! So, it’s a live-show, it’s possible on YouTube and at Facebook, but even after the show you can watch it if you follow the music YouTube link – maybe you can also share it with your wonderful audience?

Sanja Milosavljevic: Of course, of course.

Aisa Ijiri: It’s free to join. Free to watch anytime. It’s live, people can also comment live so we can respond to all – “Hello Sanja, it’s so nice to see you!”. 

Sanja Milosavljevic: I will definitely try to be there when it’s live, not just to watch it later. Can you tell us something about artistic scene in UK? Why did you choose London or the UK to be your- I don’t know…home for the moment?

Aisa Ijiri: I’ve been in London for already 16 and a half years, which is quite a scary fact. (laughter)

Sanja Milosavljevic: It is, I have to say!

Aisa Ijiri: It is, yes, scary that time passes…I came to London because of the college – because of my studies. After having awarded the Bachelor at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm in Sweden – Sweden was very beautiful, calm, I made a lot of friends and also I went there as a teenager, so I grew from a girl to a young woman while I was in Sweden, learned a lot about different cultures and languages. But after Stockholm I was- I needed to go to the big city to feel the world. To just give myself a big challenge. So the city I wanted to go was either New York, London and because I have a big love for the older traditions, German composers Bach and Bethoven, Schuman, and I used to go to a lot of classes and festivals in Berlin, Berlin was also another option. So, Berlin, London or New York. And I was going- yeah, I prepared myself for all the auditions and I was accepted in all, but London gave me a scholarship, but also when I came to London this contrast was really exciting for me. Because it’s a big, really fast competitive city, exciting city. We have all these great musicians and successful business people from all over the world come to London and we don’t feel- actually not just here in London, we don’t actually feel in the UK because it’s like- kind of- this kind of world came to this one spot.

Sanja Milosavljevic: Like the- sorry, like the capital of the world?

Aisa Ijiri: Yes, because we come- we make friends with people- all my friends from Italy or can be from South Africa or Serbia or US, France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, everything is here. And that was very exciting and when we go to concert – so many great orchestras, top orchestras and opera houses and the ballet. We really see here mind-growing, amazing performances every day. That was a huge inspiration for me. And also like that kind of contrast when I- I also like New York very much and my Carnegie Hall debut in New York city was my big, big dream since I was a little girl, so New York also the city which made my dream come true. But, when I’m in London, we are also part of Europe, it’s so easy to go to Paris, it’s only two hours by train. Yeah. It’s so close to anywhere and it’s a big city and it’s kind of city for the business, but at the same time there’s big history too. I was walking one day and saw Chopin’s last house in London. Just walking through- ‘wow, Chopin lived here’. And Chopin left this house before his last concert. In 1848. It was 16th of November or something that he left that door, carriage went to the Guild Hall and he gave his last concert. And Guild Hall was actually the college where I did my Masters. So everything like- wow, all these composers. They were here, played their last concerts here. So this contrast – it’s big city, with modern in many ways, contemporary, cosmopoliten. But also the deep history. So I’ve chosen London for all these reasons. However, I didn’t think I was going to live here for so long. I never thought- I think when I make my career maybe I- I don’t know, I’d probably go back to Sweden or I’d go back to Japan. I didn’t think that just London- not only London, but the people I met in London – kept giving me opportunities and inspirations and projects and…here I am.

Sanja Milosavljevic: Can you tell us something about your future plans? When this thing finally ends, or we find a better solutions how to protect ourselves like the vaccine. What are your future plans? What would you like to accomplish in the next five years?

Aisa Ijiri: Since I started this festival so that- for me, the purpose of starting all the festivals is just in 2016. I wanted to really give my knowledge, skills, inspiration to the new generations. It was kind of one of my dreams. So, of course now during this pandemic, these restrictions…I cannot host a festival in a way as I used to, but of course I want to go back to it. But meanwhile, probably maybe might take another one year, or we don’t know, but I want to encourage all those students and children – they were working everyday for their dream to come true, but probably their frustrating situation because everything has stopped – it’s in a pause. It’s like in a a movie – it’s kind of paused. We are waiting to- 

Sanja Milosavljevic: Press the play button!

Aisa Ijiri: Yeah. And we are trying to make this process as positive, creative and you know accessible as possible. So, I want to give a lot of opportunities and encourage students so through my live show and through my other projects I’m building online right now, I want to keep going with online master classes and the mini-festival and the competition they can participate and when everything is open, they can then take flight – come to Tokyo, come to Italy, come to London or come to Belgrade. Because I’d really love to expand my project in Belgrade because of my wonderful, dear friends and Belgrade gave me a lot of happiness, so…yeah, before I can go back to actual festivals, my mission is to encourage students, children – to kind of give them a dream, a hope. So this is kind of my…plan, mission, hope. 

Sanja Milosavljevic: Nice, it’s very nice and it’s very noble. So, we came to the end of our conversation. And I like to ask my guests to share a message to the world. So what will be your intimate message to the world?

Aisa Ijiri: This has been a very, very difficult time for all of us. I am first of all very grateful and honored to be invited as a guest to your show. And to be able- because your show is also the doorway to share my heart with others for their- your audience through this show. So I want to really bring my- all the good energy, and the hope and the light to your audience and to also- first of all, I want to wish everybody very well – healthy in any way, physically, mentally, spiritually, very healthy. And for all of us to feel we were all together. The whole world has one common problem now to solve together. So for all of us to feel we are united and meanwhile for all of us to share this message, I feel it’s very important we are open to share even the difficulties and problems, it’s very important to share. What we are going through. And you know, like help each other, support each other and give good energy to each other. And yeah, and being a pianist and artist myself, I want to give this good, happy energy through my live show, through my music, my new recordings, new videos. And then when we are coming out of this tunnel, we will – “oh now we can finally, hug, we can finally go to the concert and  the sound was much more magical than we expected!”. But up to that moment I think yes, I want all of us listening to your show to feel together that we are all here to go through this and bring good energy for each other. 

Sanja Milosavljevic: Thank you Aisa, thank you very much. Good people of the world, you were watching and listening to Mondopreneur podcast and you can always follow us on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram and you can subscribe to our YouTube channel. And you can also listen to this podcast on almost any audio platforms that exist. So, stay good, stay in good health see you in a week.