A Conversation With Erika Raum

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST COLLABORATION WITH ART OF TIME?

My first collaboration must have been in 199.....4? Was it the Ligeti Trio? With Andrew and Jamie Sommerville.

HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INVOLVED WITH ART OF TIME?

I got involved because I was friends with Andrew from way back, and he was nice enough to invite me in what i believe must have been one of his first concerts on the series. Wait.... was that Ligeti actually Art of Time???

WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR EXPERIENCE WORKING WITH ART OF TIME? WHAT KEEPS YOU COMING BACK

Art of Time is always an adventure. Andrew has such an awareness that a concert must be an experience-- it has to be a short, but complete journey. I also love his reinvention of the classics. As performers, we of course want to play Schubert over and over again, but we are aware of the danger of being redundant. His sense of programming creates a context that gives audiences a brand new look at these pieces, while all we have to do is play our hearts out. It's fun.

WHO ARE SOME OF THE ARTISTS WHO'VE HAD AN INFLUENCE ON YOUR CRAFT?

My greatest musical influences have been Lorand Fenyves, Marek Jablonski, my husband, composer Omar Daniel, and probably my mother Elizabeth Raum, also a composer.

WHAT ARE YOUR GUILTY PLEASURES?

I read entertainment gossip... is that guilty enough for you?

IF YOU WEREN'T WORKING IN YOUR PRIMARY MEDIUM, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

I would be a gardener.

WHAT ARE YOU READING?

I am reading Paris 1919. But really mostly just the papers. Too tired, too many kids.

IS THERE SOMEONE YOU'D LOVE TO COLLABORATE WITH?

Andras Schiff. But that would be so terrifying I'd forget how to hold the violin.

WHAT IS ONE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE PERFORMANCES YOU'VE EXPERIENCED IN RECENT YEARS?

Andras Schiff playing Goldberg. He verbally addressed the audience mid-fugue to ask them to please stop coughing. They did.