Daniel Vargas: Where were you born?
Molly Morkoski: I was born in West Palm Florida.
D: And, were you raised there too?
M: No, I was about 5 years in Florida, and then I moved to one of the Carolinas then back to Florida and then to North Carolina. So, I’ve lived in both Carolinas and Florida. Grew up mostly in North Carolina, from nine until through college.
D: So college, did you study music in college?
M: Yeah, I did a bachelor of music at the university of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
D: So when you were young, did you preform music?
M: Yes.
D: How did that go?
M: My dad is a singer and had studied voice classically, and his mother also played some keyboards, meaning piano and organ, and then I found out that even in my polish roots, which is my dad’s side, there’s an organist in the family somewhere so it goes way back. My mom’s side, there’s an opera singer. So there’s music. But my dad just wanted my sister and I to have music like he had music. He had thought that he would pursuit it and do crooning, he was a crooner, like Bing Crosby or Frank Sinatra; he was a part of that era. He just loved music. He cut a record and then he just decided that this is not going to be what I can do financially, for a family and that kind of thing. So, he did something else in his work life, but when he had kids, he decided, with my mom, that we should be able to play piano and sing; it’s something that he always enjoyed his whole life and he wanted us to be able to have that. So, we started taking lessons, when I was six, and was just taking random Joe piano lessons from wherever. We were kind of bouncing around a little bit in that point of my life, moving wise, but then when we got to North Carolina, and I was about 9, I got with a teacher who was quite dedicated and motivated as a teacher, had pursued a master’s in it and was preparing all of her students for various competitions. So, she was intense and when we went to her, she recognized that I had something a little bit special and so she pushed me. If you imagine, I started with her when I was nine and I was playing like a simple two page piece, little chords in my left hand with the melody in my right hand. And then when I was 11, I played one of Mozart’s most challenging concertos, with full orchestra, so in 2 years time the growth was sort of exponential. But it takes a master to teach, it really does; it takes someone that recognizes that person has a gift and then knows how to nurture that gift. I always tell people when they are looking to get lessons for their kids, I’ll say: it matters who you get you never know if they are going to be good at it unless you get them the right person. So, that’s how I came about. Literally, by the time I was 11, I knew I wanted to be a pianist. Which is pretty early.
D: You only learn piano or did you dabble in anything else?
M: I did voice for a little while, I took voice lessons in college. But that was so frightening, oh my goodness. You know, with piano you can stare at your hands and people are looking at you but they’re in your peripheral. But when you are singing, you’re looking at everybody and it’s frightening. So that and in my master’s degree, I did a composition minor so I dabbled a little bit in composing. I equally felt that was very exposing, composition, you are responsible for everything that people are hearing and if it isn’t good music, it’s your fault.
D: So classical is your only genre?
M: Yup. I did take some lessons in jazz maybe back in high school. But it never stuck. I would love to play jazz, I just don’t.
D: You said your father has musical roots; does your mom have anything musical?
M: Her aunt is an opera singer. She actually auditioned and won a spot in the Metropolitan Opera young artist program, which they still run and have but she opted to not come to New York and instead would be married and have a family. She’s in her 70s now so this was a long time ago, but she ended up being a professor of voice at Vincent’s university; she did that for her career.
D: So your first or best experience musically, young, early, now?
M: I would say my best experience, because it was such a culmination of a lot of things…I’ve played in Carnegie many times, I’ve been very fortunate, for a lot of reasons, it’s a dream to get to play there. But one time in particular was especially special. I played solo, Beethoven on the main stage, Perelman Stern auditorium. And that was a big deal because it’s the big hall; I have played in Weill hall and Zankel hall and had even been in the inaugural concert of Zankel hall. But I had not played in the main hall and I certainly hadn’t thought that I would ever get to play solo and then traditional repertoire because… First time, when I was in New York, at the beginning of my career, I did a lot of new music, music by composers. So to be invited to play music, by someone so establish with so much history behind his music, in Beethoven, and then also play in such a hall of so much history, where so many great pianist have walked out to the center to play, I was really kind of awestruck by it. But it went very well, and a lot of friends and family were there, and it was a dream.
D: So you said you moved to Carolina and Florida; when did you get to New York?
M: I literally moved to New York City…because I did my doctorate out in Long Island so I was living out in Stony Brook, but I move to New York City on September 1st, 2001.
D: How often do you play in New York, are you based in New York or do you do a lot of traveling?
M: Mostly based in New York and I do travel out from here, and in New York, I would say like next month I have seven concerts. So, that’s a lot actually in classical.
D: So that’s typical for you?
M: Seven in a month is a little bit much and I’ve agreed to do too much probably, considering I have to be up here and teach. I would say on average probably I’m playing 2 or 3 programs in a month. But you have to imagine that every program is different it’s not like Britney spears touring with her songs that she’s singing right now, and she has 7 shows okay yeah but all shows are the same. For us the shows are different, which means a lot of time at the instrument preparing. When it’s an hour, hour and a half, long concert that’s a lot of hours if you total it times 7.
D: Do you think NY has a lot of difference between other places or is it basically the same?
M: It is definitely different. In New York there’s way more music going on that any other place that I know of. I’ve lived in Paris, I’ve lived for a time in Vienna, I’ve been in school lots of different places, I have friends in lots of cities around and there just isn’t the freelancing work and opportunities in any other city. Chicago has got a scene, San Francisco has a scene, LA has a scene but they don’t come close to the amount of playing that goes on here in New York.
D: So it’s the amount of people?
M: It’s the amount of people and venues, demand for it perhaps. Just opportunity, there is a lot of opportunity. I think there’s a lot of opportunity too in Paris and places like that but there are a lot of concerts, and it happens here too, that aren’t funded. So I suppose there a lot of concerts that people are playing but aren’t actually taking a fee.
D: More people means more competition; do you think that’s a problem or does it balance out?
M: It’s a fair question; more opportunity, more competition; its true. Especially for an instrument like piano because if you compare to an orchestra, we have 70 pieces and you have 2 section of violins and a section of cellos, its not just one cellist that you need, you need several cellist and you need a lot of violinists; you only generally need one pianist on the same concert. So in that regard there is less opportunity for piano but also when all those people are playing concerts, not orchestral concerts, maybe duos, recitals, things like that, a lot of instruments are looking for pianists to play with them. So there’s that opportunity too. But it’s not easy to get into the right circles of the working people that want to work with you. But I would think its much harder in places where there just isn’t opportunity.
D: So there’s nowhere else you wish to be?
M: Not right now nope, really love this city.
D: You said you dabbled in jazz, what led you more classical?
M: Actually my dad being a crooner that’s closer to like the jazz realm; I think I must have really loved it and I still do. I mean, I’m envious of people that just sit down and start playing jazz standards and I’ve often talked about maybe taking lesson and working on that aspect my own musicianship. Thankfully, I stay relatively busy so…in order to pick up a new craft like that and really become good at it you have to have time its something that I don’t often have but I love it.
D: So jazz’ll be your number 2?
M: Yeah, why not? Or pop. Pop’ll be fun, pop’s too easy it’ll be too easy but it wouldn’t be as challenging jazz is more challenging. You can only play C F and G chords so many times.
D: Do you have anything to add?
M: Other than to add on to the question about work in other cities: I had a teacher who I just love very much who is one of the most respected pedagogue’s in the country. He always said there’s room for everybody; I really love that idea, I think its true. It doesn’t mean there room for everybody to make a freelance life in New York City, it might not be right for them, but they could go somewhere else and they could make music there. If you have the desire to do something, just because life takes you to the middle of Iowa or Idaho or wherever it is, doesn’t mean you can’t have a fulfilling preforming life. There’s a lot of entrepreneurial skills that it takes to be a musician. That’s one thing that I think universities and conservatories are now really focusing on: social networking, media, website information. To make a buzz about yourself so that people want come to hear you. It’s not like it used to be when you sort of waited for the phone to ring there’s a lot more things that happen by making projects. I think you can succeed in music anywhere you go. It just depends on what your idea of success looks like. But if its playing music and enjoying it and taking it to other people so they can enjoy it with you; you can do that anywhere and happily.
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