Andrea Lam wears many hats. She is a concert pianist, an ARIA award-winning recording artist, university teacher and radio and TV host. While in the classical music world she has been well known since making her orchestral debut at 13, she has recently captured the public’s attention as classical expert of ABC’s The Piano. Andrea has also made her radio debut presenting The Art of the Piano on Classic FM.
Behind the scenes she is a lecturer in piano at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, records music and is a board member of the Australian National Academy of Music and the not-for-profit music group, Four Winds, where artists perform in nature. She is also a mum.
Andrea was born and raised in Blakehurst, one of Sydney’s southern suburbs. After a career performing with leading orchestras and conductors across Australia, Asia and the USA, and 20 years in New York, she has recently settled back in Australia. She lives in Melbourne with her husband, 10-year-old son and one-year-old groodle puppy.
“Every day is like a new adventure. There’s really no sense of weekends and weekdays with what I do. There’s also not much sense of what part of the day it is. I’m working a lot at night time as well as on weekends.
Performance days have their own rhythm. They are usually away from home, so I don’t have to be physically involved in anything going on at home or other work commitments. It’s one of the few times that I am somewhere for just one purpose.
I wake up as late as possible. Usually there’s a general rehearsal in the morning if it’s a concerto with an orchestra. After rehearsal I try to find something delicious to eat. I’m usually in a place I haven’t been before, so I walk around a bit and then ideally take a nap.
Before I head to the venue, I eat my go-to meal of spaghetti bolognese. It’s the one dish you can get everywhere pretty easily, pretty quickly and it gives me energy for a big concert.
When I’m standing in the wings before going on stage, I jump up and down a little bit to get the nerves out. It’s a moment of less intense seriousness before I go on, which I like. It always makes people laugh.
When I was younger, and had more time and less responsibilities, I had all these beautiful rituals. I’d nap for a certain amount of time, make sure I’d eat at a certain time and get to the venue an hour and a half beforehand to go through my piece in my head. It was freeing to let all that go, and realise I didn’t have to depend on doing those things to make a good performance. Now I just do whatever I can.
After a performance, I’m usually pretty wired, so don’t go to sleep until very late. Thankfully I’m away from home, so I don’t have to wake up early the next morning.
Home days have a really different rhythm. I’m either woken up by the kid or the dog at 7am, if I’m lucky. I used to be a night person, but after having a child, it started shifting. I found that in the mornings I am a lot more productive and a lot more positive. I love sunrises when I can catch them too.
Before I do anything in the morning, I drink coffee. My son knows that and even knows how to make me coffee now.
Andrea will practice every minute she can during her busy day
If it’s a weekday, I spend the morning getting my son ready for school. Once I’ve dropped him, I head over to the conservatorium to do some teaching.
I teach piano and music to undergraduates and graduate students and I love it. As a concert pianist, my work is very intense and solitary. I really love having a more stable and longer relationship with music and people other than just going in for concerts. And I love being in a community like a university where everyone is curious, exploring and learning.
Another great part of being at the university is that the ABC studios are right across the road from the conservatorium, so I can just run over to do something if I need to. In an ideal world, I’d practice piano for a couple hours a day. Some days I only have time for 10 minutes, some days I can sit at the piano for seven hours.
Most days I’m juggling a lot, but I love being busy doing things that matter to me. Being a mum I’ve had to get really good at being organised and rely on an amazing support network. But if I have five minutes when I’m next to a piano, I’ll sit down and practice. I’ll use every minute I have.
After getting in some practice, I head home for dinner. Growing up we always sat down together for delicious meals my mum would cook, so dinner is really important with my family too.
Lately, my favourite part of the bedtime routine has been reading aloud to my kid. He just got a bigger bed, so it’s me, my son and the dog in the bed.
Then I’m finishing any work I need to do before crashing. I find I often can’t sleep at night, my brain just keeps on moving, so I’ll listen to a history or political podcast to help get me to sleep.”
WATCH ANDREA LAM
The Art of The Pianowith Andrea Lam airs on Sundays at 9pm on ABC Classic FM
Andrea performs in the ABC Classic 100 concerts broadcast on ABC iView (19-20 June), at Four Winds Long Weekend near Bermagui (6-8 June) and Hunters Hill Music in Sydney (28 June)
Instagram: @andrealampianist