Hello reader! My name is Ignacio Ojeda, though everyone calls me Nacho. I’m 28 years old and originally from Sevilla, Spain. I am a pianist – I started playing back in my hometown when I was five under my beloved teacher Izabella Malocco. Since then, I moved to Madrid first, then to Helsinki, and finally, to New York City, to discover myself and my place within my craft; in those places I was shaped by the wisdom of the wonderful teachers who walked alongside me, guiding my path.
I grew up as a classical musician; and therefore, the techniques and performance practices I assimilated were geared towards becoming a solo piano performer, focused on the traditional repertoire. I felt, however, that something was missing in my artistic experience. The truth is, I have always longed to explore new repertoire, to discover new sound worlds, to defy the traditional experience of what we understand to be a concert of classical music.
As years passed by, I felt myself the most when I was able to freely imagine how I would like my own concert to be; when I could perform pieces by living composers and work beside them to envision how to create new experiences for audiences. My positive experiences in these endeavors led into new trains of thought: What if I dared to create my own music? What if not everything that I performed had to be piano based…? It’s on those ideological grounds that I made the big decision to focus my career in the production and development of new music works.
At this point in my life, I am happy. I get to experience the thrill of regularly working in the field of New Music, while still being able to play classical music due to my training and upbringing. On top of that, life has brought me very close to musical theatre, and I regularly work with actors from diverse backgrounds to help them bring life out of their songs. This triad – New Music, classical music, musical theatre – brings a wonderful balance in my life that I consciously embrace, day by day.
We are shaped by tradition. But we are not bound to it. We do not have to, at the very least. As long as we put our creative minds to work, and we have the bravery to put our work out there without judging ourselves, or others, too harshly, there is no limit to what we can achieve.