In The Studio With | Hania Rani
Moving beyond her classical repertoire, Hania Rani faces her fears with expansive new album, Ghosts. Danny Turner finds out more
Born in Gdansk on the Baltic coast of northern Poland, neoclassical pianist Hania Rani studied piano in her home town, later incorporating jazz into her musical curriculum. After collaborating with cellist Dobrawa Czocher on the instrumental album Biala Flaga in 2015, Rani began composing her own improvisations, resulting in a series of beautiful melodic piano vignettes for her debut album Esja four years later.
While further releases incorporated various film, theatre and symphonic works, Rani’s latest LP Ghosts is the first to truly diversify beyond the confines of her classical upbringing. In keeping with the haunting undertones of the album’s title, Rani’s use of synths, strings and vocals, alongside collaborations with Patrick Watson, Duncan Bellamy (Portico Quartet), and Ólafur Arnalds, introduces eloquent new layers to her neoclassical sound.
Were your studies at music school in Gdansk and Fryderyk Chopin University of Music enforced on you by your parents or were you a willing participant?
“I come from Poland and our music education system is a little different to other Western countries. A couple of schools in the bigger cities offer a very professional education: you apply when you are six years old, need to pass an exam and then pick an instrument and attend varied music classes mixed with regular subjects. While you’re learning how to write academically you’re also being taught how to write music, so you’re kind of trained to be a professional musician. At the start, I wasn’t much into practising, but by the age of 10 I’d totally changed my mind and really wanted to become a professional piano player. Nobody had to convince me; I just started practising on my own, became very ambitious and began travelling, taking part in competitions and playing in chamber music groups.”
Did you have a piano at home to practise on?
“At first I just had a regular upright piano and then my parents bought something that was good enough for me to take the next step. I practised on grand pianos at school too, so I was usually spending the whole day there from 7 o’clock in the morning, but that was just the way that we were living. It was the same when I started my university studies in Warsaw and Berlin – Iwould spend the entire day practising and a little bit of time with my friends, but you get used to that lifestyle.”
At what point in time did you start to think about moving beyond your classical training to create your own compositions?
“First, I should say that my parents were not musician
