The art of balancing: Interview with Simonas Poška

This interview was conducted on May 25, 2025, at Ars Augusta headquarters. Simonas Poška (S) talks to interviewer Eleni Ioannidou (E) who registered the answers on her phone.

S: Like in a court of law: everything you say can be used against you later (lauphs).

E: You can say anything freely and hide nothing. We stand for freedom of expression here. So, let´s begin with the first question. What is music education like in Lithuania? Do you feel that your country has supported you well?

S: I think, yes. There are enough of amazing teachers who really care and are willing to sacrifice themselves for teaching, I found that in Germany, there were more education for amateurs (lovers of music) than professionals, and in Lithuania there were the other way around: either you play professionally or you don´t play at all. This is changing now: more and more people are learning just for the sake of enjoyment.

E: If I understood correctly you feel that all these amateur musicians that are not learning music to become professionals but just for the sake of enjoying, is a good tendency?

S: I feel like yes, because the audience is more knowledgeable then, because people actually care and want to go to concerts.

E: I want to inform you that in Germany in these last years a lot of projects are created to support amateur musicianship. Projects, funding and even musical academies are concentrating in create teachers of music for the small cities, to teach music to simple people and create amateur ensembles and support them in their touring abroad. Perhaps it´s a global tendency.

S: My experience in Germany is that it´s much different in this aspect here, it´s much less selective, that if you are more sensitive and things affect you, you still get a chance. It´s much more supportive, even if you are less talented but at least you are doing something.

E: That is actually a good thing in Germany that the standards have fallen. 20 years before there were champions everywhere, now less ...

S: Basketball is still very good ....

E: Yes, but you know, they´ve lost on one side the championship, but they are more open for new kind of persons, more "inclusive" and that is also a good thing. A value actually. You give the chance also to "outsiders" to do something. I mean, in this country, me, a complete outsider had the possibility to create a "Lied Competition".

S: Of course, sometimes there are cases that people are treated like "it´s ok, everything it´s all right, you can do everything, you are powerful" then there are cases like people grow up thinking they are the best, nothing can change their mind, and they actually have no idea what the context is, so there are good and bad sides in that. But it is such a nuanced subject, because the teacher has to recognize, if the person is sensitive, if the person can take toughness, if they have self-discipline or if they need to be taught self-discipline. It´s up to the teacher: if you see your student is going "into the industry" and make a career for example as a pianist, at some point the teacher has to inform the student what the industry is like, what the context is, what are the truths in the competitions, how the managers treat you and so on. But some students take it if you say it in one way, some take it if you say it in another way. If you say "you are not gonna make it, you are too weak for this" and then they break.... who knows perhaps they would become amazing Lied-pianists for example, which is a specific genre, you don´t need to be a recital soloist.

E: So, turning back to the first question. You are satisfied from the education in Lithuania?

S: Yes, in my case I had an amazing teacher.

E: Who was that?

S: Eglė Jurkevičiūtė-Navickienė. I was with her from the second grade of my school, since I was nine years old and I went on to study with her for the next eleven years.

E: You said once, that when you will finish your studies, you want to go back and live in Lithuania. Why is Lithuania attracting you so much and what is it giving to you? You love your homeland very much and you don´t want to break the connection to it?

S: I do love my home country very much and the connection with my roots means a lot to me. I get stability from that and even if I don´t live there, the fact that I am still needed in my country, that I am still invited for concerts and other activities like theater and voicing, whatever, this is still very important to me. So, the national Lithuanian scene, is very young. It still forms. I grew up in a Lithuanian system even though it flows, but also I have got a lot of good things (like I said) I was very lucky with the teacher and the system: I want to give back to the country. And I want to be part of this cultural scene, make it more visible, having better qualities, being more attractive maybe for international artists and in general...

E: So you feel this national element in your personality, that you are Lithuanian...

S: Absolutely.

E: And you would like (as you said) to be part of the growth and developement of your country for the future.

S: Yes, because I feel also that I can be helpful for that. So I want to do it. I am now studying abroad and I will continue for many years probably (as you know) I will go for masters and maybe for solo-classes, concert-exams also maybe somewhere else, but after all the travels, at the moment I feel like afterwards I want to go back to Lithuania. Also because it just keeps getting better for an artist, honestly. The infrastructure, the awareness of the audience like I said, that more people are educated and there are so many talented people! So many! This view, that you must do your good work silently, is really (smiles) ... it doesn´t help. I think Lithuanian culture cannot evaluate herself. We have this societal trait: "Lithuanians cannot yet evaluate themselves well". There are so many talents in the country and people do an amazing job but unfortunately they evaluate themselves quite low and they are not talking about their achievements loudly enough and they are not celebrating it, the way it should be celebrated. You go to some western countries and people have done much less and still they are shouting about it "non stop", you don´t hear the end of it, and people in Lithuania are much more reserved. I want also to be part of this, to help people understand that they are much better than they think.

E: These questions and answers showed me that you are not only concentrated in your self and your own career but you have an awareness about other artists too, you would like to show a way to the artists of your country.

S: And the responsibility to give back to my country, which grew me up.

E: Somebody gave to you, and you give back or you give to other younger artists.

S: Yes. For example, recently when I played a concert in Lithuania, not in the capital but in another city, afterwards some younger (maybe five years younger) pupils came to me after the concert saying "we are studying in the local school, we were very happy to come to the concert, we just wanted to say thank you" and I remember doing this myself before. I used to go after the concerts of people that I liked, as a pupil in the school, I used to go and say "You are amazing" and now I see those people who are five years younger - they waited the whole time outside the hall while I dressed, I went out and said: "that's amazing, let´s go have a dinner" and then we went with them. And the next day, they were very open (actually very characteristic of the young Lithuanian generation, they are very courageous and confident), so they asked "maybe we can play to you our programs tomorrow, if you don´t leave immediately." And I was leaving quite early in the morning but still from 9 a.m. I had one hour of time so I said "if you divide in half an hour each, we can do it." So, I went early in the morning to their school, listened to their play - give them as much as I could of advice, encouragement, and then I run back to my train. I found it important: giving back is important and sharing the things that I already learned, with people just like me but few years younger.

E: Wonderful. Evidently you have a good contact with your audience, we can see it in the story of these two young musicians. How do you feel about your audience? Is it like "this stanger sitting over there, makes me fear" like happened to your teacher?

S: I am not afraid of the audience. The audience is a crucial part of the "live music making"-experience, the concert, and I recognize it and I thank the audience,. I recognize the importance of the audience,

E. What is the importance of the audience?

S: It creates this bond. When people are listening and you know that it´s happening LIVE, you know that it cannot be undone. What just happened will stay in your memory, and if you are sitting in the audience you know that everyone else was part of this. And there is some bond being formed, that you are in this together. You experience this together. The performer of course is responsible to bring a quality performance to life but he is also impacted by the fact that the people are looking, the people are listening, they came for some experience, so there is a special thing in having people listening to you which impact the way you perform. And I think this whole connection is what is the essence of making "live music". That´s why people come to concerts and not just listen to recordings all the time.

E: That means that you appreciate more live concerts than recordings?

S: No, non necessarily. It´s just a different thing. With recordings you can replay it because you play differently many days: you never feel the same. In concerts it´s like you feel at that moment, and maybe it resonates with you, it might be more powerful. It´s just a different type of experience, a different genre, a different style of listening. I talked about the specifics of "live" and the specifics of "recording".

E: It seems that you are very positive. Everything is good for you... except bad teachers who destroy pupils.

S: No, not everything is good. I talked about many problems as well ...

E: For example some pianists like Gould, liked more recordings and Richter had some problems with audience, but you like everything.

S: It is so.

E: Let´s go to another question. Do you feel some spiritual connection to some composers more than to other composers?

S: Yes, and also it changes very often as well, because as a person you grow, you develop and you change. What interests you, comes in waves and it´s a privilege to have so much different music, which works in different phases of your life differently. At one point you enjoy a "bravura", very virtuoso and very show-like music, while another time you enjoy a very solemn, very lonely and very quite music, not for big halls. With that said, composers that usually stay with me are Messiaen, Liszt, Bach and ... yeah ... and Beethoven. There are so many, and they change also very often.

E: There are good friends, that we say: I want to keep them for my whole life, with other persons ok, you meet them, you stay some years in their company and then they go. There are these "Seelenverwandte", when the spirits are very similar. You mentioned Messiaen, Liszt, Bach. Are all these three connected with something like religion? Beethoven was perhaps not religious, but had also a strict Ethos. If somebody in his environment behave not very ethicaly, he got very angry. His only opera "Fidelio" was written to celebrate fidelity. Do you confirm that this spiritual values are important also for you? Are you like them?

S: ... (thinking)... yes. Spirituality is always coming when you honestly approach music. It´s just something that you cannot really describe, when you feel it, you feel it. When you reach this certain imagination level and this "speaking to the audience", when you feel that the audience is listening, you feel every nuance, you feel like you are inside the piece, you are inside the painting, and you are in the scene... then you can call this "spirituality", it´s like talking to some greater powers. For sure, music, if it´s made in a honest way, for sure it has powers involved, because it´s such a strong source of whatever you want to call it, power, liveliness, spirituality... it´s such a strong source when you experience it, then you want to go back there, you want more and more, like an addictive drug.

E: But drugs are something negative.

S: Why?

E: Because it destroys you. Music doesn´t destroy you.

S: Why? It can heal you and you need more health... (laughing). Music can destroy you by the way: you can get so carried away that you loose everything, you loose reality and you don´t understand what´s real and what´s not. This happens with artists lot of times, of course these are some rare cases. But I think you need to be addicted, you need to be a bit sick, crazy. Maybe I will talk differently in 20 years, but in my opinion now, you must be a little bit mad.

E: There are drugs that people need. Medicines. Some people need music to heal, because they are sick some way, and they need music. I am always thinking about humans that don´t have the posibility to make music, and they become sick. Music and also theater are therapeutic.

S: It´s therapy, yes, in the way you express, you explore your deepest thoughts and feelings and when what you do is sincere and pure, art cannot be impersonal. In one way or another you will express yourself. And so, it is therapeutic. You explore yourself in many instances, you get sick but you get also in contact to this amazing source of power and if you manage also to be sick with this in a good way because it heals, if you manage also to spread this power to some other people, to audience for example, then what more can you ask? You know, it´s not only you in this painting: you share it also to others. That answer also the previous question about the audience. This "sharing" is one of the most important meanings of art, because you get to share, and this sharing makes you to make art even differently. This sharing is what makes this Temple of Music-Making or Art-Making.

E: Let´s go to the next question. You are still very young. But do you have a goal in your life? What would you like to achieve with your art in life? I think you already answered.

S: When I was younger, I didn´t thought about balance. I dedicated myself fully, all cells of mine to one thing. If it was a composition, I wanted to be fully involved in that, drop everything else. Then I welt to another thing, like theater, I fully dedicated myself in that... Of course, you cannot make a piece of art if you don´t dedicate yourself 100% but with that being said, as I am getting older and I am doing more things all at once I just want to find a balance between making theater and making music.

E: This balance is a goal?

S: Yes, but this is only my artistic goal, It´s a lot of things that I am dreaming. My personal life is much as important (if not more important), yes, it is more important: my family and my beloved ones, I want to somehow -find the middle way between them and not sacrifice anything. It´s a naive thing to think, but nobody stops me from trying at least. Art and life interfere a lot but still it should be space for each individualy. Of course, you say: art is life, sure, but it can´t be always like that. It used to be before "my life was all art". It can be, but still it should be space for each thing now.

E: Let´s stay on the topic "life and music". In his autobioraphical book "Martin Eden", Jack London meets a musician and asks her: "what means music for you". And she answers "Music is my life" - he found this answer very disappointing, very let´s say "bourgois-like". Art and Life, Human beings like Jack London and Artists that think only about studies, diplomas, concert halls, careers... What is the connection for you between your music and your life?

S: That is a very difficult question.

E: I know. Answer spontaneously. Do you need some wine?

S: I cannot answer it just simply... I answered already in the previous question, that the personal life and the creative life have to have their own space even though they are connected in many ways, but still they should have their own rooms in your brain, and with that being said, your creativity gets inspired by your personal life also. These are one of the ways that they are connected. You cannot separate them fully, but still you might go mad if you dedicate yourself fully to it, if you make your whole life just art.

E: I think you will miss life.

S: And if you say, "this thing makes me crazy, I want to dedicate only to my life" then you miss creativity, It has to be two separate spaces, but not to deny that the one is inspired from the other and they are both connected in so may ways...

E: Ok, enough with philosophy. What are your next plans for this and the next year, concrete? Also your personal plans?

S: My creative plans, I will not say all of them because they will not come true (laughs) but I still continue an intense concert schedule, which I am happy about. Last year I played 70 concerts in a year and that was the most ever in my life in a year. And also some of them were the biggest in my life. So this year it´s also going to a similar direction. Just out of an interest I counted them, because I also wanted to see how my health is doing, because the amount of concerts can be an answer to why am I always tired: should I sleep more? or change some of the aspects of my life, to manage this better? So this year they are already around 50, performed and planned, and usually when December comes it skyrockets, as you know. December is the "top month" for performers. So I will have some more performances. One next performance will be in Italy. I never performed in Italy, I have been in Italy a few times but never for a performance. And many performances I have in Netherlands, which is crazy. From the summer of last year, I think I played in Netherlands 50 times and before that it was 0, except a masterclass and a Lied Competition actually. But solo recitals, I didn´t have any of them before. So it´s crazy how life suddenly blows you to one country...

I also write a new piece. I´ve got commissioned a new work, so I will work on that: next year it should be premiered. I cannot say more about it, it´s part of my agreement.

E: And your personal life? your parents, your girl friend, your friends?

S: The plans are, that I keep what I have and I treasure what I have.

E: Do you have many friends?

S: Yes, but I am a private person. I don´t talk to everyone about every single thing, except my girl friend and my family members. Other than that, I rarely talk to others -- but I don´t know what you mean with "close friends".

E: For example you have an idea and you cannot do it alone. You remember that you have a lot of friends, you call them "come to take part in my plan"...

S: Yes, these people with whom we create things, yes, I do have them and that´s from the times we did an opera together, we did a theater-play, we made many other creatve projects, so these people, like-minded people, yes I know a lot of them.

E: Wonderful. Let´s go to the last two questions. Are you interested in politics? How do you see the world situation today? is it for an artist like you important to be involved in politics or it´s better for a musician to stay de-touched in his music like a monk and leave the politics for others?

S: It matters less if you don´t involve yourself in politics because people will still see you as such. It´s not in your power, people will still see what you do. And if you play in a hall that it´s very politically influenced and you have a certain panel of audience which is for example a president of a certain country, how can it not be political? You know, people say "don´t mix art and politics": yes, but lots of the time this is not in the artist´s power how his art will be perceived. Of course, as an artist you can make decisions, I think that you should take positions, because artists are still an important part of the society and look some pop-artists: people see them like somebody coming from God. They have so much influence and power, I do think that there is a responsibility for every artist to have his own backbone, his own spine, their own position, but still you are an artist in the end of the day, it should take space from the art itself. But you should be aware that you have influence, you are important in the society and if necessary you should express very clearly your position. And you should be aware that if you play in one hall which has a certain reputation, you should expect that people will interpret this accordingly and put you in one drawer or in one box, because of where you played, or for whom you played or which repertoire you choose to play. It´s just like it works. You try to separate these things but everything is so connected and people, if they want, they will find connections anywhere, and if you play the most neutral thing, they will still find "oh, he comes from this country, he played composers by this nationality, titled about this city, dedicated to this leader..."

E: You know, 20 years ago, the world was not so divided as now and everybody was liking each other and there were no problems like that. We live in a very divided society, like west and east, men and women, left and right and other bla bla.... And an artist in this very divided society... how to explain it... If an artists wants to go to politics, he has to stop doing arts because the half of the society will hate him.

S: I would agree, but he has this power of influencing but also the power of bringing people together, because if they listen to music, in that moment of course people are imagining different things...

E: The singer who won the Eurovision contest said something against Israel. That destroyed perhaps his career, and he is just in the beginning because a lot of people stand with Israel. Half of the world is pro-Israel and the other half against. Perhaps the artist who wants to change with his music the world, better should not take position.

S: Maybe. But there is also a good saying that "you should listen to the artist, or look to the artists life and look what they do, but don´t listen to them talking". And there is a good saying "you should look to an artist from a far" (laughing). Because if you come close to an artist it can be really disgusting and annoying.

E: Music transcends humans, no?

S: I think so, but still humans have a tendency to make everything connected and squeeze from everything all that benefit them, so that´s why you should be aware of this also when you create a repertoire, or just be aware, do what you do and don´t care what others feel. Of course don´t be shocked after, if people will react how they react.

E: So perhaps you can tell me how you create the drammaturgy of your concerts? And how you choose your repertoire?

S: There are many reasons and criteria that go into that but the first of all is that I try to recognize what kind of phase of my life I am in for that moment, what kind of artistic phase? Because usually I don´t really need to choose the pieces. Usually pieces choose themselves, when you practice certain repertoire, it associates with other repertoire. Once you get tired of one kind of repertoire you want another and this goes by waves. Sometimes i need long, slow, philosphical, deep pieces but after that I also feel the urge to have something lighter, something shorter, uplifting, maybe a combination of both. It really depends on what is happening in my life artisticaly and maybe personaly and what I need at that moment as an artist, also where I can expess myself the most, where I can show my voice the most: so that´s the repertoire I choose. Another important aspect is the location where I play: different locations have different audiences and different countries have preferences for different composers, of course some national pieces (of that country) may be there... not necessarily but I think about that. I consider also technical aspects like the instrument, the acoustics, the size of the hall and so on. So, these are the most important aspects. Also important is for me as a professional to plan my programs in a way that I don´t have completely different pieces on every single concert. This is also an important aspect too, to recognize your capabilities and not overdo it, so that you still have some freshness but you don´t need to sacrifice everything and then feel terribly afterwards. So, this is the thing also with "fresh" music, with new repertoire: I found that if I´m supposed to play old pieces all the time if I want to be freshly inspired, I want to be sharp in my intuition it really helps to have some new repertoire in the program among the older pieces. Of course older pieces are more safe technically and I have experience in them, but still somehow psychologically the new repertoire makes me personaly focus not only in that new piece but on the whole program, and my mind stays much sharper and I am also playing the new pieces differently after learning the new pieces. For me, I found this formula, that it really helps to have a balance of at least one piece of the programm to be new (of course smaller part of the programm). But it depends, sometimes it may happen that everything is new, but from my experience, having a new piece, always elevates the older repertoire that I play.

E: I would like to conclude with a spontaneous question i have not planned. You are the son of a painter and an actress. And you were talking during this interview a lot about pictures and scenes. I had the feeling that the spirit of your parents are part of you. Your father paints, and you see your art like a painting. Your mother was an actress...

S: She still is an actress...

E: Do you feel to have something from your parents?

S: I feel that I have everything from my parents. I owe my whole everythig to my parents. To how they raised me, to what I inherited from them, and also what gives us God from mother nature, which IS my parents, you know. Nature is genes.

I owe so much to my parents, and even the hard work what I did, I still was taught discipline and the way of life by them. Even if they weren´t consciously teaching me, they were just themselves and this is the most natural way of parenting: just doing what you are doing, and your child always looks... the first thing they do, they look at their parents. They copy what their parents are doing so I owe who I am to my parents.

E: Do you go and watch your parents while they are working?

S: Since I was in my mothers belly. Of course as a child, everytime I could... my father would always take me to the theater to look at mom in her plays, I would always go to my dad's exibitions. I would help him move the paintings. I remember when we used to go to the plain-airs, I would just running around and always find my dad somewhere in the sea. We would always do like that: We would go to the dunes. Lithuania has sand dunes, the Curonian Spit (Kuršių nerija). He would go into the dunes somewhere and I would go walking alone to the beach and try my own things and think my own thoughts and then, after three hours I would find him, by feeling where he would be, where he could have seen something nice to paint. I would look what he painted and we would immediately exchange opinions. I would tell him what I think, exactly like he would tell me, because I often play through for my parents, when I need to do a "Vorspielen".

E: Are they good critics?

S: They say things that they think. Of course they are not professionals in classical piano but they are artistic, they say what they believe and I take that. And of course I go to every new play of my mom, always when I am there, I try to visit my dad´s exhibitions, even if most of the paintngs are similar with those, I´ve already seen and transported many times, I was there where they were being painted. You know, my dad did an exibition in Berlin, and when I traveled through Berlin, I went there. Of course, it was so special to find in the middle of Berlin this piece of my family. So, this is important. And we would also help each other, we organize things for each other. I organized the exibition for my father in Kassel and then when it went to the closing of that exibition, I organized a concert for me and for my mother as well, because she is also a singer. So, we do these things for each other, they always go to my concerts when they can. When I was playing in Paris, in this concert where Macron and the Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda were present... they also came. I organized special invitations for them, so we tried to support each other because. you know, artists need to support artists and not be jelaous of each other.

E: That means that your parents were supportive in your artistic path.

S: Of course, yes.

E: That´s amazing. But how did you came the music? Does anybody played a instrument? Ah, your mom was singing... there was a piano at home?

S: Yes. No... My mom was playing just some exercises on the piano.

E: So how came the piano in your life.

S: I went to this specialised school, the National School of Arts. In the pre-school, we didn´t have to choose any instrument - we just learned to sing, to develop rythms,, to see if we are suitable for this school and afterwards (after we entered in this School) we needed to choose an instrument or a speciality, where we would like to go. We can of course change it anytime, but we had to make a decision. So in the first grade they asked me "So Simonas, what instrument would you like to play" and then, I just made a joke and said: "Tuba" (laughs)... the word just sounded funny. It sounds so cool to pronouce "tuba" and I said it and they actually wrote me for tuba. And then my mother came and said "What tuba!? No... put him for piano". There you go....

E: Thank you Simonas!