Isabel Dobarro (Santiago de Compostela, 32 years old) may have innocently started playing the piano at the age of three. But later he realized that in music, as in life and art, that innocence is sometimes perverted by a visceral manipulation of emotions. Also that injustice and contempt count to fix her history, as has happened for centuries with female composers, literally erased, she maintains. That’s why he wants to remedy it with his artistic vision, among which his album now stands out. Kaleidoscopewith 12 contemporary pieces created by women from the five continents. The performer trained in Spain and the United States, a pedagogue of her art in demand at several universities, explains herself.
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Ask. Why does someone decide to be a pianist in life in 2024?
Answer. I think there are several reasons. Communicate ideas and sensations through art, to begin with. From a very young age, at three years old, I already started. It is my most natural way of expressing myself to project concepts and values.
P. And sensitivity, emotions?
R. Also… We are scientists of emotions, says Yo-Yo Ma. And we must give a vision of the world through art.
P. What is the one you intend to give?
R. Diversity, equality, feminism… My art, after years in this sense, is oriented along that path.
P. Is it possible through music to still encourage that? We are not talking about innocent art.
R. No, it is not an innocent art. That is why we must try to provide light. It can send good and terrible messages, something that has happened throughout history. We musicians must be aware of this and remain alert.
P. Something you have done when putting on the market Kaleidoscope with contemporary composers. Why has it taken us so long to recognize that worth?
R. Due to an inertia in which an erasure had occurred. It has its reason for being. There have been musical performers for centuries, especially singers, obviously. Regarding the piano, from the 19th century onwards there were great names. They came as a consequence of a bourgeois education that gave rise to certain virtuosos such as Clara Schumann or Teresa Carreño. In the composition it did not happen, due to that inertia of invisibility that was sometimes due to barriers.
P. Barriers not at all diffuse…
R. No, but the most incomprehensible thing is that over the years there was an erasure of the women who were recognized as important in their time, such as Francesca Caccini, who was the highest-paid creative woman of her time, in the 17th century, by the Medici; Pauline Viardot, an even powerful woman in her time or Mariana Martínez, admired by Mozart or Beethoven.
P. Erased, he says, directly.
R. Yes, deleted, literal and we must restore it. It goes so far that no one notices how they marked great composers, such as Maria Ágata Szymanowska, a direct and forgotten influence of Chopin. It’s an erasure. It cannot be that they do not appear in the history books as they deserve.
The pianist Isabel Dobarro in Madrid on October 29, 2024.INMA FLORES
P. How to change the canon?
R. What we must do is expand it, expand it, place these names alongside Mozart or Beethoven without disregarding those who already make it up. To those mentioned, but also to women like Elisabeth Jaquet de la Guerre, a contemporary of Rameau or Couperin in France and who at 26 years old was considered one of the best of her time.
P. What pedagogical role should women play in this mission? You also teach classes…
R. And I talk about this a lot. That work is very important. There have been great teachers for centuries, from Clara Schumann to Nadia Boulanger, the great teacher of the 20th century, who taught composition from Leonard Bernstein to Quincy Jones or Astor Piazzola. Even so, limiting female creativity was imposed in all areas, with explicit and implicit social barriers in many of them.
P. Since he was three years old he has been playing the piano, a natural luck?
R. In my case that happens, yes, and also the fortune that, in Santiago, during my childhood, we had an extraordinary cultural and musical offer. I am grateful, I cannot imagine what would have happened to me in other circumstances, although I would also have liked to be an Egyptologist, for example. Although, like everyone, I have had times when it has weighed on me, although the love for the instrument has always ended up overcoming the resistance.
P. Moving to New York at 18 to become a pianist, how many risks does it involve?
R. I believe that musicians should go outside anywhere. It is good for comparing talent with others, it pushes you to try harder, a healthy and recommended competition, apart from meeting different people. I think that, from those years, from that diversity, it comes out now Kaleidoscope.
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How does Isabel Dobarro’s album “Kaleidoscope” reflect her commitment to promoting diversity and gender equality in the music industry, and what specific challenges did she face while creating it?
Ndered interview questions that explore the interviewee’s motivations, challenges, and contributions to the world of music. Capitalize on the opportunity to discuss the importance of diversity, equality, and feminism in music and how Isabel Dobarro’s album “Kaleidoscope” aims to address these issues. Highlight her pedagogical role and the need for gender parity in music education. End with a brief mention of her literary endeavors.
