Pianist and composer Helen Jane Long says playing her works for live audiences is one of the pleasures of her profession. And she’ll be doing just that tomorrow night at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, when she performs with a live string ensemble, playing music from her latest CD, called Perspective.
There’s more information on Helen Jane Long‘s website.
“It’s me and 13 string players, so I’m using San Francisco musicians, and it’s going to be a beautifully full sound, big string section,” she says. She’s written music for TV and film (and was Howard Shore’s assistant when he was scoring the Lord of the Rings films) but her solo career took off after she began to post music on Myspace. “I just uploaded a couple of pieces and then the feedback I was getting from people was that they loved it, so my ego said ‘write some more! Keep them enjoying it, so I just carried on writing, and then my music has connected with these people in a way that I just never expected.” That fan base has continued to grow, and she says the fun of touring is it’s a chance to play for them live. “They tweet me, they email, they message me. Every time I’ve done a show is them saying ‘When are you coming to San Francisco? When are you coming to New York? When are you coming to New Orleans?’ So I kind of dictate what I do round where they’d like me to be. So back here I am again in San Francisco, and I’m looking forward to it, it’s going to be great… People want to see live music, and I’m touched that they want to come to see me live, and I feel very passionately that I should do it… I enjoy it, I love connecting with people, and it’s a pleasure. It’s a lovely job to be in.” She explains, her music appeals to listeners from many backgrounds. “The people that get in contact who’ve listened are people that listen to Metallica, they’re listening to pop songs, they’re listening to country music. They’re listening to some classical, but not necessarily lots of it. And they’re touching on an area of music where, I suppose, they didn’t realize that they could like.”
