Reflets Magazine #147 devotes a feature to pianist Lydie Solomon (E06), a prodigy who added a string to her bow on entering ESSEC. She now lives from her art and shares her love of music as a teacher for all audiences. Here is a free online translation of the article… subscribe to get the next issues (in French)!

At the age of two, she could play Beethoven’s Ode to Joy by ear on her mother’s piano. At just five years of age, she was admitted to the École Normale de Musique (academy of music), a privilege generally reserved to teenagers. At high school level, she entered a sports-study class, which, despite its name, enabled her to combine academic lessons in the morning and musical lessons in the afternoon. ‘The pace was just as demanding as for a top-level athlete!’ While Lydie Salomon was clearly gifted, her career was nevertheless built on great effort and sacrifices. ‘Someone who enters the Conservatoire National Supérieur [Paris Conservatory] at the age of 15 does not have the same childhood as everyone else. I didn’t watch TV, I didn’t have sleepovers with my friends...’

This was one of the reasons why she diverted to business school after the Conservatory. ‘Artists have an ambiguous relationship with their instrument. It’s like being in a couple; a long-term symbiosis with its ups and downs.’ That said, there was never any question of her living without her piano. ‘I just felt the need to connect to other areas. I didn’t want to become a specialist who sees the world from a single perspective.’ 

Finding Her Voice

Lydie Solomon found the perfect balance at ESSEC. ‘I continued to give concerts while meeting music lovers on campus who saw things from a different yet just as interesting angle as specialists. It was a real breath of fresh air for me.’ Lydie has always loved building bridges. ‘This probably comes from my multi-cultural background, I’m Korean by my mother and Romanian by my father...that cross-border aspect is part of who I am.’ 

This is where her true vocation lay; in sharing her art with all audiences, even those who are not familiar with the Salle Pleyel or Paris Philharmonic. Once graduated, she developed several concepts off-stage. ‘In particular, I launched conference-concerts in companies, around themes such as performance, time management or responsibility. I alternate between sequences where I discuss the theme through my experience or that of famous musicians, and other sequences where I perform pieces which mirror the discussion while allowing time for each participant to absorb what has been said. If you ask me to talk about excelling oneself for example, I talk about how Beethoven found a way to compose despite his deafness, or how I manage to play Chopin, Liszt or Rachmaninov, who all composed music for much bigger hands than mine.’ 

Managers are not her only target. ‘I took part in a 2-day international seminar for statisticians. We discussed the links between music and mathematics, with questions such as how often a note must be repeated in a piece to create a tonality, or how to de-compose Boulez’s serial scale or Bach’s irregular intervals. Statistics become more fun when explored from this perspective! She also works with 1982 Fields medal-winner Alain Connes, on non-commutative geometry. ‘We look for music which corresponds to prime numbers’ .

Yet another bridge, this time between fields. ‘Music draws on science as much as language. Not only does it speak to everyone, it also frees thought and communication.’ Lydie Solomon is working increasingly to develop this educational aspect. ‘I’ve just come back from a series of masterclasses, conferences and concerts open to the whole population of Val-de-Reuil, including the secondary school and music school. It was the first time a piano recital had ever been organised in the community! I also took part in discussions on the opening in France of Scuola Holden, the school of writing founded by the Italian author and music lover Alessandro Baricco, which establishes the link between notes and words. My task is to provide insight on how a score can tell a story, or serve as inspiration and a basis through its structure.’ 

Words, Words and More Words

In fact, Lydie Solomon has long experience in storytelling. ‘I wrote thousands of pages as a child. When I was older, I tried my hand at film and television, after a training course at Cours Florent. For his film, “Vivre”, the director Yvon Marciano even did me the honour of writing the role of a Korean pianist for me. I also played a criminologist in the French TV series “Profilages” (TF1).’ 

Here again, she built bridges between techniques. ‘Memorising a script is similar to learning a score.’ She also points out that her three records, recorded in parallel to her tours and conferences, compose a story. ‘The album “De Chopin à Cuba” recalls how Chopin unintentionally nurtured the whole Cuban music scene right to the Buena Vista Social Club, thanks to a childhood friend who went to live there.’ 

Lydia thus also loves to step off the beaten track. ‘Another recent experiment was my collaboration with Pascal Obispo, who suggested transforming pop pieces into classical music. It was a delight to work on Michel Polnareff’s “Lettre à France”, even it was more a question of returning to its roots, as the song was inspired by Handel!’ Another little-known anecdote...

Life as a Soloist

Lydie Soloman’s career is basically an ode to independence, in terms of spirit, art and profession. ‘I’m neither part of the industrial circuit, nor signed to a record label. I self-produce, sell my records myself and arrange my own publicity. I’m an entrepreneur in some ways, like many of my classmates from ESSEC!’ 

Interview by Louis Armengaud Wurmser (E10), Content Manager at ESSEC Alumni
Translation of an article published in Reflets Magazine #147. Read a preview (in French). Get the next issues (in French)."