We were lucky to catch up with Rusanda Panfili recently and have shared our conversation below.
Rusanda, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
Recognizing how little I actually know, makes me always want more. I try learning something new every day, challenging myself to overcome the fear of not being good at it. When it comes to music , our creativity is our biggest asset. There are many great musicians out there who are good technicians , who know how to play their instrument and the one thing that truly differentiate us and makes us individuals is finding our own individual musical voice. It takes courage to be yourself in the music industry. My experience as a young violinist was quite conservative, someone always telling me how to make music, stopping me from being myself, creative and unique. Now being more confident thanks to some of my successes in the past years I learned how to listen to my instinct and follow my gut when it comes to music making, composing or arranging.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Primarily I’m a solo violinist, touring world wide with artists such as Hans Zimmer and Andrea Bocelli. I started performing as a soloist when I was about 14 , entering international violin competitions brought me concerts, scholarships made financing my studies in Austria possible. I’ve been an independent artists ever since I came to Austria in 2000, pursuing the career as a violinist. During my development as a musician I realized I’m interested in many various genres of music so I worked with cross over artists such as Igudesman & Joo, doing comedy and music, earned some extra money by jamming in clubs with deejays and about 10 years ago I created by own band where we focus on world music and the fusion between classical and other various styles of music. Ever since I entered the Hans Zimmer universe, I developed a passion for soundtracks and film music which led to me starting to compose. I released my first soundtrack album in 2022 with the title “Andara 1980” and I started working more and more in the film music direction. My next album comes out end of 2024 and it’s dedicated to Astor Piazzolla.
More original music will be released as well throughout 2024 , also I’m working on the score for an upcoming art house film.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
My most powerful skill is playing the violin, having a proper education for this complex instrument. Second is developing many various interests such as dancing, languages, painting which helps me always find unique ways to present my projects.
Third, social skills and learning constantly how to put my work to value. Self management and self promoting yourself is extremely important in the music business.
Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?
My Biggest challenge is being a self releasing classical artist. How to properly release a self produced classical recording in order for the world to really see it? I decided to release my next album through my independent label but how to find the right distributor and then how to convince that distributor to go for you?
I decided to take it step by step and first of all produce a recording that is undeniably great, generate enough funds for some pr campaigns, activate my fan base and take it from there.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.rusandapanfili.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rusandapanfili
- Other: https://linktr.ee/Rusanda
Image Credits
Credit: Stefan Panfili
