Meet Christina Kiss

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christina Kiss a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Christina, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

Honestly, I was a very shy kid growing up in Budapest Hungary. You would never catch me going into a small boutique, because in a small store the people would always approach me and I wanted to be invisible. That all changed when I started playing the piano at the age of seven. I felt very comfortable in my skin and with my colleagues who studied music. I also discovered early that I loved performing in front of a huge audience. The bigger the audience, the more I felt at home. At a very young age I participated in plenty of piano competitions gathering quite a few top prizes along the way. That was a huge boost to my confidence and self-esteem and because of that I became more independent—even traveling abroad alone at a pretty young age and winning competitions all over Europe from Czechoslovakia, to Austria, Greece, Italy, Spain and the United States among other countries. As a matter of fact I met my husband at a piano competition in Barcelona. Life is very unpredictable isn’t it? Recently just this past summer we vacationed in Barcelona with my son and got a red carpet treatment from the organizers of that same competition. When we told them that my son Adam is technically the product of their competition, they couldn’t stop laughing. Music was and is my life and I could not imagine doing anything else. Aside from doing many competitions early in life, I graduated from the very prestigious Franz Liszt Academy in Budapest Hungary with dual degrees in performing and teaching. The point is—becoming a concert pianist was the only choice for me.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

As I mentioned before, I am a concert pianist and a piano professor as well. When you are a young child you think more of the performing aspect. All the prestige of performing is very fulfilling, it’s almost like oxygen for your soul. I am also a very competitive person, I remember always begging my teachers for impressive showstopper pieces, and almost felt let down when they gave me slower pieces occasionally. Later I really appreciated those beautiful pieces immensely, when I was ready to show my musicality and not just the technique. But the truth is that they both really go hand in hand. I discovered early that even though physically I didn’t have a big hand, my reach was huge and my hand was very stretchable. That is very important in a pianist’s life. Not reaching an octave very easily could hold you back.

Returning to my competitive nature that I mentioned before, I watched a performance on television by a fourteen year old pianist named André Watts. He was performing Liszt’s Eb Major piano concerto with the very famous conductor Leonard Bernstein. This performance launched his career and he became a world renowned concert pianist who eventually became my friend. Obviously this recording I watched was a re-run from much earlier and when I watched it I was fourteen years old myself. My competitive nature kicked in, and I learned this concerto while still fourteen. A little while later André performed a concert in Budapest—after the concert I went up to him and told him this whole story of playing the Liszt concerto myself. He almost didn’t believe me. He accompanied me back to the concert hall where he just performed, and wanted me to play couple of measures of the incredibly difficult beginning of the piece. He was very impressed, and a long and wonderful friendship started.

I got married very early in life, and moved to New Jersey. After a few months of living in the United States I auditioned to the Juilliard School, and was the recipient of a four year completely merit based full scholarship. I really enjoyed my time there—it was very special. In 1990 after some encouragement from my family, my then-husband and my teachers I launched the world premiere of the “Liszt Cycle”.
Franz Liszt is a Hungarian composer that I admired my whole life. Somehow his music flows in my veins, so to speak. I’ve played more Liszt works onstage live than any other pianist so far in all of history. I have played over forty Liszt recitals so far, most of them at Carnegie Hall. I remember playing one of my Liszt recitals when I was eight months pregnant with my son. Three month later I was back on stage shortly after giving birth. Speaking of my son—his name is Adam Kiss and he has grown up and became a filmmaker, singer ,writer, director and actor. He is an amazing son, but more importantly an extraordinary compassionate human being. I really am the lucky one. Recently, I had the privilege to compose and perform the soundtrack for his feature film that he wrote, directed and starred in called: “My Last Words”! I composed two original pieces that are heavily used in the soundtrack and serve as the main themes, while all the other music in the film is by Franz Liszt and all performed and recorded by me. In addition to that I also served as Adam’s fellow producer on the film and acted in the film as well. Funnily enough, my role in the film was playing the mother of Adam’s character on the screen and I even got to play the piano on-screen in my character! After having collaborated with Adam numerous times in concert when he was an opera singer and we performed together, it was so wonderful to work with him professionally again in a film project like this!

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

The three qualities that helped me where I am today are resilience, compassion and perseverance. You have to be resilient and deal with setbacks in your life. You should never give up and always look ahead instead dwelling in the past. You have to believe in yourself and your cause. I am a very compassionate person, not selfish at all. This is my way of life. I know quite a few people who changed after becoming famous. I don’t believe in that. Perseverance is also very important to me, and always have short term and long term goals. Never lose sight of them.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

Growing up in a musical family I always knew that I will be involved in music. My Mom was a pianist and my Dad an amateur singer. Before I started to take piano lessons at the age of seven, my Mom wanted to be sure that I was ready and didn’t want me to start too early, even though I wanted to start taking lessons much earlier. Honestly it was definitely the right time. I think the most impactful thing my Parents did for me was to get a grand piano. I still remember that joyful day when the piano was delivered. It was a big investment, and my Parents had to sacrifice a lot to get it. They supported me every way they possibly could, and that’s why I wanted to support my own son Adam Kiss. By the way that instrument made me love playing the piano even more. By the time I was 10 years old I had no doubt in my mind where my career would take me. That was the first and very important step.

Even in the height of my concert career I felt like something was missing. I knew that I had too much talent and knowledge not to share it with the next generation. I started the Christina Kiss Piano Studio. From the start I felt very natural with my students. Over the years quite a few of my students became professional pianists. That is a very special feeling for me—to guide them and help them fulfill their potentials is a great validation. Quite a few years ago I was invited to go to Shanghai to give concerts and masterclasses. I will never forget my time there. I taught so many incredible young pianists. I was happy that I made a small difference in their lives in those two weeks there. It was very fulfilling indeed. So teaching students both in the long term at my studio and for short periods of time in masterclasses is extremely rewarding and an important aspect of my life! And of course, there is nothing like the thrill of performing live in concert where I feel totally at home on stage!

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Image Credits

Adam Kiss, Christina Kiss

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