Over the years, Canadian pianist and composer Marc-André Hamelin has built a reputation as the pianist who can play anything - and he does so with verve and style. But, at heart, he is an artist who is deeply fascinated by the new.

In this context, we talk about his experience as one of the first pianists in the West to be enthralled by the works of Alexander Scriabin: a cosmopolitan Russian composer who traveled widely, wrote poetry, and was fascinated by India. Scriabin's career was a remarkable story of continuous innovation. He died suddenly at 43 - just as he was on the cusp of new discoveries, composing new works extending into new musical territory that still remains largely unexplored.

In episode 1 of this 2-part interview, Marc-André Hamelin talks about his early attraction to Scriabin, and the challenges of finding a way to explore his passion at a time when the composer was relatively little-known in the West. In the process, he also discusses his musical training, the music scene in Montreal where he grew up, his thoughts on piano competitions, and some of his favorite piano works.

In episode 2, we will explore a unique aspect of pianist Marc-André Hamelin's background: his personal connection to Scriabin.

Early in his career, Marc had the privilege of meeting someone with close personal links to Scriabin: Madeleine La Liberté. Madeleine, herself a pianist, studied with, and later married, Alfred La Liberté, a great Canadian musician and pedagogue who was a close associate of Scriabin. La Liberté met Scriabin in New York. He quickly became a member of the composer's inner circle, working with him for extended periods during his sojourns in Western Europe. La Liberté would go on to make invaluable contributions to the development of Canadian musical culture, and to the preservation of Scriabin's legacy, in Canada and beyond.

Marc-André speaks with typical grace and humility about his amazing connection with Scriabin, which situates him directly within the composer's own musical and humanistic lineage.

Marc's discography includes the complete piano sonatas of Scriabin (recorded for Hyperion). His recent recital programs feature, at last, the work that first captivated him at 16: Scriabin's revolutionary Fourth Sonata, music of desire and its fulfillment, culminating, in the final movement, in an exuberant dance of cosmic delight.

Music heard in Episode 1:

Prokofieff, Piano Sonata No. 7 in B-flat major op. 83, performed by Glenn Gould:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXoL60ipygo.

Scriabin, Sonata No. 2, Sonata-Fantaisie, in G-sharp minor, Op. 19, performed by Ruth Laredo:

https://youtu.be/dIxtP0aHWEQ?si=cShxfXNOlkEq8iy1

Scriabin, Sonata No. 4 in F-sharp major, Op. 30, performed by Vladimir Sofronitsky:

https://youtu.be/v5MFrX8yWhs?si=f3kHbny64ruNw6YF

Scriabin, Opus 74, performed by Sviatoslav Richter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Nf0_goimek

Thomas de Hartmann, Symphonie-poème, Op.50 No.1 (1934):

https://youtu.be/pC_HSFCuSxc?si=CfqQLLHxtH0U6Zbu

Episode credits:

Sound Engineer: Jóhann Vignir

In part 2 of this frank and refreshing discussion of art and AI with Ela Orleans, an audiovisual artist and composer, paradoxes abound. For Ela, AI is a creative tool that simultaneously enhances and diminishes her creative potential, a practical means of both fulfilling and subverting professional expectations, and a useful yet ironic weapon that she has added to her aresenal to help her fight against poverty, discrimination, and the continuing impact of a (post)colonial value system that affects artists and our world.

Ultimately, Ela argues that a willingness to take responsibility for ourselves, as individuals and as a society, lies at the heart of resolving the conflicts between humans and AI. As she points out, the social, economic, and ecological problems of today have not been created by machines; but, if we fail to address the root causes of those problems, they are likely to lead us into further difficulties in the age of AI.

Ela offers a candid and thoughtful appraisal of what she sees as the the losses and possible gains from AI for artists like her, who hope to make their voices heard in a world that is hungry for new ideas - whether or not we know it.

With the rise of AI, artists have found themselves in a profoundly altered landscape. Is AI destined to be an amazing new instrument of creativity or a new source of unfair exploitation - notably, at the hands of AI companies who have already used the work of artists widely, with neither credit nor compensation, for training AI systems?

In this episode, I interview artist and academic Ela Orleans, a Polish composer and audiovisual artist who grew up in Communist Poland and currently lives in Paris. Ela is well known as an artist who works with digital technology. Less well known is the fact that she is also an expert on artists' copyright, having completed her PhD in this field at the University of Glasgow in 2022. Given her unusual background in art and artists' rights, Ela is uniquely well positioned to comment on her experiences with AI, and in this discussion, I found her to be refreshingly frank and open about what she thinks the future holds.

Please join us here for part 1 of this 2-part discussion on artists and AI.