UK-based French violinist Esther Abrami has today released her new single ‘Romance for Violin and Piano, op.23’, written by American composer and pianist Amy Beach (1867-1944).
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Amy Beach, renowned pianist & composer of the Romantic period, is known as the first female composer to have a symphony published and premiered by a major orchestra. Esther’s choice to record Amy Beach’s Romance for violin and piano is a continuation of the young violinist’s desire to spotlight female composers, as she did with her debut single, composed by Clara Schumann and released on International Women’s Day.
About the single, Esther says: “I have fallen in love with this piece. It’s a sumptuous romantic composition with the type of melody that lingers in your memory; it’s the classical equivalent of a hit single!” She adds. “It’s upsetting that the works of Amy Beach aren’t as well-known and loved as pieces by contemporaries Claude Debussy, Edward Elgar and Sergei Rachmanioff, but I am dedicated to inspire listeners to discover more female composers and encourage young violinists to play their compositions. I had such positive returns with my Clara Schumann’s piece, that I feel I have to keep going”.
Esther strives to make her music accessible to an audience beyond classical music lovers, and the new music video illustrates her interpretation of the piece. She says, ‘with classical music, as there are no lyrics, if we don’t know the story, it might be difficult for some people to imagine the storytelling behind it. I wanted to illustrate my interpretation to make the piece as accessible as possible, even to non-classical music lovers’.
Inspired by the structure of the piece, together with the director, Esther developed four characters to tell a story, discernible from outfits, different locations across London, but also by the way Esther is playing. She says ‘When you’re paying attention to the piece, you notice different moments: the beginning is very mellow, very innocent, other moments are very dark or gloomy, later some are dramatic and almost hysterical. We had the idea to show these different parts in the video, by using one different color, outfit and location for each different musical character.”
In 2019, Esther Abrami became the first classical musician ever nominated in the Social Media Superstar category at the Global Awards. Through TikTok and Instagram she has welcomed a whole new audience into her musical world, sharing welcome practice and sight-reading videos together with tips and helpful techniques for aspiring young musicians. So far, her passion for music has united more than 290k followers on TikTok, 235k followers on Instagram and 120k followers on YouTube.
She is as equally at home in the classical world as when covering modern hits or challenging herself to learn how to play songs in an hour only (see her version of Griff’s ‘Black Hole’). Esther Abrami studied at the Royal College of Music and was awarded a full scholarship for a Master’s degree at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. She plays a fine Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin, kindly loaned to her through the Beare’s International Violin Society.
Listed by Julian Lloyd Webber as one of the ‘30 under 30’ classical artists to watch’ on Classic FM, Esther is on her way to being acknowledged as one of the most promising young classical music artists of her generation. With more than 300k views on her latest single, and a highly-anticipated debut album on its way, Esther has fast become a new artist to watch beyond the classical genre.
