Duo Kamil El-Ahmadieh and John (Pham) Hoang Anh: “our close friendship can be heard in our music”
The Czech piano duo Kamil El-Ahmadieh (24) and John (Pham) Hoang Anh (21) will enter the stage of the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam on the 13th of October, during a concert with the promising title ‘European super talent’. “This festival is something big”, according to the two friends. “We feel honored that we can be a part of it.”
Unexpected success
When Kamil and John started as a piano duo, they didn’t have a clue of what it would bring them. “We both studied with the same teacher at the conservatory”, says Kamil. She noticed our potential to play as a piano duo, so on her advice, we started to play together.”
“Piano duo music was something new for us and we didn’t really have any career plans with it. We actually didn’t know what it meant to be a professional piano duo, we did it for fun primarily,” says John. “When we performed as a duo for the first time, the audience was very enthusiastic. Apparently, as a duo we could create a mood that we had never experienced as soloists before. We were surprised about this success. As from that moment we started to search for ways to develop ourselves professionally.”
Opportunities in the world of piano duo music
“Currently, we’re in the midst of building our career. That requires discipline and a lot of hard working, says John. “It’s not easy to conquer your position in the international piano duo scene”, agrees Kamil. “There are so many crazy cool pianists worldwide. That makes it a bit stressful sometimes.”
Nonetheless, the duo sees a lot of opportunities. John: “Between piano duos there is not nearly as much competition as between soloists. On top of that, as a piano duo you have an extraordinary diversity of timbres, which makes you stand out from the musical crowd.”
In their own country, the two pianists would like to contribute to the esteem of the genre. “There is not a big tradition in piano duo music within the Czech Republic”, says Kamil. “In many countries, piano duo education has become quite common. Unfortunately, the Czech conservatories still focus on the soloists.” John continues: “I’m convinced that such specialized education is of great added value to the development of piano duos. It is a very specialized profession, not something you can just do for fun.”
The energy of a close friendship
Although developing a piano duo career requires a lot of energy, it gives the duo a lot of energy as well. “We’re not only colleagues”, says John confidently. “We are best friends. We understand each other, we’re always there for each other and we do a lot together. I’m convinced that this is noticeable in our music. It emanates a certain energy that would be impossible to achieve without our friendship.”
The pieces that Kamil and John chose for the Pianoduo Festival Amsterdam will definitely express this energy. “We mainly wanted to play a cheerful program during the festival. The piece of Hummel is great, it is so colorful. At first glance, it sounds quite seriously, but eventually you’ll find out that this is just a facade. With the piece of Dvorák we’d like to show a bit of our own culture. Dvorák is a real musical poet.” John: “The way in which he was able to combine classical music with Czech folk music is just breathtaking. The combination creates a dreamy, fairytale-like mood.” And what about Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances? “That is one of our favorite pieces,” says Kamil enthusiastic. “It is so energetic!”