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

Hi Christina, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

As a very young child I knew that I wanted to be a pianist.My Mom was a pianist and a teacher and my Dad an amateur singer.
I was surrounded by music my whole life.Even as a 6 year old child I knew that music will be my path in life.
I was born in Budapest ,Hungary where music was part of everyone’s culture. We have spectacular Concert Halls and a magnificent Opera house.Even at age 11 I attended concerts, operas and ballets regularly, sometimes 5-6 times a week.Thinking back, I cannot believe how much music I was exposed to. Without that foundation I don’t think I would be where I am now.
I only started taking lessons at around 8 years old, my Mom very smartly didn’t want to push me.She knew that the path I wanted to pursue was not an easy one.I was very committed and knew what I was getting into. I did not mind the hard work, even if meant that I was not able to play with my friends that often.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a concert pianist and a piano professor. Very early on I noticed that I had a great passion for performing.I was a very shy kid, but the moment I performed in front of an audience I felt at home. The bigger the audience was the more comfortable I got. It was like oxygen for my soul that I was craving constantly.
When I was on stage I was content , happy and fulfilled.I did countless competitions all over the world with numerous medals and awards to my name.At one of those competitions I met my future husband, who was also a contestant. Here I was this young Hungarian girl and meeting this tall handsome American guy.The rest is history. Of course I thought it was to eternity, but unfortunately after 20 years both of us went our own way.
I have a fantastic son named Adam Kiss, who is a very talented filmmaker, who is working on his second feature film right now.I am very proud of him. His first movie named “My Last words” premiered in New York very recently.
I arrived at a stage of my life, where I wanted to share my wisdom with the next generation, and started teaching.It is very fulfilling for me to share my knowledge with them and continue to spread the joy of music.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I was always a very creative person, and so even my friends wouldn’t understand me. I was always an out of the box thinker.
They just thought that I should get a 9 to 5 job with financial security.
So many times I was misunderstood and because of that I felt frustrated.
Unless you are in the creative field, it’s very hard for a regular person to understand your drive and your passion.I guess in a certain way we are cut from a different tree. Our minds think a little bit differently and sometimes we are not down to earth.I am very happy that we have a balanced society, otherwise we would be in trouble. We have aspirations and unbelievable ideas that only our minds could create and fulfill.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

As a young Hungarian pianist I felt it was my mission to introduce the works of world famous composer Franz Liszt to a wider audience. In my opinion he was a genius of a composer ,who wrote pretty much some of the most difficult piano pieces for piano. He is gravely underrated, and his works are not performed nearly as much as they should have.
In 1990 I started a monumental task of launching my Liszt Cycle, meaning to play all of his works live in concerts. So far I have played over 42 concerts, most of them at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall
It is the most rewarding project I have ever done. I am more than halfway done.
Franz Liszt wrote over 1000 works for the piano, and he was one of the great romantic composers of all time. He was Hungarian by origin, and that’s why I felt that it is my duty to promote his works.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://christinakisspianist.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinakisspianist/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christina.kiss.12/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZjmjqL_FtG_n4_S-8tIjAg

Image Credits

Christina Kiss, Adam Kiss