Ordinarily, when preparing to sit down to talk with a pianist, one would spend time with recordings of solo performances in order to become familiar with their work. In the case of 29-year old Adam Rogala – one of the talents currently training at Dutch National Opera Studio – although there are recordings on YouTube and beyond, they haven't been the main focus of his career. But then, Rogala is no ordinary pianist.
Born in Łódź, Poland, Rogala’s life has revolved around the piano since the age of seven, when his parents signed him up for lessons at the local music school. His development as a performer had all the predictable teenage ups and downs. “I was very close to being kicked out of school when I was 12 or 13 because I was simply not practising the piano. When I was that age, you know, boys were climbing trees, exploring old factories, and I was not really keen on practising – and I should have practised three hours a day!” Despite this wobble in dedication, plus the possibility of focusing on other subjects – “I was very interested in mathematics, it was always quite easy for me,” he tells me – the experience nonetheless ended up confirming in Rogala’s mind that the piano was the thing he wanted to commit to. “That was the moment for me: realising I’m so connected to the music that I don’t really see my life without it. I subconsciously decided that I really love it, and I really want to do it.”
After school, he went on to study piano solo performance at the Feliks Nowowiejski Academy of Music in Bydgoszcz, though Rogala says he never had serious aspirations to become a concert pianist. “When I came to university I already knew that I didn’t want to be a soloist. That was not a goal for me, as there are so many pianists! I felt good playing chamber music with my colleagues, and then I encountered vocal music.”
Rogala quickly found himself strongly drawn to performing with singers. “It was a surprise to me, because as it happened I was just a substitute pianist, and yet I felt the most comfortable there. I never had any self-doubt when I played with singers because it was so organic to me. I felt relaxed, not overthinking things and it was easy. I was absolutely inspired by the voice. So that was the moment I started feeling this turn into a vocal career. I felt it and it stayed with me.”
Thereafter his practice began to shift towards becoming a répétiteur and collaborative pianist. He describes the process as “unofficial”, beginning with learning a great deal of repertoire. His skills were noticed by the Academy, and more time in his final year of study was spent performing with singers. Yet the progression from soloistic to operatic playing was far from straightforward. “Opera was not where much of my education went, so after all of these years – I was 23 or 24 – I felt like I was starting to learn a completely new instrument. It’s absolutely different: the way the piano is treated, it must sound like an orchestra. An orchestra is very big fusion of 60 to 80 people, so the piano must also behave in a different way.” For Rogala, it meant beginning again with the instrument in an entirely new context. “Getting to know the piano as an orchestra instrument was a very weird sensation. Basically after I graduated I had to learn a new dimension of playing.”
Though a difficult process, Rogala immediately felt the benefits of moving away from soloistic performing. “It’s less stressful for me because I know that the concentration of the audience is not only on me. I feel much freer sharing with someone, it helps me to be more at liberty in my expression and in my playing.”
Rogala believes the mindset needed for collaborative work is very different from that of a soloist. “To cope with the other’s feelings about music, and how to find each other in between... some people are just not meant to do it. It’s quite sad, but if someone is very dedicated to some certain way of doing something, this person will be less likely to be open to someone else’s opinion, and that’s a problem. It’s not a problem of musicality: it’s the idea that this person thinks that their way of doing something is the only good one. This is the end of a conversation. You have to be flexible in this job.”
Asked if the reason is to do with ego, he elaborates that it’s more to do with understanding the role. Historically, the emphasis during piano training has been directed at producing soloists, without adequate exploration of collaborative forms of performance. As a consequence, many of today’s répétiteurs have either been in the job for decades, due to a lack of suitable replacements, or have been forced to learn on the job. But he notes that this situation is changing and today most of the bigger opera houses have programmes that include training for répétiteurs.