The finest instrument is the mind. He showed exactly why, by recording his own brain on music!
Meet Nicolas Namoradze (known as “Nico” to friends and colleagues), a pianist, award-winning neuroscientist, and 1st prize winner of the 2018 Honens International Piano Competition.
In this episode of This is the Legend Of…, Amos features Nicolas’s unique career, pathway to Honens, and fascinating research after Honens. His most recent research, the “Neurorecital”, records the neural activity of a musician’s brain while the musician is performing music.
Nicolas just debuted the “Neurorecital” at the world-renowned Verbier Festival in Switzerland, and by using the University of California – San Francisco’s revolutionary “Glass Brain” technology, Nicolas has broken new ground into musical performance’s musical, neurological, and psychological effects on both the performer and the audience!
Looking forward to featuring Nicolas’s research updates in the future!
Nicolas's Instagram: @nicolasnamoradze
Nicolas’s website – https://nicolasnamoradze.com/
#honens#honens2025 #chopin #chopincompetition#nicolasnamoradze#cliburn #cliburncompetition#vancliburn #piano #janinafialkowska #fialkowska #carnegie #classicalmusic
Tomorrow by Scott Buckley – released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
Other music composed by: Amos Vang
-- CHAPTERS --
0:00 – Introduction
4:16 – What inspired Nicolas Namoradze to pursue piano?
6:58 – What is the music culture like in Tbilisi andBudapest?
11:01 – North America has growing centres of rich pianoculture.
11:25 – Nicolas made his solo debut at 10 yearsold and his orchestral debut at 12 years old!
12:49 – How have the music cultures of Budapest, Vienna, andFlorence shaped Nicolas Namoradze’s musical style and philosophy?
16:27 – It is important to consider both musical ANDnon-musical influences on a composer’s style!
20:48 – Chinese music has A LOT of rich cultural references! Amos Vang explains the Cantonese and Mandarinlinguistic influences on music!
24:04 – There are parallels between musicianship and acting! Tony Leung Chiu-wai is a great example of that.
27:37 – Nicolas brings a scientific perspectiveinto piano performance!
28:44 – Music teachers would benefit greatly fromunderstanding the scientific perspectives behind piano performance.
35:47 – Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do can be applied into musicalperformance!
36:55 – Is there a kinesiological explanation for good armmovement in piano performance?
42:23 – Michael Phelps spent more time on mental practicethan on swimming! Could musicians learnfrom that?
51:34 – What inspired Nicolas Namoradze to compete inHonens?
57:48 – Honens has a unique scoring system.
1:02:29 – Music does NOT operate in a vacuum. There must be dialogue and adaptation.
1:05:41 – Justice Rosalie Abella, a former judge of theSupreme Court of Canada, was a performing pianist.
1:14:52 – Music and law have one thing in common: theirstudents learn about THEORY and THEME!
1:15:10 – Justice Rosalie Abella actually read Amos Vang’sfinal law school paper about her!
1:15:47 – What is musicality to Nicolas Namoradze?
1:19:32 – Can there be objectivity/universality in beauty(and by extension, in musicality)?
1:24:28 – What is the Neurorecital? What are the most important research findingsthat Nicolas Namoradze has found in the Neurorecital?
1:28:16 – How can the Neurorecital contribute to our current knowledge of effective musical performance?
1:30:31 – Amos Vang describes his own experience withobserving musical therapy in senior patients with dementia.
1:34:52 – The gradual decrease of music education in Canada’spublic education systems
1:40:01 – Look at the brain on music! There are NO BAD SIDE EFFECTS!
1:40:55 – What is the Complete Artist to Nicolas?
1:42:36 – How do new audience members watch and enjoy Honens?
1:45:48 – What are the most rewarding aspects of NicolasNamoradze’s career?
