10 questions with Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider

Wed 19 Feb, 2025

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider is a man of many talents! We caught up with him to find out more about his life as a violinist and conductor.

• Nikolaj, how does preparing for a performance as a soloist differ from preparing as a conductor?

I would say it’s understanding the music from the detail to the large picture or vice versa. As a conductor, you don’t deal with details first – you study structure and the big picture and then zone in on the details, which is exactly the opposite of having an instrument in your hands.

•  How do you balance conducting, performing and your role as Music Director of Orchestre national de Lyon? 

Balance is a key question in life, not just in music. I try to stay fully involved with whatever I do and to remember that there’s a physical element that requires a regular regimen in order to continue to play an instrument at the highest level.

•  What is your favourite Violin Concerto and why?

I don’t really believe in having a favourite anything – not food, not violin concertos, not composers. Of course, there are things that we like more or less, but it’s the variety that keeps everything interesting.

•  Who were your biggest influences as a young musician?

I’d probably say my parents. My parents were the ones who gave me the values to seek the right path. As musicians, of course, there are influences that you listen to, people that you meet, close teachers … Pinchas Zukerman was the one I had the most direct contact with. But yes, I’d say my parents.

•  Who is your favourite composer?

I’d have to answer the same as question 3. I don’t believe in favourites.

• What do you like to do in London?

Make music!

•  If you weren’t a musician, what profession would you like to have had?

I couldn’t possibly imagine doing anything else. I think that’s the only reason you should become a musician – if you can’t imagine doing anything else. But if you put a gun to my head, something that afforded me the possibility of spending a lot of time in nature.

•  What advice would you give to aspiring young musicians?

Spend all your energy and devotion on how you can be deserving of wrestling and engaging with those giant masterpieces that we are so fortunate to work on. It’s advice I remind myself of.

• What’s the most special thing about a classical concert?

It’s two things. We are able to engage the greatest accomplishment of mankind, in my opinion, and, more than that, we are able to share it. We are able to experience it with others, which enhances the experience – we know this from Covid, both as performers and listeners: the act of making music isn’t the same as making music for someone, or listening to someone making music for you. That special thing is something we need to treasure and to make sure that people know that they will receive something in a classical concert that they cannot receive anywhere else.

•  If you had to choose either conducting or performing as a soloist, which would you choose?

I couldn’t choose. It’s like asking you to choose one child over another. Both, of course!