ONE summer's afternoon in 1978, a year before she won the prestigious prize at the Leeds piano competition that was to launch her solo career, Kathryn Stott unlocked the door of her London flat. She had been away on holiday, and expected the place to be empty.
'To my surprise, I saw a Chinese man in the middle of my sitting room dressed in his underpants and playing the cello,' she recalled.
'And there was a woman, walking around in her dressing gown.' 'They both looked as surprised as I was,' Stott said.
The man was Yoyo Ma, the woman was his young wife, and the unexpected encounter was caused by Ma's agent, who had set him up in the flat (which Stott rented from the agent) while he was performing in London, without bothering to tell any of the parties that they would have to share 'Fortunately we all had a good sense of humour.' The meeting was the beginning of a lasting friendship, and a professional relationship that has already brought Stott twice to Hong Kong, and many times to other parts of the world, to play recitals with Ma - while also developing her own successful career as an artist on her own.
She said she had learned a great deal about performance from Yoyo Ma: 'I used to be more timid . . . but Yoyo is very confident, and he can transfer his energies into everything around him.
'He is such a good communicator, and I haven't found anyone else with such a good ear for what is going on with the piano part.' While at her home in the remote Yorkshire countryside, Stott practises for about five hours a day, before spending the late afternoons going riding with her 10-year-old daughter (who has a musical ear, but who hasn't taken up the piano with dedicated enthusiasm, she said).
