Pianist Zee Zee reveals her sleep routine for concert days, and tells us about her love for Ravel.

Tell us about your approach to Ravel’s music.
I think Ravel is one of those composers who means exactly what he writes in the score. He’s very precise about the markings he writes, from tempo changes to dynamic markings and colour changes.

To perform his works, I have to read the music extremely carefully and follow exactly what he has written – all the colours and nuances. For myself, I have two main approaches. One is paying close attention to all the markings, and the other is focusing on the sound. Ravel, of course, is from the Impressionist era, and he wrote only about 80 compositions in his entire life – which is very few compared to other composers. But almost every single one of them is a masterpiece and his works span different styles: one being neoclassical, which is very evident in the Piano Concerto in G major, and another being deeply Impressionist, as seen in pieces like Gaspard de la nuit and Jeux d’eau.