When pianist and composer Joep Beving recorded his first album, Solipsism, in his kitchen at night he never imagined he would be performing in the Sydney Opera House a few years later. The album, which was self-released, was streamed over 59 million times on Spotify alone and a recording deal with Deutsche Grammophon soon followed. Limelight caught up with the pianist when he was in Sydney last year for sell-out performances at the Sydney Opera House.

How were you first introduced to music?

That was at a very young age, and mostly my parents, Sunday mornings, and a piano being in the house that I discovered as something to play with when I was a toddler. I liked it – I don’t remember, but my parents told me – and then I went to the basic music training that you do when you’re five or six and from then on, I don’t know, I was just very fanatical about it. I’ve been playing on and off the rest of my life.

Joep BevingJoep Beving. Photo © Deutsche Grammophon

I understand you didn’t study music at university – was it ever something you were considering?

I studied public...