Music was present in my family – my sister played the violin, and later on was a singer, and my brother dabbled in the piano for a little bit – but it wasn’t an everyday thing with everyone playing and singing along. I often say that mum and dad weren’t musicians, but they were musical – they identified with music, and understood it, and realised how important it is. But they worked in the hotel and restaurant business. Normal people stuff. 

Cello

Because my older brother and sister played instruments, I remember being taken to their lessons with mum. So I was exposed to that environment, and the obvious instrument for me was the cello, to fill up the family piano trio. And I think someone in the music school made a comment, even when I was a tiny toddler, that I looked like a cellist – whatever that means! But by the time I had been introduced to the cello, when I was six, my brother had already given up, so the trio never had its debut concert. 

It was actually many years before I decided to pursue music as a career. For...