Natalya Aynsley is one of the hardest-working musicians in Sydney. Though her main instrument is the piano, it is her versatility that has seen her book a range of projects allowing her to make a living from music. Her drive and dedication to her craft has led her to some incredible destinations, and next on her itinerary is the Adelaide Fringe Festival where she will be performing two solo shows, Anime n Chill and Video Games n Chill.

Aynsley grew up in post-Soviet Estonia where she had studied classical piano from the age of five. Her family later moved to Australia and she continued studying the piano until she was 17.

“After I’d done my LmusA I decided I was done with piano and wanted to work towards a different career path, which prompted me to move to Sydney and study fashion design. I’ve had an unsurprisingly strict musical education and needless to say I didn’t enjoy it much, I found myself always drifting back to playing the tunes I liked from video games and anime music instead.”

It was her love of video games and anime music that led her to create her stage persona, the pop-culture pianist, Natalya Plays Piano. It is under this brand that she has built a solid reputation performing popular music from film, TV, and video games.

“I’ve always been more drawn to pop culture music than the more traditional classical genre because I find it to be much more personal. The audience connects with the music more when they can relate to a time and place they heard that music.”

Despite her proficiency on the piano being on par with a classical concert pianist, she is particularly drawn to this pop-culture style, and reflects on moments in her shows when audiences have been moved by the pieces she has played, “the music gave them a wave of nostalgia, a happy childhood memory or a moment captured from their past.”

Aynsley works full-time making music for a number of projects. She credits her success to a combination of diligence and luck, but also encourages those who are trying to build a music career to cultivating skills across many areas.

“Anything is possible with enough drive to succeed, a lot of hard work and discipline, and just a little bit of luck. The music industry is so broad and multidimensional and I’d encourage anyone considering a full time career in it to learn as many facets as they can.”

“Knowing how to play one instrument is great but if that’s the only thing you know how to do, it can be limiting in terms of opportunities. In addition to that you could learn how to orchestrate and arrange music, you can work with schools and other educational sectors, you can learn music programming, composing, mixing, and even just knowing the business side can help immensely.”

Aynsley has been booked for some very high profile solo concerts, most recently in Europe and the Asia Pacific. This was a major highlight of her career to date as she explains, “to be able to tour Europe and Asia Pacific playing solo piano concerts for a major video game franchise. Waking up in a new city every morning was fun but trying to get some sleep on a moving tour bus through the night wasn’t. Learning a full two hour concert program within a couple of weeks and performing it night after night on next to no sleep was an insane challenge but it was such an incredible adventure at the same time. I would do it all again without question!”

Her advice to budding full-time musicians is simple, “you must have an absolute dedication to your craft and be very self disciplined and honest when it comes to your own performance.”

Anime n Chill will be performed at 8pm, 6 March and 6pm, 7 March at Nexus Arts. Video Games n Chill will be performed 6pm, 6 March and 8pm, 7 March also at Nexus Arts. More information can be found on the Adelaide Fringe website here.