When Andrea Lam’s wildly expressive hands are not flying across the keys — as they have done since she was a chubby-faced five-year-old — her mind is doing the work on the piano for her.
The breakout star host of ABC TV’s The Piano, Andrea has been a celebrated concert and recording pianist for more than 30 years.
When we meet and talk music, I am reminded of the fascinating research that’s been done on how guided imagery and visualisation techniques have helped elite athletes.
Just as those athletes work to boost their success by visualising themselves touching the tape ahead of everyone else, Andrea says an important part of her preparation is thinking through the music.
No piano, no sheet music. Just a walk along a long beach and the idea of the music taking shape in her head.
Andrea Lam is joined by Guy Sebastian as a judge on the second season of ABC TV’s The Piano. (Supplied: ABC TV)
“I remind myself that the music came from somebody, somebody’s brain, somebody’s soul, and the music on the page looks so definite and so immovable — but it really is just a way for someone to communicate to somebody else through music,” she says.
“So, I love coming to places like this where I can just imagine myself in the composer’s sound world and try to think of it in a different way.”
Andrea is a deeply thoughtful musician. As we walk along one of her favourite Sydney beaches, she is light-hearted and fun company, but playing the music she loves and reveres weighs upon her: she wants to not only get it right but be true to the spirit of the composer.
Watch Creative Types with Virginia Trioli: Andrea Lam on ABC iview
I suspect she has been a serious young thing from a very early age.
“At some point when I was younger,” she tells me, “I started realising how unusual it is to stand up on stage under bright lights and perform something at a really high level and I started getting nervous.”
Her dad was very interested in psychology at that time, reading a lot of self-help books, and had become interested in the concept of visualisation.
“So, I used to do that, and I found that was really helpful to kind of practise being in that space in my brain before actually being in that space.”
For a new episode of Creative Types, Andrea takes me into her private processes, where the problem-solving part of her brain sits with the playfulness of her spirit.
The beneficiaries of this intriguing combination are the hopefuls on her TV series, and a new generation of students she now teaches and mentors.
She encourages them to run around the room, or lean their entire body, their breath, into a touch on the keys. She comes alive when she teaches. You can see the eager student she once was.
Andrea resists the idea of having been a “prodigy”, but she made her orchestral debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at around 13.
Her connection with the ABC began many years ago, when she won the ABC Young Performer of the Year in her final year of school, performing Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, which was broadcast nationally and praised as “electrifying”.
Andrea Lam’s 2025 record Piano Diary won an ARIA for Best Classical Album. (Suppled: Mark Metcalfe/Wendy Tedoro/Getty Images)
She has appeared as a soloist with all major Australian symphony orchestras, and around the world with the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, in venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Centre and the Sydney Opera House.
Her discography is impressive. She has won an ARIA for Best Classical Album twice, in 2021 and 2025.
She is a restless artist — always looking to stretch her capacity — but as she reaches into her forties, she has a deeper insight into her calling.
“When I was growing up, I always thought I had to have an angle or I had to make it special in some way, but as I’ve gotten older, it’s just what rings true,” she says.
“Everybody wrote something with some kind of intent — they wanted to share an emotion or share a story. So, it’s tapping into whatever the crucial elements of the art are and then how to bring that alive.”
Watch Creative Types with Virginia Trioli at 8:30pm Thursdays on ABC TV or stream anytime on ABC iview.