Sonatas and sea shanties from Samira Ahmed

Each week on Get Creative a famous face shares with us their hidden talent. This week presenter and broadcaster Samira Ahmed, who presents Artsnight on Friday 10 July, tells us about her love for Chopin's waltzes and traditional folk music.

Samira is an award-winning journalist with 20 years' experience in print and broadcast and is a Visiting Professor of Journalism at Kingston University.

She also presents Newswatch on BBC1, Something Understood on Radio 4 and The Proms on BBC4 and makes documentaries for BBC radio and television on her passions: everything from David Bowie and 70s suburbia to The Fundamentalist Queen about the wife of Oliver Cromwell.

In 2009, Samira won the Stonewall Broadcast of the Year Award for her film on so-called "corrective" rape in South Africa, and made the acclaimed Channel 4 documentary series Islam Unveiled.

But when she's not in the newsroom she loves nothing more than relaxing by playing the piano. We asked her to tell us how it makes her feel.

How do you get creative outside of work?

When you find the right thing, it’s like a private beauty you can keep going back to

I’ve been playing the piano since I was seven. I still enjoy the Beethoven sonatas and Chopin waltzes and nocturnes I learned to play through traditional lessons, but I also have all these old song books of pop songs, traditional folk music and stage musicals. There’s nothing like powering through the arpeggios of a sea shanty or My Fair Lady’s The Street Where You Live. Especially when no one else can hear you.

How does it make you feel?

I pound out the stress. There’s something about using all your finger muscles which is very satisfying. I used to play a lot as a break from homework and revision as a teenager so it was great for working out all that tension. I still keep the piano right by the front door where it’s easy to spend a few minutes when I’m waiting for someone to arrive or for others to be ready to leave.

Why would you encourage other people to get creative?

When you find the right thing, it’s like a private beauty you can keep going back to. Noone else needs to know or judge.