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BDAA Study Tours 1979 - 2004
1979
The BDAA had existed only a few months when, in the Spring of 1979, a group of 28 members and friends of the fledgling organization visited Moscow and Leningrad. The following is adapted from the writeup by Steve Wolownik, Lynn Carpenter and Tom Vallone which appeared in the March 1980 issue of the BDAA Newsletter.
The 1979 BDAA Russia Trip was a great success, and fun was had by all. Of the 30 people on the tour, 25 were BDAA members: Cynthia and George Beneshin, Greg Carageorge, Lynn Carpenter, Janet Cook, Will Herzog, Rachel Hoar, Doreen Kramer, Lia and Alex Krowzow, Dave Lieberman, Irene Perloff, Charley Rappaport, Cindy Rau, Linda, Peter and Jonathan Rothe, Bill Schiffman, Carol Michelluz, Cindy Schneider, Judy Sherman, Tom Vallone, Steve Wolownik and Fyodor Zintchenko. The non-members were Margarita Peredes, Fred Eberhart, Ross McFadden and Ross' parents.
The first stop, Moscow, included the regular tourist attractions, including the Kremlin, St. Basil's, the Novodevichy Monastery, the Metro (subway) and much more. However, Intourist arranged special tours of such balalaika-oriented places as the Gnessin Institute, where folk instruments are taught, for a concert by the student balalaika orchestra, and the Glinka Museum with its fine collection of folk instruments. Also, the BDAA group was invited to a rehearsal of the amateur performance group “Rozianochka”. Several members were taken to the workshop of Serzhantov, master builder of some of the finest balalaikas and domras in Russia. Also, seven people were treated to a master seminar by balalaika soloist and Gnessin professor Pavel Necheporenko.
Suppers were scheduled in restaurants which featured folk and gypsy entertainment, and some afternoons were spent a book, record and souvenir shops.
The most important trip in Leningrad was to the Hermitage, that fantastic museum housed in one of the Tsar's immense palaces. But the highlight for many was dinner at Sadko. This restaurant offers a five-course Russian meal including caviar, wine, vodka, champagne, shashlyk and other goodies. The icing on the cake for the evening was the 10-piece balalaika orchestra which perform there nightly. After several hours of eating, drinking and making merry several of our members got up to play, to show the Russians what we are doing in America.
The tour was a tremendous success, and we hope to do it again with an expanded format.
Ó
It would be seven years before the BDAA returned again to Russia.
1985
December 6 - December 20, 1985
The first formal BDAA STUDY-TOUR to the Soviet Union was set up by the BDAA through Janet Fuchila of Anniversary Tours, and was arranged by Intourist with the assistance and mediation of the Ukraina Society of Kiev and the Radzima Society of Minsk. Our plan was to study balalaika and domra at the Glinka Music College in Minsk for 5 mornings, with the remainder of each day spent on touring, going to concerts, and visiting places of musical learning and amateur and professional performance groups. The tour then went on to Moscow and then to Leningrad, where we had a farewell banquet at the Sadko Restaurant, featuring a Russian folk orchestra, dancers and singers.
At the beginning of the tour, we were greeted at the Glinka Music College with a welcome by the Director, followed by virtuoso performances by the students and the faculty who would be our instructors for the week. Our turn, then, as each of us played something we thought we know and the instructors listened politely, doubtless thinking that this was going to be a really long five days. Divided into five groups according to instrument and proficiency level, we settled to the business of learning the right way to do what we had been doing almost any way for so long. That the staff was committed was never in doubt -- each group of five was assigned an instructor, an interpreter, and a piano accompanist, and the conservatory director, a lovely woman who smiled only when we had finished our week of study, monitored the sessions to insure that we were well taken care of.
We were challenged, each at his or her own level, to learn as much as we cared to dared to. The informal concert at week's end demonstrated that we had all profited from the experience, and the three hundred or so students and faculty who gathered to hear the Americans play Russian music warmly applauded us. That they had learned to play the same songs at age 12 didn't appear to diminish their enthusiasm. It was our finest hour.
Our hosts were the Radzima Society of Byelorussia, and they, along with the folks at the Minsk Intourist office, did everything they could to insure that we had a pleasant and informative stay in Minsk. Afternoons and evening were planned around cultural events. We visited elementary, secondary and graduate schools to observe the process of music education, and at each were treated to individual and group performances of music - vocal, dance and instrumental. We met with BDAA member Anatoly Peresada, who had recently written a definitive book on the history of the balalaika outside the USSR. Since it was the holiday season, spare moments were spent shopping for gifts to make Christmas special for folks back home. Christmas per se isn't celebrated in the USSR - the bright lights and banners read 'To the New Year' - but it is still a season of celebration and gift giving, and we joined in. Fur hats were the first thing bought: these things are necessary to keep from freezing in your tracks.
Minsk is a hero city of the Soviet Union, a city of 40-year-old buildings (Minsk was bombed to the ground by the Nazis during World War II). The rebuilding process is still underway, trying to keep pace with current needs. Our visit to the Byelorussian war memorial turned out to be the most moving experience of the trip. Erected on the site of a village destroyed by Nazi forces, the memorial commemorates the loss of 900 villages and 2,300,000 lives - one of every four in Byelorussia. One begins to understand why there is a conviction that this must never be allowed to happen again. We stopped to lay flowers by the Eternal Flame, each of us lost in reflection upon something most of us never knew happened.
Moscow, the Kremlin, with the magnificent cathedral domes, Red Square, St. Basil's resplendent in the sunlight; the austere grandeur of Lenin's tomb with the disciplined line waiting in single file for hours; Gum, the State department store which during the holidays makes Bloomingdales seem as uncrowded as the Kansas plains. The Novodevichy Convent convent where Peter sent his sister to spend her days. Shopping at the Beriozkas, the stores where the better goods are sold to non-Soviets with hard currency to spend.
We continue to feel our visit is considered important. At the Gnessin Institute, the Julliard of the USSR, we are met and addressed by Pavel Necheporenko, considered one of the world's finest balalaikists. He is delighted that we show a serious interest in the music but concerned that we do not have a way of learning to play the instruments properly without the techniques taught in his country. We are concerned as well by this time. Greeting us also is Alexander Tsygankov, the brilliant domra soloist with the Ossipov Orchestra, whom many met during their tour of the US in 1977. Again, we are enormously impressed with performances by the students of the masters as they play a recital for their American visitors.
The Beriozka and Moiseyev dance ensembles, fantastic troupes of the highest artistic order, draw our attention in the evenings to performances. We have a lot to learn about getting in line for refreshments at intermission, and getting your coat back after the show is like hailing a cab in Times Square on New Year's Eve. The fabulous Moscow subway system is a magnetic attraction for the Americans. You go down the world's longest and steepest escalators to stations with crystal chandeliers, marble walls, and you're impressed.
Leningrad was awesome, as Leningrad should be. One could spend weeks in the museums, and we had two days. We make good use of them with help from a lady guide who looked like John Denver. Again, we were stunned with the stories of the heroic resistance of the Russian people against the Nazi invasion in Leningrad's case, a siege of 900 days with enormous loss of life - and again, the conviction of the Russians that it must never happen again. At zero Fahrenheit, one dated commit the resources to invade this resistant and unyielding land.
Our last night in Russia was celebrated by a dinner at the Sadko Restaurant, an old Leningrad landmark now operated by Intourist. A folk orchestra played, joined naturally by some of the Americans who by then were mellowed out by champagne, caviar and Georgian wines. Speeches were spoken, gifts and thanks were exchanged, and most wished they could just start over again in Minsk.
1988
BDAA ANDREEV JUBILEE STUDY TOUR
May 1988
The trip began on Friday afternoon as trips do, with voyagers from eight cities converging at the departure desk for Czechoslovakian Airlines at Kennedy airport in New York. Official persons in full uniform offered many differing but consistently authoritative opinions on where that was. The confusion kept us from taking ourselves too seriously, setting a proper tone for the rest of the trip. We all found it through dint of patience and perseverance; qualities that many found served them well during the weeks ahead.
After a Ilyushin jet to Prague, Tupolev jet to Moscow, overnight sleeper train for the 12-hour trip to Kiev, the weary but jubilant travelers stepped off the train in a light snow on Sunday morning to be met by a welcoming committee of familiar faces - Yevgeny Chornakondratenko, Irina Orlova and husband Anatoliy Mamalyga, Volodymyr Illyashevitch, Nina Protsenko, Natasha Lozovsky, Dave Cooper, representatives of the Ukraina Society and other musicians from the Ridniy Naspivi ensemble. This was just what we needed after 44 hours of nonstop travel. We felt at home. Later in the week we also saw Yaroslav Kovalchuk, Kiril Borovsky and Volodymyr Hdanskiy as well, and Dr. Anatoli Peresada joined us from Krasnodar.
By telephone the previous week, Dave Cooper had given us an idea of what to expect in Kiev, but reality exceeded expectation. Our hosts were most considerate in providing instruction in literally anything we wanted to study, and 21 of 28 tour members availed themselves of the opportunity to study prima, alto, bass and contrabass domra, prima balalaika, bandura, sopilka and percussion, piano, voice and dance. We were pleased to meet and study with the same instructors who will be with us in New Jersey in June - Yuri Aleksik, balalaika, Tamara Semyonova, domra and Bogdan Parumba, bayan. They are outstanding musicians and teachers, and became good friends very quickly.
Volodya Illyashevitch and the conservatory staff had arranged a most impressive set of concerts, form Monday through Friday, with an Andreyev salute Thursday evening featuring the conservatory orchestra, outstanding soloists and a 20-balalaika finale (including Dave and Natasha). On Friday evening we had a "graduation banquet" at a charming inn, with diplomas for the students, many toasts and presentation for the studious, and presentation of a specially handcrafted Appalachian dulcimer to the Tchaikovsky Conservatory from the BDAA.
On to Leningrad via Aeroflot. Magnificent palaces and museums took second place: it was March 20th, and every balalaika and domra player in the world wished they were there. The official centennial concert was held in the lavish philharmonic hall, and eleven BDAA musicians were invited to join with the V. V. Andreyev orchestra on stage for one number. We presented a commemorative plaque from the BDAA, and the TV producers told us we would reach 150 million viewers that night and during subsequent evenings of rebroadcast. It was great fun to be told in Moscow later that we had been seen on TV. The concert was, for the record, absolutely outstanding, a fitting tribute to the man who started all of this 100 years ago. Joining the BDAA group in Leningrad were John Shulak, Nicholas Kedroff and Pierre Jacquet from Paris.
To Moscow via overnight train. Getting used to sleeping while moving by this time, and this time only two to a compartment instead of four. We arrived on the 23rd, the last of ten consecutive days of concert performances celebrating the Andreyev centennial; the grand finale. And grand it was. Fully a quarter of the opulent concert hall was filled with musicians, with the Ossipov orchestra as the centerpiece, four other full orchestras onstage and in adjacent seats and plenty of room left onstage for soloists and ensembles of every kind. During the performance, two orchestras filed offstage and were replaced immediately by two more - a total, we're told, of 600 musicians, clearly the largest aggregation of balalaika and domra players in the history of the world. Our hosts were kind enough to write us into the narrative program, and our delegation as spotlighted and recognized with a warm reception by the audience. An awesome evening in every respect. Many stayed around after the performance to meet Anatoli Tikhonov, Vera Gorodovskaya, Ossipov conductor Nicolai Kalinin and featured performers. We could not have been more pleased with our reception.
Our hosts in Moscow were the Rodina Society, who hosted a reception for us the day after the Andreyev concert. Eduard Solovyev, chief of Rodina's department for external cultural relations, expressed the society's interest in expanding its fine relationship with the BDAA. Rodina will sponsor attendance by two representatives from the Russian republic at the BDAA's 1988 convention, and we look forward to additional contact with artists from Moscow and Leningrad in the future.
Our exit through Prague had milder more pleasant weather. The used musical instrument shop was, of course, closed for inventory much like the Beryozka shops in the USSR. Our final dinner, at a Czech restaurant with gypsy band, also featured members of the BDAA group performing in an informal ensemble with incomparable Diana Telischak singing "Ivushka" and other favorites. Members of one of the other tourist groups (from New York) took a lot of pictures, only to find they were not photographing "local color" but a group of American musicians. Said one of their leaders, after verifications of our U.S. citizenship, "I couldn't make up a story as good as this."
On reflection, we couldn't make up as good a story as the high time we had either. You just had to be there, and we're glad we were.
1991
FIRST ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF RUSSIAN FOLK INSTRUMENTS
STRINGS OF RUSSIA FESTIVAL
May 15 - May 23, 1991
Take a BDAA jam session and add to it Swedes, Finns, Poles, Japanese and smiling and singing Russians filling a ship with balalaikas, domras and bayans; endless mirth; 2 AM domra workshops with Alexander Tsygankov; a midnight dance around a campfire with the villagers of Kimry; and a midday waltz in the woods while children wander among the birch trees singing chastushki. "All this and more!" a travel brochure might have proclaimed. Yet none of us who attended the first "Stings of Russia" cruise on the Volga could have guessed at all of the above. My sixteen rolls of film and six cassettes of concerts and jam sessions help tell the story. Bill Kisse's eight hours of videotape help tell this story. But, as the saying goes, you had to be there.
The Yaroslavl Festival was organized by two concert artists, a balalaika orchestra conductor and a tenor from Yaroslavl, who, with BDAA conventions as a model, and the help of other Yaroslavl-area, musicians, showed us the best Russia had to offer. Given the economic problems and the behind-the-scenes difficulties the organizers must have faced, the unquestionable success of this event was nothing short of a miracle. For ten days, forty BDAA members about the Mikhail Frunze were treated to three meals a day, comfortable living quarters, and unlimited opportunities to concretize with and get to know balalaika and domra players from Russia, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Japan, Germany, and Czechoslovakia. When we weren't playing music we were touring the cities and villages, exploring monasteries, and watching the sights along the Volga River from the ship's deck.
This international balalaika boat took its music to the Russian people, and they loved it. They loved their hometown orchestras of Yaroslavl and Rybinsk. They loved Bibs Ekkel's balalaika tricks. They love the youthful Polish orchestra's gypsy number and the spirit of the Swedish group. And they loved, almost as much as we did, the all-orchestra grand finale of "Bright Moon." The ultimate concert moment was listening to "Kamarinskaya" at Moscow's elegant Hall of Columns. Between Anatoly Tikhonov and Russia's youngest balalaikists was a balalaika choir of "international delegates" playing the perfect unison. The BDAA ad hoc ensemble performed at several concerts, with our best-received number, No Sound is Heard from the City. Apparently, this number hadn't been sung to Russian audiences for some time … and did they love Betty Jo Fite Hays!
Scenes like this took place all along the Volga, under elegant chandeliers, in monasteries, and in rainy town plazas. And what greetings we received! The people of Yaroslavl filled their sports stadium in the pouring rain to greet an Olympic-style parade of Festival musicians. Colorfully costumed folk choruses met our ship in Rybinsk and Kimry, serenading our arrival, inviting us to dance with them in the streets, and decorating us with fresh flowers.
After long days of greetings, rehearsals, and concerts, our ship welcomed us home to dinner, evening mini-concerts and the inevitable slow-to-begin but never-ending jam sessions that filled every floor of the ship. Never far from the jam sessions were the featured balalaikists and domrists on the Russian concert schedule. Alexander Tysgankov joined the ship in Moscow, and offered us tireless assistance and unflagging interest and enthusiasm. His extraordinary three-string domra technique and subtle phrasing held us spellbound into the early hours, as did that of Tamara Volsakya, renowned four-string domrist, who was always among the last to leave the jam session.
The jam session never really ended, and we all agreed that last day, that the Festival was over too quickly. Why should we leave our new-found friends? "Come to Vancouver," we urged as we departed. And perhaps they will. And perhaps next year, if things go as planned, there will be another Yaroslavl Festival, and even more BDAA members will attend. The Yaroslavl Festival was not only the first international balalaika festival to be held in Russia, but the first festival of its kind for Russian orchestras.
1993
STRINGS OF RUSSIA FESTIVAL AND BDAA CONVENTION
July 19 - August 2, 1993
As usual, the BDAA musicians drew second looks from the other travelers at JFK as they arrived by one and by two with their instruments and whatever else they were lugging to Prague, Moscow and beyond. Welcomed by convention committee volunteers with BDAA t-shirts, buttons and luggage tags, they were all pretty clearly identifiable by the time they got on the plane.
On to Prague - a jewel of a city with its castles, cathedrals and magnificent town square with its landmark clock. The BDAA group enjoyed a tour of the city (either before or after the convention, or both) and a dinner with Moravian folk group entertaining, and shopping, of course.
Arriving at Sheremetevo in Moscow, we were spirited by bus to our home-away-from-home, the river cruiser "Alexander Radishchev" and our neat little cabins. The cruiser was equipped with music salon, theater and other meeting rooms, and a disco which seemed to draw a good deal of attention in the evenings. From the moment of our arrival, we kept busy - we had a concert appearance the very next day, and Dave Cooper held a rehearsal at 11 pm to greet us ready for our two pieces, "Ey Ukhnem" featuring baritone Lennart Backstrom and "Pri Dolinushke", featuring the balalaika duet of Emanuil Sheynkman and Bill Goldes, Jr.
None of us will forget the sight of Bill standing to receive the enthusiastic applause of the audience at Moscow's elegant Tchaikovsky Concert Hall that Wednesday evening. Thirty hours later, he was gone from us. Friday evening, after learning of his death, we held a memorial service on the ship. Musical selections were offered by Alexander Ivanov, Alexander Tsygankov and Emanuil Sheynkman, followed by a Russian Orthodox service led by Father John Birch and Father John del Duca, both members of the BDAA. A choir led by Leonard Davis sang the memorial service, and remembrances were spoken by several of the members present.
We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Bibs Ekkel and Dr. Robert Propper of Pasadena, who accompanied Manya LoDico and Bill on the desperate trip from a remote lock on the Volga Canal to the hospital where Bill died, and on to Moscow where arrangements were made for Manya to return home and for Bill's body to be sent home for burial. It was not until we were reunited with them five days later that we learned the extent of the ordeal they had all been through.
The voyage, of course, had to continue, and we pressed on though the lock and streams of the Rybinsk Reservoir, Volga-Baltic Canal and the Svir and Neva Rivers enroute to St. Petersburg, stopping for sightseeing (there are more monasteries in the region than we imagined) and shopping at such remote towns as Irma, Goritsy and Svir Stroi as well as scenic Valaam and Kizhi islands. Our days were filled with the workshops, seminars, mini-concerts and study we associate with BDAA conventions and everyone who wished to was able to study at some level.
Students and teachers alike worked hard to prepare for the recital we held on the eleventh day of the convention where each student got to show what he, she, or they had learned from the experience. A special award for valor to Peggy Propper, who had never seen a domra before she landed on the boat but played her recital piece (a solo!) when it came her turn.
We were treated to a stunning series of mini-concerts, by Sasha Tsygankov and his family; tenor Anatoly Kolbeshin; Valery Zazhigin accompanied by his wife, Larissa Gottlieb; the ensembles or orchestras of Sweden, Japan, France as well as the Yaroslavl orchestra and ensemble led by Evgeny Ageev. And who will ever forget Mikhail Rozhkov's hour-long concert (the hour being 1:00 to 2:00 AM!) which kept the 63 BDAA members who had to leave the boat at 4:00 AM in good spirits (and out of bed) until the buses arrived to transport us back to Moscow.
In St. Petersburg, the BDAA musicians were included in a program hosted by the Andreyev Orchestra at Glinka Hall. As had become our custom, an extra chair with a floral bouquet symbolized Bill's presence with us in spirit. The BDAA orchestra, 55 strong, featured vocal soloists Lennart Bäckström and Betty Jo Fite Hayes in addition to the orchestral pieces presented. In St. Petersburg, it was particularly gratifying to see Misha Sheynkman receive the tribute he so richly deserves as a contributor for so many years to the success of the Andreyev Orchestra. A stop at colorful Kizhi Island, with its incomparable wooden church topped by 22 onion domes, was worth the trip itself. We were greeted by a folk group, singing and dancing, and this was quickly augmented by what seemed like a hundred others, playing, dancing and encouraging the festival tourists to join in. Several of them came back to the boat before we left, and we serenaded them with American songs and a kazoo chorus.
Traveling back through the canals and rivers to Yaroslavl, we prepared for the grand finale. When 40 of our group left the boar in Goritsy to return home, those who remained aboard were treated to a surprise - the Don Cossack group from Rostov-na-Donu, whom we met last year in Philadelphia, joined us for the balance of the tour. Their zany antics and village-music style were a suitable complement to the serious study we had been doing, and they were great. Yaroslavl: sightseeing, rehearsal, final polishing of the program and then the grand finale concert. Many BDAA members performed not only in the BDAA Orchestra as well. Dave had the BDAA group well polished despite the departure of some key members, and this time our featured vocalist was Walter Fullerton of Reno, Nevada. As he had done in each concert, Bibs delighted the audience with his balalaika magic tricks as well as his musicianship.
It was over too soon. Back to the boat, where all but a few of us packed up and prepared to depart at 4 AM via Zagorsk and then on to Moscow, Sheremetevo and the flight to Prague. Final good-byes were said, gifts exchanged, promises to write and meet again. Why sleep? Most of us did not, but used the 4-hour trip to Zagorsk to catch up. Zagorsk was incredible as always with its collection of churches, cathedrals and sidewalk merchants. Many of us stopped to light another special candle for our lost friend.
Despite the things that went wrong - and many did - the feeling was one of accomplishment, a sense of having participated in something rich, and full and meaningful. We weren't sure exactly when we would wish to return, but we were glad we had gone, and been there.
1999
BDAA WHITE NIGHTS TOUR - SWEDEN-ST. PETERSBURG
June 22 - July 5, 1999
From the moment we landed at Stockholm, where we were met by Jan and Göran Rygert and Sandy Kasura, who were joyfully greeting us with unfurled American flags, our trip was off to a perfect start. We checked in at the hotel at 12 noon, gathered our gear and were shipped by bus to the theater for a 3 o'clock rehearsal with the Swedish members of Kazbek, plus some Finns and Norwegians. Our first concert was at 7:00 p.m. the day we arrived. We could not have asked for a more enthusiastic audience that filled the hall. In addition to our composite orchestra, the program included performances by Sasha and Inna Tsygankov, Valery Zazhigin and Larissa Gottlieb and a Finnish Ensemble. Then on to the first party hosted by Södra Bergens Balalajkor.
Thursday was a day of sightseeing in Stockholm that included the Old Town, the Royal Palace and then on to the Vasa Museum. Then on to our second party at the Sundins'.
Friday was special, for it was Midsummer Eve. In the morning we took a quick tour of the Millesgården with its artful sculpture, a smorgasbord lunch at Ulriksdals Värdshus, one of the finest restaurants in Stockholm, and then on to the Midsummer Celebration at Klubbensborg, Mälarhöjden where we met with the Folk-Dance Society Kedjan. We learned to dance Swedish folk-dances followed by lots of food, drinks, singing, more dancing, playing and, of course, jamming.
Drottningholm Palace was our destination on Saturday. We saw lots of sculpture, paintings, marble and riches beyond one's imagination. Then we got a fascinating tour of City Hall and finally farewell to Stockholm and aboard the Silja Serenade for the overnight boat trip to Helsinki. After another smorgasbord dinner we learned to do vodka followed by beer between verses of Swedish drinking songs.
Sunday's arrival at Helsinki was scheduled to have a 2 ½ hour sightseeing tour of the city, but we were sidetracked hunting down a "missing person" who was found after our very capable sleuth squad followed the trail of clues. A short flight to St. Petersburg brought us no end of surprises beginning with the "new" hotel that we were assigned to. The Rossiya will not be on our list of recommendations of 'places to stay' while in St. Petersburg. However, we were treated royally at the Palace by the Andreyev Orchestra, which hosted the Opening Festivities with a Gala Dinner and entertainment by a Folk Song and Dance Group.
We did quite a bit of riding on the bus each day because the Rossiya was so far out of town that we needed to go back and forth each day. There we all learned to become 'super-kvetches' while we waited for latecomers, shoppers and slow pokes. Some of the highlights of our sightseeing were the Pavlovsk Paul's Palace, Yusupov Palace, St. Isaac's Cathedral, Peterhof, Pushkin with Catherine's Palace and Park and spectacular fountains, some local music stores where we were able to buy some percussion instruments and zhaleikas, also some instrument cases, the Hermitage Museum, the Russian Museum, and the boat trip up the Neva River with its gourmet shoe leather dinner.
The musical highlights were the rehearsals and concerts where our American contingent combined with members of the Swedish Kazbek and some musicians from Finland and Norway. We performed twice more, once at the Big Hall of the Philharmonic Society and then again at the Kapella Hall. The Russian audiences filled the halls and were exceedingly receptive. For a group that had so little rehearsal, we performed brilliantly.
The final night was spent at the Palace again, this time with an incredible champagne cocktail party complete with scrumptious zakuski followed by a shish kabob barbecue on the veranda of the palace. Entertainment was supplied by the outstanding French duo, a superb soprano and a sparkling saxophonist. A surprise performance my Mia Gay's niece, Kate De Marcken, from Limal, Belgium knocked our socks off and she graciously responded to our pleas of "encore" with another blockbuster selection.
2001
SWEDISH MIDSUMMER CELEBRATION
June 20 -25, 2001
As a prequel to the "Strings of Russia" trip, the BDAA organized a trip to Sweden. The celebration of Swedish Midsummer in Dalarna became a memory for life for the 18 travelers that took part in this option of the Swedish/Russia trip.
Before leaving Stockholm for Dalarna, for Midsummer, we were invited to Barbro and Håkan Sundin's home at Lidingö, and had a great party. Håkan had it all figured out. At 6:03 pm a rehearsal started for all musicians from BDAA and Kazbek. At 6:04 pm a social program started for non-musicians. It included competitions, such as darts, croquet and the new popular game, Kubb". The idea of the game is to throw logs of wood at each other, or rather, if you were able to aim, at other logs. Every time you won, you got a new drink. Amazingly nobody fell into the pool.
At Green Hotel in Tällberg, with a gorgeous view of Lake Liljan, a lake created by the third largest meteor in the world, we helped raise the tallest maypole (50 ft. tall) in the village. However, we had to dress it first, meaning picking flowers in a nearby meadow, and attaching it to the pole. Celebrating this great event we gave a 30-minute Russian concert in the hotel's bar in the evening, mesmerizing the packed room and strengthening our self-confidence with the Russia trip approaching. We were awarded drinks by admiring guests from far and near.
FOURTH "STRINGS OF RUSSIA' FESTIVAL
June 26, - July 3, 2001
The Fourth Strings of Russia Festival tempted 51 Americans to go to Moscow and the Volga in June of 2001. 216 other people did the same, coming from Sweden, Finland, Norway, Latvia, Germany, France, Japan, Ukraine and Russia. All these people, a total of 267, seemed to have no problems in understanding each other, as the common language on board this boat the "Valerian Kuibyshev", as the language of music.
Ten orchestras participated - on board the ship an/or in concert - even if all orchestras did not perform at the same time. At this Strings of Russia Festival the lengths of the concerts were pleasantly short compared to those of earlier Festivals.
The opening concert was held at the Gnessin Institute in Moscow. At the Gnessin we saw many well known faces, not only fellow participants but also celebrities such as Pavel Necheporenko, Anatoly Tikhonov, Slava and Natasha Semyonov, Nicolai Kalinin, and on stage, Sasha Tsygankov, Inna Shevchenko Valery Zazhigin and Larissa Gottlieb. In the audience or on stage appeared orchestras such as Evgeny Ageev's "Struni Russi" from Yaroslavl, "Kazbek" from Sweden, the Tokyo Balalaika Orchestra, Helsinki Balalaika Orchestra from Finland, "Kalinka", also from Finland, "Kadans" from Riga, Latvia and "Buylina" from Surgut in Siberia.
In Kostroma we suddenly found ourselves seated in the audience listening to a concert we didn't expect. It was a local orchestra with the funny name "Orchestra DMS #9". The orchestra was only a few years old, and if they had to start it all over nine times, they obviously succeeded very well the last time…. This was something special. Not only that they played Sousa's "Stars and Stripes", and the Swedish folk-song "Ack Värmeland du Sköna" (arranged by Sasha Tsygankov), but we also heard a soloist on balalaika whose music we would like to hear much more of in the future.
It was the 17-year-old Andrey Sandalov already at this young age a phenomenal musician. It seemed that he has no much more to learn when it comes to technique. This is a guy who we want to place on top of BDAA's list of candidates for scholarship.
As in St. Petersburg two years ago the BDAA and the Swedish "Balalajkaorkestern Kazbek" also this time made a joint venture in the BDAA-Kazbek International Balalaika Orchestra". Together we formed an orchestra of about 40 people, not only from USA and Sweden, but also from Norway and Germany. Kazbek's Bertil Runefelt led the orchestra his usual way, with his body language as the baton.
Nic Zvetnow is a name that is familiar to many, especially in Europe. He is a balalaika player who has shared his life between the job as a musician and the job as a brain surgeon. He is Russian born, lived in Sweden for 20 years and now resides in Oslo, Norway. He has performed and toured as a balalaika soloist with many symphony orchestras. We had the pleasure to meet him on the boat and also to hear him play.
2004
“NORWAY IN A NUTSHELL”
June 20 - 25, 2004.
About 65 travelers had signed up for Russia. 40 of us went to Moscow anyway. First we spent 3 - 4 days there together, later we became tourists on our own. Some stayed in Moscow or St. Petersburg. Others went to Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Belgium and other countries. We became scattered all over northern Europe. But we all experienced different, unexpected adventures, and brought home memories, not from the Volga, but from many fun and interesting days elsewhere. And the travelers to Norway on the pre-tour came home with additional nice memories in their luggage.
Norway - or Norge (norr'-ge'h) - hangs, if you look at the map, like a backpack onto Sweden. And, sure enough, Norway was in union with Sweden for many years. The backpack is tattered and torn by the fjords. In a few sections there are only a few miles between a fjord and the Swedish border.
There's a lot to say about Norway.
* The northernmost town in the world, Vardö, is located in Norway, on the 71st latitude. You would think that only Eskimos live up there. Not so. We recently met with a person from that town. He looked very Norwegian!
* If you plan to walk the entire coastline of Norway (you can't - you need to swim also) you have to plan for a long vacation. Including the fjords, the coastline is about 16,000 miles long. As the crow flies, from the south to the north it's only 1070 miles.
* The Sognefjord is the world's longest fjord.
* The Norwegian guy Leif Eriksson discovered America. (Or was he Swedish? At that time Norway and Sweden was one entity.)
* The Norwegian prices are among the highest in the world, and so is the Norwegian per capita income.
* The United Nations recently elected Norway, again, to be the best country to live in. The Swedes may disagree. They tell a lot of nasty stories about the Norwegians, such as:
How do you milk a cow in Norway?
It takes 24 people to do that. Four grab the teats and the others move the cow up and down….
However, in Norway you hear the same nasty stories about the Swedes! But normally the Norwegians and the Swedes are on good neighborly terms.
Now that you know everything about Norway, more about our trip. We were 23 Norway travelers. That included Ron Markvan and Sandy Kasura, who in advance had elected “Norway Only”, and did not at all seem to regret that they had not signed up for Russia. The tour also included Sarah Wharten, daughter of ABS oboist Arlene Lathrop. Sarah was already in Norway on vacation with relatives.
The day of our arrival in Oslo on June 21st offered no rest. A sightseeing tour started at noon, including the Vigeland statues, viking ships and the ski-jumpers' paradise, Holmenkollen. In the evening we had a wonderful party in Harry's Bar, together with eight members of the Norwegian Balalaika Orchestra. Among them were conductor Siv Korneliusen, chairman Bjorn Teigen and our friend from earlier BDAA tours, Inger Lise Jarmund. We also had the pleasure to have professor Nic Zwetnow as our guest - renowned balalaika virtuoso, also a brain surgeon, now retired. He played for us and it showed that his balalaika fingers were not at all retired. The evening included good food and drinks, a birthday cake for John Bohm and a jam session that looked more like a rehearsal, with stands and music, brought by the Norwegians.
Day two was sunny and nice, but chilly. Even more chills came over us when we realized that we missed the train to the “Norway In A Nutshell” tour - due to a combination of a missing ticket and a lost taxi, or was it a missing taxi and a lost ticket. Whatever. It showed that we could do the Nutshell tour “backwards”. We took the next train, after that we found the taxi, but not the ticket. We went to Voss, hitch-hiked with a bus to Stalheim Hotel, and then we were back in business! And this day's share of adventure was filled. We relaxed with an excellent dinner.
Day three. From the hotel terrace we had the most breathtaking view over the Naeroy Valley and Stalheimskleva, one of Europe's steepest stretches of road. But we needed to breathe again and took a bus back to Voss and a train to Bergen; Norway's first capital, home of Eduard Grieg and a place in UNESCO's World Heritage list. Our evening in Bergen went from a terrific dinner in the harbor area to the shocking news from Max that the Volga tour had been cancelled. At a late emergency meeting at the hotel we discussed our options and decided to continue as planned to Moscow, to spend the weekend there.
Day four was the climax of the “Nutshell” tour. We went by train to Voss - again. And we now were experts at this railroad station; we knew everything about its bathrooms and its ice-cream assortment. The road to Gudvangen at the Sognefjord went via the Stalheim Hotel - again. This time for only 15 minutes, allowing us to take one more look down at the scary, steep hairpin road we were about to travel - like a last warning: Should we do it or not?
Surprisingly, all of us did continue with the bus, which showed to be far too big for these hairpin bends. But managed by helpful passengers' “ooohs”, and “eeeks”, the bus-driver somehow made it through all the 13 bends, and we arrived safely at Gudvangen. Here we, and two busloads of Japanese, embarked on a tourist boat taking us out on the Aurlandsfjord which is a narrow part of the Sognefjord. The mountains here reach heights of 6000 ft, decorated by small waterfalls coursing down the mountainsides.
At Flåm, at the other end of the Aurlandsfjord it was time for lunch. We rushed to the (only) restaurant there to get tables, just to find out that all tables already were taken by those Japanese who had made reservations. Luckily the facility also had a small cafeteria where we, however slowly, got our lunch.
A special train connects Flåm with Myrdal, where we would take the regular train back to Oslo. The Flåm Railway is a 13 miles stretch from Flåm (at sea level) to Myrdal (altitude 2900 ft). An incline of 1 in 18 makes this railway the steepest in the world on normal tracks. From this train you have the most spectacular view over the Sognefjord, deep ravines and great waterfalls. In Myrdal snow-capped mountains and glaciers surrounded us.
In Oslo, we were back to the same hotel as before, at “Karl Johan”, the parade street. It was late, but still time for a party. After all, it was midsummer and the shortest night of the year. Some of us gathered at Harry's Bar to party and have fun together before sunrise. And fun we had. Some of us had so much fun that we fell off the platform where our table sat. I don't remember at what time the party was over, because it never got dark at all that night!
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THE OSSIPOV ORCHESTRA AND FRIENDS
2004 VOLGA RIVER MUSIC FESTIVAL AND CRUISE-THAT-NEVER-WAS
June 26 - July 12, 2004
The Ossipov Volga River Festival was planned as a celebration of the 85th anniversary of the Ossipov Balalaika Orchestra. It was meant as a cruise on the Volga River heading south from Moscow to Volgograd and back again, with stops in ten cities over a period of thirteen days and plans to present concerts in at least eight venues along the way. Members of the Ossipov Orchestra would be on the boat as performers and as teachers in a learning format much like the BDAA Conventions.
Shortly after the invitations went out across the balalaika world, the trip encountered a series of unfortunate obstacles. Four months before the event, Russian President Putin sacked the entire Russian government. Under the new administration, festival funding that had been promised by the city of Moscow and the Ministry of Culture was withdrawn. The 300-passenger cruiser was no longer financially viable. Three orchestras had cancelled their participation. An alternative boat was found to accommodate the Ossipov and BDAA Orchestras.
Two weeks before the Festival we received the sad news that Nikolai Kalinin, the conductor of the Ossipov Orchestra and organizer of the Festival had passed away. Despite this tragic setback, the trip was to continue as a final tribute the memory of Maestro Kalinin. Less than a week before the cruise was to depart Moscow for its Volga River journey, we were told by the organizers that the river cruiser, the M/S President, had burned out its main engine and no other vessels were available, thus resulting in the cruse being cancelled. At the time, about 20 participants were already in Oslo for a four-day excursion of the fjords of Norway preceding the Volga trip, 10 had already left the States on their own excursions prior to arriving in Russia and the remaining 30 travelers were set to depart JFK for Moscow in two days. Of those 30, seventeen decided to take part in at least the weekend activities that had been planned in Moscow and then see what options were available beyond those three days.
The cancellation of the cruise meant that there were no planned activities after Monday, but our Russian counterparts made every effort to see that the Moscow weekend went off essentially as planned starting with the dinner and party at One Red Square in the evening for all who were in Moscow, which was to be the kickoff of the Festival. We were able to drown our sorrows in zakuski, wine, vodka and dinner, accompanied by an excellent ensemble from the Ossipov Orchestra featuring five of its outstanding players, including Alexander Tsygankov, Igor Senin, Nadezhda Burdikyna and Dima Dmitrievich, with marvelous singer Anna Litvinenko. Afterwards, we strolled around Red Square and then took a nocturnal bus tour before retiring for the night at the Aerostar Hotel.
On Sunday, our tour plans changed a bit when we were invited by the Ossipov Orchestra to one of their rehearsals at Tchaikovsky Hall. They played a lovely short concert for us and then invited members of the BDAA delegation to join them for several pieces. Afterwards, there was a reception for the BDAA visitors with an opportunity to become better acquainted with the Ossipov musicians. Later that evening, many of us went to the Bolshoi Theatre for the 'Don Quixote' ballet or 'Queen of Spades' opera performances.
Once the planned activities were over, our stranded travelers were on their own. They headed in many directions - some returned to Scandinavia, some took advantage of a three-day tour to the Golden Ring cities near Moscow, some headed for St. Petersburg, others hung out in Moscow or its environs. Sasha and Inna Tsygankov hosted a cheerful 4th of July party for the Americans who were still in Moscow, at their family dacha.
The core group of the Ossipov Orchestra went far out of their way to provide hospitality and support us. They were just as disappointed as we that the cruise had failed, and did everything they could to help us enjoy our time in Moscow. Those who met them will not forget their warmth and friendship.
To this day, we have never seen any credible evidence that the promised cruise boat had actually been out of commission.
At its Board meetings the following year, the BDAA board voted not to sponsor any future tours in Russia.
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