concerts and surprises!

We have had a week of amazing concerts in Chisinau. I have attended all three concerts to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the conservatory of music and they were pretty wonderful. On Tuesday I went to visit the rehearsal of the folklore ensemble and opened the door to find a small room filled with instrumentalists and singers. The atmosphere was charged with happiness and excitement about the performance on Thursday. Any ensemble with five nai players, two accordions, a cymbalom, bass, trumpets, clarinets, and eight violins has to be good! The director had them get a chair for me so I could sit at the front of the room next to him. I know many of the singers and players and they seemed to as pleased to have me there as I was to be there! Their concert on Thursday was excellent. The director is very well known and has played a very important part in founding and maintaining this ensemble dedicated to the living traditions of music heard in all kinds of celebrations, restaurants, concerts, and even cell phones around Moldova. After the rehearsal I asked him if they were performing again this semester. I must get better at understanding Romanian because I thought he said that they would play for about an hour for a violin festival in Chisinau this morning. I woke to the first snow of the year, dressed warmly, and went to find the place he had said to meet. At the last minute as I was leaving the apartment I decided to dress nicely with nice pants and a sports coat. I am glad I did because it turned out that the address I had was an empty store front where about ten people met to be transported to another village for a huge festival event that lasted until 9 p.m. I sat with the judges, was treated very well, heard hours of excellent music, ate good food, and met the famous Vasile Iovu. He wrote the nai study book I am using so I had him sign it for me. This day was very different from the day of eight hours of practicing I had planned but it was great. Last night I had tried placinta for the first time. Tonight I was able to ask, "Este placinta?" (Is that placinta?) and people responded with, "Da, Da!" and gave me lots of it to eat. Last night I witnessed a performance of the accordion ensemble "Concertino" which is made up of Moldovan accordionists who now tour all over the world. Seven virtuosi on accordions with drums bass and piano cannot go wrong!

Zamfir - Yes!!!

Zamfir performed in Chisinau tonight. It was a fantastic event at the Filharmonic Hall. He performed with the Iurie Borsch orchestra, an ensemble from Chisinau, but it sounded like he had performed with them every day for years! The hall was sold out and enthusiasm was very high for this concert sponsored by Jurnal TV and the Romanian Cultural Institute. When I arrived I was greeted by my nai teacher who then introduced me to the Filharmonic Hall house manager. She was very happy to meet me and told me that my professor is the very best (which I already knew) and that the nai is absolutely the best and most interesting instrument. I will remember this tomorrow morning when I am struggling with my E flat major scale once again. It is an amazing instrument and I must agree that it is very special. Zamfir was amazing. I first heard of him while teaching in Australia when I was in my early 20s. I was not too sure then what to think of the panflute playing classical music. Tonight Zamfir was quite at home playing incredibly beautiful and virtuosic Romanian folk melodies and dance tunes, along with some of his hits (Lonely Shepherd - the "Kill Bill" theme). The band consisted of cymbalom, two trumpets, nai and clarinet, two accordions, bass, viola, and two violins. When combined with the special style of Zamfir it is hard to go wrong. This was a great night of music and I feel quite honored to have been part of it.

Concerts and Remembrances

This is another busy week of concerts. The conservatory of music is celebrating its 70th anniversary so there is a series of concerts to commemorate that event and all of the people who have been part of the process of teaching and learning music in Moldova. Last night I was quite moved by a concert put on the school called Ciprian Porumbescu. The concert included young musicians playing all kinds of music from classical music to jazz to Moldovan folk music. Of course I especially enjoyed the amazing playing to two nai virtuosi, one in the folk ensemble and one as a soloist with the chamber orchestra. The most moving aspect was the remembrance of teachers and students who have passed away. There was no shortage of tears as they played a recording of the voice of a former administrator and musician from the school, and a video of a performance of a violinist performing a piece written to commemorate Porumbescu. I could not help marveling at the contrast with our music schools in universities where older faculty members are largely not well-respected as the younger faculty members negotiate their own legacies. We forget the enormous efforts and sacrifices of the teachers who have come before us in our departments of music, even though they may not have done things "our way." The flowers, tears, and tributes last night were an inspiration and joy to all of us. Tonight I have a ticket to see and hear the great Zamfir (many people I talk with do not believe that he will really be here - I will let you know), on Wednesday and Thursday the Academy of Music will put on big concerts, and on Friday we are all looking forward to the big accordion ensemble event at the Sala cu Orga. This will be a fun event since I get to sit with a group of young Moldovans whose fathers and grandfathers played accordion when they were growing up, and some of them even are learning to play themselves. A big week!

Special days at the Academy

I was surprised and happy to discover on Tuesday that this is a special week at the Academy of Music here in Chisinau. It is the Concours - Tamara Ciobanu editia a XI-a, a week long folklore event focused on singing. When I went to attend a class I discovered our normal room full of students from one of the other ethnomusicology teachers watching a video of a staged wedding with an emphasis on the various aspects of songs and dances for each part of the wedding. When the video failed we were pleased to have the instructor bring in a young girl in costume with an accompanist to sing for us. She was great! When we finally gave up on the video we went to the sala mare (large hall) to witness the children's competiton that is part of the week of events. The children were great and each had prepared and performed a series of songs with accompaniment in full costume. Wednesday and Thursday I have spent several hours in the hall to hear the "mature" performances. This means that there are three different age categories considered as mature, but the performers varied in age from 17 to 80. Grandparents performed for the young people they have taught all their lives. Of course my attention is often on the accompanying bands. The nai players are wonderful, often switching between nai and fluier (end blown flute). The other instruments are usually accordion, bass, violin, and cobza. Cobza is like a lute with an attitude. At first glance is looks like a baroque lute with a large rounded body and short neck, but it is strung with between eight and twelve strings and is made to play loud so it can be heard in bands with nai, violin, accordion, and even brass instruments. It ranges from an elegant melodic instrument to a driving chordal accompaniment to drive acsac dance rhythms (7/8). What a treat!  And today someone said to me, "Treb mergem!" which I think might mean something like, "We must be making some progress!" Yes, we are on the road. A meaningful feature of many Moldovan songs is that they begin in a major key but always end in the relative minor with a descending flatted second. This is a beautiful but mournful sound.

Mergem - on our way!

Tonight at the Academy of Music I kept hearing people say, “Mergeti?” or “Mergem!” These mean, “are you on your way (formal)?” or “We are on our way.” When people ask how I am doing on the nai they usually say, “Mergeti?” This is the formal way of saying, “Are you making your way on the nai?” The first time someone asked me this I said, “Mai rar” which was definitely not the right answer. This means, “very slowly” and even if I feel like I am going slowly it is better to say, “Mergem” meaning “we are on our way” in response. The person asking the question was not sure what to think of my answer. She had meant to be friendly and my response indicated that I was not sure if I was making any progress on the nai. We are always making progress, no matter how slow.  Tonight one of the other nai students said, “Mergeti” when I complimented him on his playing, a violinist and my nai professor exchanged “mergeti,” and on my way out of the building the woman at the door said “mergem” to me. I find this to be a wonderful way of encouraging each other and indicating that we are indeed on our way to playing better or being better. I will definitely have to be more aware of this term. What a delightful and encouraging way of greeting another “fellow traveler.”

Chisinau - A city of music!

I have had visitors the past few days. They are young Fulbright English teaching assistants living in Azerbaijan and Georgia on their way home from a conference in Kiev. They wanted to see Chisinau and i have been very happy to host them at my apartment. And they have helped me to see just how much music is alive in our city! On Thursday evening they all attended a recital of flute music at the Academy of Music. The young flutists were excellent and I was happy to contribute a baroque solo sonata on my antique flute and to play in the ensemble. After the concert we walked down on Pushkin Strada to find some food and saw my friend Marin, the violinist, entering a restaurant to perform with the amazing nai player Boris Rudenco and his band. The band was excellent (nai, cymbalom, violin, and accordion) and we even had some dancing, much to their amusement. Yesterday the Moldovan band Zdob si Zdub (google them) performed along with several other bands at an outdoor concert downtown and we got to hear the sound check - pretty amazing! I joined several Moldovan friends to attend a jazz concert with the Russian guitarist Alexander Vinitsky and a wonderful Moldovan violinist. And the accordion player continues to play in Pushkin Park every morning. I have become well known at the Sala cu Orgel and am now looking forward to a performance by an accordion ensemble (ten accordions?) on the 26th. It looks like we will have a big group coming along!

Flutes and archives

My amazing colleague and nai teacher from the Academy of Music has been having me help out with teaching flute. Today I made a very complicated repair on a flute belonging to one of his students and last week I coached the flute students as they prepared for some performances. This has been fun for me. I am in an environment where I mostly have to do everything in which I am not competent - speaking Russian and Romanian, playing the nai, and living in Moldova, a very different place from Laramie, Wyoming. It has all been fun, but I have enjoyed being able to make some kind of contribution. Tomorrow I hope to work in the archives of recordings of folkloric performances dating back to the 1960s. I was there last week and found it to be an amazing collection of material mostly on reel to reel tapes. Much of it cannot be played because of the condition of the tapes, but much of it is very accessible from a computerized archive. My host for listening to the collection is a very talented graduate student who plays violin as well as studying ethnomusicology. I am hoping to assist him in creating some kind of backup and sound playback system. I also have access now to phonograph recordings from the mid to late 20th century. I find this especially interesting for the synthesis of jazz and Moldovan music played by "tarafs" or bands that play for weddings and other special family events. I find that in Moldova, more than in any other European country I have visited, people know something about the music of the villages and even use it for things like cell phones ring tones. I want to know more about why this is so.

Crossing the street in Moldova

Crossing the street in Moldova always involves skill and a keen eye for action. It is important to remember that taxi drivers and minibus drivers stop for nothing and most drivers are generally trying to make the most of the opportunities to get through as they see them. I tend to be extra cautious when getting ready to cross the street and often wait until there is not traffic at all (could be a long wait....). A beautiful exception is that cars and pedestrians always make way for small children. The downtown sidewalks can be crowded with thousands of people walking all different speeds and in all different directions, and somehow even the smallest and most unstable toddlers make it through. People love to see children and often smile (even the really tough looking dudes) when they see a small child. This is an advantage for crossing the street. I have even seen taxi drivers and minibuses come to a complete stop for a child. They patiently wait for strollers and toddlers. So - the lesson for me is to follow a stroller when I want to cross the street!

A celebration!

Last evening as I was walking up to the Sala cu Orgel to attend a concert, Professor Negura called me on my cell phone and asked, "Rodney, where are you?" When I told him, we decided to meet at the Sala cu Orgel. He explained that he was going to attend a special event for a two month old baby named Sofia. Professor Negura will be something like a godparent for this child. He also explained that it would last all night! We met a young couple with a car, stopped by Negura's apartment, and drove to Durlesti. The party was in a special place for events where there were tables set up with lots of food. The music was excellent, of course, and I had a fantastic evening of dancing and sharing quite a time with the group gathered for this baby. We survived the incident with flaming salmon at our table (it did involve me and my pants being in flames for a few seconds - well, I guess it was the stuff from the candles that was in flames). I was so glad to have great company, music, and food for the evening. The baby is well blessed!