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!