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!