Eric Conway, D.M.A.:
Today's big event was a concert in a town about 2 hours from Minsk -
Borisov, Belarus. This town is close to 1000 years old! We performed
at the Borisov's Children's Music and Art School.
The
day was free for the choir, however, I gave a music workshop at the
Belarusian State Academy of Music, where my friend Pasha was a student.
As other countries schedules often mirror the ours in the states, we
often tour when other school systems are in the throes of finals or
right after school has closed for the summer. The Minsk Conservatory
was in between sessions, however there was a group of about 30 students
and faculty who attended the workshop. The school reminded me a great
deal of my alma mater the Peabody Conservatory in the architecture and
venerable presentation of its artifacts.
Many
who attended the workshop, were present at our concert at the
Belarusian State Philharmonic Hall last night. Virtually everyone at
the workshop was a member of the conservatory choir. During the
workshop, I learned that one of America's favorite composers had ties to
Belarus. George Gershwin's father was from Belarus and his mother was
from Ukraine. Because of this tie, Belarus had a special connection
with George Gershwin's music. We had a lengthy discussion about George
Gershwin, American choral practices, and about principals of good choral
production. The hour workshop flew by.
During
the walk back, one of the students accompanied me back to the hotel. He
gave me even more in-depth history lesson of Belarus. He mentioned
that virtually every building in Belarus was built since 1945, after
World War II. Because of Belarus's proximity to Poland, Belarus was one
of the first targets of Nazi Germany. Minsk, many of you may know was
the site of one of the largest Nazi-run ghettos in World War II
temporarily housing over 100,000 Jews. The capital city of Minsk was
virtually destroyed save a couple buildings. Because Belarus is sounded
by 5 different countries, they were frequent targets for invasion. The
city was rebuilt but not reconstructed. The new architecture is
typical of Stalinist architecture which favored grand buildings, broad
avenues and wide squares. It is easy for us in the United States to be
oblivious to this region, as there are so many small countries in
Eastern Europe. We all know Western European countries bordering along
the Atlantic, but not Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, or Belarus.
At
2PM we left our hotel for our concert at the Children's Music School.
Borisov was a typical European town, quiet and orderly. Before the
concert we ate at a local American style diner that featured pizza and
pasta. We gave a one-hour concert in the school which was
enthusiastically received by the students, all who were members of the
school's choir. Because of youth, they spoke more English than previous
generations of Belarusians. Although this concert was during the day
while in school, the students were very emotional in the reception of
our music. We felt like rock stars for the moment with the students at
the school cheering!
Before
we returned to our Minsk Hotel, we stopped to a local market for some
food items for the evening. Often when one travels, one learns a great
deal about a foreign culture through their grocery markets, like in this
culture if you want a bag for your groceries, you must pay for the bag.
We
then quickly returned to our hotel as this would be our last night in
Minsk, Belarus. Tomorrow we have a concert in a remote town called
Mogilev (3 hours away from Minsk). We will check out of our hotel at
11:00 a.m. We will perform an open-air concert for their Mogilev city
festival. We will stay in Mogilev throughout during the day and attend
the fireworks presentation in the evening. We leave Mogilev at 12 AM for
the Minsk Airport to arrive at 3:00 a.m. for a 5:00 a.m. departure for
Montenegro - OUCH!!
This will be our last communication until Montenegro!
Best,
Eric
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