3/1/21

Music Conference in Kiev


One of the world’s major music institutions is the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine, also known as the Kiev Conservatory. This prestigious music school was founded by Tchaikovsky himself and led by Rachmaninov and Glazunov.

I look forward to presenting a paper soon (via videoconference) for an international conference hosted by the World Music History Department of the Kiev Conservatory: Music Culture of China: Forms, Traditions, Practices, which will take place at the end of March. My paper title is “Research on Chinese Traditional Instrument Teachers at Prominent Conservatories in Europe and China.”

Here is a link for the conference program:

https://issuu.com/nataliyamuromets/docs/ua-chinafest-2021

 


The Kiev Conservatory is home to a pioneering Music Confucius Classroom, for which my paper seems especially relevant. Here are a few links about Confucius Music Classrooms …  


https://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201906/11/WS5cff7baea31017657723095a.html


https://www.eurasiainfo.ch/en/caring-chinese-teacher-cheers-up-ukrainians-amid-covid-19/


https://www.rcs.ac.uk/scotlands-national-conservatoire-selected-host-one-worlds-first-specialist-confucius-classrooms/


Many years ago, I lived in Moscow, working as a Lecturer for Moscow State University while performing free improvisation with members of the Pan-Asian Ensemble affiliated with the other Tchaikovsky conservatory (Moscow Conservatory), and now I serve on the Editorial Board of the Eurasian Music Science Journal. It will be exciting to reconnect with colleagues in the fascinating field of Eurasian musicology via this conference in Kiev.


Below are videos based on excerpts from the Pan-Asian Ensemble's free improvisation sessions recorded in Moscow at the conservatory. This experimental music still has an unusually mysterious sound even several years after it was created.  


https://youtu.be/7E_mtRcQ_28 

https://youtu.be/jfGUg1jc1TE 

Each of the tracks here are interesting for different reasons. On the first, I play muted trumpet in some uncannily improvised gestures and harmonies in sync with two Russian shakuhachi players. In the second, I add lyrical trumpet lines after about one minute into the final track.












Below is something much more traditional that I recorded in recent years, a lovely song by Rachmaninov: 


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