Daily Bow: Building Bridges



Daily Bow LogoMusic has survived for so many eons largely because of its ability to bring people together. Classical music is a shining example of music’s global, cross-generational, and cross-cultural appeal. In fact, it is somewhat difficult to think of any type of music that knits together such a diverse tapestry of listeners and participants into a community. Classical music as we know it spans centuries and thousands of miles, and it can sometimes be a fun and fascinating exercise to step back and think about just what that means–today, I had one such “meta” moment while I was practicing some solos from Haydn’s “Post-Horn” Symphony, wondering just how many people had played these exact notes, and wondering what it was like when people heard them for the very first time all those centuries ago. This kind of curiosity about what the other side looks like–whether the “other side” is another time, place, culture, or community–is a pervasive force in the musical community. The very nature of classical music invites this kind of speculation–after all, in how many other fields does one find a college freshman from a small town in middle America working intimately with the thoughts, ideas, and musical intentions of a man who died centuries ago in Vienna, or Moscow, or Paris?

It is these very types of personal connections that continue to breathe life into classical music; this is how old notes sound new again. In the spirit of making new personal connections in order to enrich the musical culture for everyone, Boston is playing host to the 22nd annual Russian-American Festival, a production of the Educational Bridge Project. Dr. Ludmilla Leibman, founder and executive director of the Educational Bridge Project, began the project in an endeavor to give both sides of her own musical experience the opportunity to gain from making themselves better acquainted with “the other half” and how they lived. Says Leibman, “When I came here [from St. Petersburg] and I started doing my doctorate at Boston University, I started thinking about how lucky I am to have been able to be both a student and professor at two outstanding schools – St. Petersburg Conservatory, which is the oldest Russian Conservatory, and Boston University, an internationally acclaimed institution with a phenomenal school of music.  So the idea was to be able to connect these two institutions and let people from these cultural entities meet and talk – that was amazing.”

This year the festival begins Oct. 25 and runs through Nov. 5, presenting events at various venues across New England, including Boston University, Harvard University, The New England Conservatory and Wellesley College. It had more modest roots when it first began: the program first began as an exchange between Boston University’s College of Fine Arts and the St. Petersburg Conservatory. The exchange was started in the hopes of encouraging young people to connect with counterparts of very different backgrounds and situations through music.  “At that time, in 1997, when the Bridge Project was just starting, the St. Petersburg Conservatory did not have much in the way of electronic music and more contemporary styles of music,” said Leibman. “So when Russians traveled to Boston, they got a taste of this whole other side of studying music. And the same goes for Americans – they had never seen the style of teaching, of playing, of studying music in Russia.”

Since that first year, the festival has expanded in scope. It is now not only a musical endeavor, although Leibman stressed the exchange is a special opportunity to hear classically trained musicians play great Russian and American works. Attendees can also take in lectures and literary presentations centered on music as a tool for education and commemoration, which are topics close to the festival’s heart. These concerts and talks are designed to create a more informed concert-goer, one whose views are colored not only by cultural stereotypes. Listeners can expect to hear classical music from the 19th through 21st-centuries featuring instrumentalists of all stripes in both large and small ensembles. Among this year’s featured performers are Russian choral conductor Alexander Soloviev, composer Vladimir Tarnopolski, and actor Georges Devdariani. Music from American composers Ruth Lomon, Tony Schemmer, Matti Kovler, Nina Siniakova and Brian Christian will also make appearances on the festival concerts. The 12 concerts and nine talks are free and open to the public, excluding a few events reserved for students.

As the festival has expanded in size and length, so too has the purview of the festival. Rather than simply focusing on student-to-student exchanges, the festival now serves as a part of the Educational Bridge Project, which shares the goal of promoting cultural exchange and applies it to a larger palette, including many of the esteemed Boston-area colleges. The project now draws attention from the Jewish and Russian communities as well as music fans and educational institutions, shifting the focus from simply music to a broader exchange of humanity. The Bridge Project now includes Harvard University, Tufts University, Wellesley College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and The New England Conservatory. The festival has all expanded geographically: the Educational Bridge Project will host a series of events in St. Petersburg in the spring as a complement to the state-side festival in the fall, urging aspiring American musicians to travel to Russia and round out the exchange. Of the Russian-hosted end, Leibman says, ““We do two festivals a year – this upcoming festival in the fall in Boston and another in St. Petersburg and Moscow in May. The reason why we do it in May is that in Russia, this is the month of what we call ‘the White Nights.’ You can go on the street at 10 or 11 at night and it is as bright as at noon! So people are fascinated with this and it’s a beautiful time for young people to come together and sing and play and experience this amazing bridge between the two academic institutions.”

Leibman couldn’t be more right: now, more than ever, really is a beautiful time for young people to come together to play, sing, and experience everything we all can share–classical music is about the human connection more than anything else, and it’s worth bearing that in mind in these precarious times.



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