R e v o l u t i o n a r y | F i d d l e s t i c k

My History

… What is my history? It is different meetings with people,
who had influence on me, who helped
me to reach what I have reached …
Vladimir Vett.

And what I have reached is …
Well, judge by yourselves …

    At the age of seven my parents sent me to the musical school to study playing the piano, naturally, against my will, this situation took place in many Soviet families. Six months later my will prevailed and I abandoned music. I learned to play the guitar by myself.
    When I was 12, I had a dilemma – whether I should go to the football school or continue studying music. My elder brother, being a great expert, told me: "You will not make a football player!"... So I'm at the piano again...
    Later, when I was 15, for the first time I heard a real violin while travelling in the North of Russia with my family. In the Salvation and Transfiguration Cathedral of Solovetsky Monastery, which was partly destroyed, the violinist Sergey Korolyov performed sonatas and partitas for violin solo by J.S.Bach. So in that way I have fallen in love with a violin …
    After I returned to Moscow, I started persuading my parents to send me to the musical school again. They answered: "It's already late to start playing violin at your age. Why are you so anxious about it? Anyway you will not be able to make a good violin player."
But finally the music school principal met my prayers about learning to play the violin.
Since then the motto of all my life is "Believe in your dream!"

... The parents were against my dream, they said: "Playing the violin is not a profession". That's why I had to receive the engineering, chemical and technical education.
    The musical college where I attended the classes of my teacher Svetlana L.Kriventsova (I have a profound respect for her), was situated in a wonderful town of Pushkino near Moscow. On my way to Pushkino I was listening to music in my player and the road didn't seem to be very long. The classical tracks alternated with jazz: Steven Gravelly, Subramanian, Jean-Luc Ponte, Oscar Peterson, Jacque Lucie … I realized that I wanted from a violin something more, than the beauty of classical sound.
Besides, I felt I had a gift to perform the unwritten material, without notes.
After that I wrote the application to the Moscow State Musical School of variety-jazz art of the Gnesiny: "Permit me to take the entrance examinations in the class of an electroguitar, speciality – a V i o l i n".
    In that time there was no teacher on a jazz violin. I was lucky to be taught by the outstanding teacher Vladimir K.Brand. The electroguitar has admired me with the opportunities: a tremendous sound, shape, nuances of performance.
At that time my first electric violin "Aurora", made by the master Valery Gulyaev appeared. I began my first experiments with the sound of electronic violin.
    ...In the conservatory, at studio of Andrey Bochko, I met casually a remarkable masterly violin player Tamara Sidorova. She took my "Aurora" with her hands and said: "Listen to electroguitar players and imitate them in the same as they imitate us, the violinists! Then you will learn to use all the opportunities of a violin... "
... Charlie Parker, Chet Baker, Wes Montgomery, Pat Metheny … We studied them minutely, learning the secrets of drive and the latent parties of swing. Knowing about off-beat jazz, you begin to perform classical plays absolutely in another way, deeper and much more interestingly.
    Studying in a college was inseparably linked with restaurant performances. It was a creative range for me, where I checked the musical ideas, where I studied "to hold the audience's attention" and simply earned money …
    Once an old violinist came to the restaurant. His name was Consierro Ferrari. He was 80 then.
    He listened to me, showed some original ways of playing and told me: "You play perfectly, sonny, but why do you smile so little? You should have such a smile, as though you are stuffed with sweets!" I was plunged deep in thought… It is unusual to smile during the performance of classical music...

Did I know then, what would happen to me after so many years?
Do I know now, what is waiting for me ahead?.. The story is going on!