Saturday and Sunday

Well, the last couple of days have been, shall we say, interesting.  On Saturday I got up and had breakfast, then met with my new friends from Finland and Greece to listen to the first part of the final round.  We trekked down to the Cathedral, we you can see from our hotel room (there are already pictures of the outside of the cathedral on the blog).  The inside of the cathedral is also nice, but it is clear that the original German architecture has been covered with white paint.  The building does not function as a cathedral – it is now a concert hall, meeting space, museum, etc.  It is also the burial place of the philosopher Kant. The organ is a fairly large Schuke (German builder).  A much nicer instrument to play on (I would imagine) and listen to (most definitely) than the Rieger-Kloss.  We take our spots in the nave and listen.  The pews are interesting – the backs of the pews slide forwards and backwards so that you can either face the former altar area or the organ in the back – very cool.

We listen to 2 competitors, then decide we are too hungry and our butts hurt too much from those hard, German pews (ha!) to listen any longer.  One can only listen to so much organ music in a span of time, and the Tariverdiev pieces, which in this round were a good 15 minutes long per movement, demand quite a bit.  So my new Greek friend and I went off to find lunch and amber.  Amber is a stone that is fairly common and inexpensive here in Russia, but very expensive in the rest of the world.  We had a good time getting to know each other and talking about life – I nice way to unwind after a stressful week.  We happened to run into Vera, the competition organizer, while we were out and about – she is the widow of Mikael Tariverdiev.  During our conversation she made a point to tell me several times to make sure that I attended the closing ceremony.  Yes, ma’am.  My new Greek friend told me that of the 15+ prizes the competition gives out, a few of them are awarded to people who do not make the final round.  I suddenly became a bit more interested in the rest of the competition…

We made it back to the Cathedral in the evening to hear the rest of the final round which ended around 9:00 pm then hurried off to find dinner before the results were announced.  We went to one of our “usual” places – Kruassan, which is right by the hotel.  We scarfed down our food and then went as fast as we could back to the cathedral.  This was a challenge, as it was the eve of Kaliningrad’s birthday and the streets were PACKED.  It was like Times Square.  There were lights on the telephone poles, children with painted faces, lots of beer bottles littering the streets…all evidence of a good time had, in the process of having, and that will be had.  We’ll have to see what the city looks like tomorrow morning.

We get back to the cathedral to hear the results.  As usual, there is always some element of surprise in the finals of a competition.  We had already decided who we thought should win, of course, and what order the competitors would come in.  One of the fortunate/unfortunate traits of being a musician is that we are HYPER critical of not only ourselves but of those around us.  It’s really not out of meanness.  It’s just that we spend so much time in college and grad school learning how to properly analyze music and how to interpret and, if your teacher is good, how to critique yourself and those around you so that you can learn from it.  It’s impossible to turn this off – trust me.  It’s one of the reasons I never go to concerts “for fun”.  Back to the story – the jury president announces that they have decided NOT to give a first place prize – what???  This is not all that unusual, but we were all certainly surprised, and I would imagine the competition organizers weren’t happy about it.  Usually this happens when they feel the playing was not of a high enough caliber – it sends a message about the expectations of quality and also the prestige of the competition.  They decided to award a 2^nd place prize, two 3^rd place prizes and 3 diplomas.  AND we all predicted the winners incorrectly, but not by much.  This, of course, gives us much fodder to talk about later on.  After this was finished, we were instructed to go to the organ loft to take pictures.  I was surprised that the rest of the competitors were not in attendance – I think there were only 5 or 6 present of the remaining 13 competitors who did not make the final round.  Strange.  We get up to the loft and Vera calls me over to come into the picture.  This didn’t seem appropriate to me, as I was a lowly reject from the second round.  However, she proceeded to push me to the front of the picture and made me stay there.  Yes, ma’am. I then stepped aside as they took pictures with the finalists, jury, etc.  Now I am even MORE intrigued.  At this point it was pretty late and we went back to the hotel and crashed.

Sunday rolled around pretty quickly, and we had a completely free day to ourselves until the closing ceremony at 6.  I shopped around town to kill time.  I’m really not that much of a shopper - there just wasn’t much else to do.  I eventually got back to the hotel, took a short nap (bad habit which will be kicked immediately when I get home) and changed into something more appropriate for the ceremony.  In a short matter of time I would regret not brushing my teeth again.

I arrive at the cathedral and it is PACKED.  When we walk in, the usher sees our competition badges and instructs us to go up to the stage and join the jury panel and the rest of the competitors.  Yikes!  Front and center!  We cram in the area prepared for us, and the ceremony begins.  There are a lot of awards to give out by a lot of different people.  It was kind of fun, actually.  Like the Academy Awards.  Almost all of it is done in Russian, so Olga (one of the competitions assistant and a great new friend) translates as she sits next to me.  Then the MC gets up and says something.  People start looking at me.  Olga says, “Nicole it’s you.”  I said, “Really?  Did they same my name?” Two women get up to make a presentation, and I stand at the back of the stage, pleasant expression on my face, erect posture, waiting to hear my name with a thick, Russian accent.  One woman begins speaking in English, which is quickly translated into Russian by another.  I can’t really understand either, as they are over-miced in such a live space.  I hear my name, and I begin to walk forward.  But then the other woman starts talking in Russian so I stop.  Then I hear my name at the end of the Russian speech and people start to applaud.  I walk forward and receive a large diploma and a bouquet of flowers.  I say thank you, bow to the audience, and take my seat again.  Needless to say, I have no idea what I’ve just one.  The whole evening was like that, actually – the 2^nd place winner was German, and one of the 3rd place winners was French – neither of them spoke Russian.  They both received several awards without knowing what they were until someone translated for them when they took their seats again.  It was quite funny.  Anyway, I get back to my seat and read the award.

Oh.  My.  God.  I couldn’t believe it.  A recital in Astana???  I didn’t even know exactly where that was and I was told later that Astana is an exotic place even for Russians.  A CD recording???  This fills me with dread, as I HATE making recordings – all those perfectionist tendencies come out – but still cool.  $3000????  Bitchin.  I sat through the rest of the ceremony with a silly grin on my face, dazed and amazed.  I REALLY did not play well.  But perhaps my performance in Kansas was still on some people’s minds.  Who knows, at and this point in the evening, who cares.  I’m running with it. 

The ceremony ends, and we are told that there will be a reception at Hotel Chaika.  We all walk to the nice chartered bus (best ride in the competition so far) and head to Chaika, where the jury has been housed.  WONDERFUL hotel, very pretty lobby with an incredible spread of food laid out for us, including a good selection of wine and Armenian cognac – smooth, but strong, baby.  We all enjoyed ourselves, and with the free wifi in the hotel lobby I was able to Skype the hubby and give him the news.  Very cool.  Winning something is never fun unless you have someone to share it with.  I also managed to get comments on my playing from two of the judges – nothing was a complete surprise.  I know all the things I did wrong, and the things I should have thought about in my practice.  What I didn’t know was that my registration really did not work well.  Part of it was the instrument itself, but it’s my job to make it sound better than it is when necessary.  Epic fail on that side of things.  At any rate, I need to stop skipping steps in my practice and be a bit more disciplined…I will ponder how to do this on the plane ride home.

After a fun night at the reception with more than a few competitors becoming very happy with drink, we were driven back to the hotel.  It was late, and I was tired but wired.  I was still amazed at what I had won, and I was wondering how I would get that diploma back to the states unharmed – I’m sure it will get mangled in the suitcase, and the flowers are definitely not going to make it past border patrol.  Ah, well, small details…off to bed!  

I turned the tv on to help me nod off and was greeted by 9/11 coverage – it was all too easy for me to forget, being out of the country, the significance of the date.  I was drawn into it of course, as it is still difficult to imagine that something so horrific actually happened.  I forced myself to turn it off after a while, as I’d have no prayer of sleeping, and it was already almost 2 am.  I was glad I watched it – it made me even more appreciative of my life and the richness in it.  I have experienced a lot of life in my short time on earth so far – happiness, disappointments, surprises and tragedy.  You have to have all of it – you will never fully appreciate the good things and peaks of life if you have not experienced that bad things and the valley of shadow.  I think that’s what fuels artists and musicians – both the creators and interpreters.  So much of our lives is injected into our music.  Music tells a story, whether it’s your story or someone else’s story.  If we can’t get that across to the listening audience, you might as well just get off the bench.  Lots to think about tonight.

So, I write all these recollections as I wait in the hotel lobby on Monday morning to go to the airport, the Russian version of Law and Order playing on the flat screen in the background – fascinating.  This trip has twisted and turned in ways that I could never have imagined, and I am incredible grateful for it.  And grateful that I could share it with you people – makes the road a lot less lonely.  I’ve appreciated all your comments and encouragement – much needed, very helpful and at times, amusing.  And I will always be surprised at some of the mundane details of my travels that you find so intriguing…So, unless something insane happens on the way home I’ll sign off, cause this will be my last post from Russia.

With Love,

Nicole