NICK WHITE IN RUSSIA

Dear Russian Heritage,

(The following report was received this week from Nick White our Russian Heritage scholarship student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. We are still seeking additional support for this scholarship program. If you would like to contribute to this fund, send your tax deductible gifts to Russian Heritage, designated for the “Nick White Fund” PO Box 14552, St. Petersburg, FL, 33733)

Привет! So far everything here in the Russian Federation has been going very well. I have a premiere coming up very soon, actually this coming Thursday the 25th of October. It is a piece for Solo Cello and will be played by a fellow first year student from Uzbekistan named Dmitri Yanov-Yanovich. It will be premiered in the wonderful Alexander Glazanov Hall, in which I have seen several concerts now, including one last week featuring the music of my composition professor Sergei Michaelavich Slonimsky. Studying with a composer of his caliber has been and is an incredible honor. He is rather demanding, but incredibly talented as a composer and teacher. I never thought I could learn so much from one single person. I am so grateful to Russian Heritage for the opportunity you have afforded me here in St. Petersburg. My composition class consists of approximately 12 students most of whom are Russian. Everyone is very nice and very talented, but their English is limited. Fortunately, my Russian is steadily getting better and I understand more and more. I have also taken the large step of adding Russian characters to my computer keyboard. Боже Мой!

The dormitory is old and humble but comfortable, and I am surrounded by incredibly talented and interesting people. My roommates are Fernando Calisto, a pianist from Brazil and Thomas Hardaker, an accordionist from Manchester, England. I have also become good friends with guys and girls from Mongolia, China, Korea, Japan, Malta, Italy, Greece, Finland, England, Ireland, Australia, France, Belgium, Columbia, Brazil, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Switzerland. So far as I know I am the only American in the dorms and only one of 3 in the conservatory itself. Surprisingly, however, I’ve assimilated very well and most everyone has little interest in where you’re from – only who you are and what kind of musician you are.

My class load is very large but manageable. I take 15 hours of Russian, along with 6 hours of composition, 1 ˝ hours of Solfeggio, 1 ˝ hours of Harmony, 1 ˝ hours of Score Reading, and 1 hour of Piano per week. Basically there is a lot to be done and not so much time to do it. The hardest thing, really, is sharing a room. Being a composer, the quiet of solitude is the best environment for work. I have discovered this the hard way. With performance majors who need the room to practice, it is hard to argue for composing time, nor is it possible to get the quite necessary silence anyway. There is a cozy little spot on the second floor of the dorms with a couch and table that has so far become my writing domain, but it is very public and stays quite chilly all the time.

With regards to Russia itself, I am immensely enjoying my time here. The people I have met and got to know are fantastic and seem to be truer friends already with only a couple months of knowing them then people I’ve known for years back in the states. The Russians also have an amazing sense of humor. I can’t remember ever having laughed harder. My composition class is a riot, and we all seem to have a good time and enjoy each other’s company. St. Petersburg as a city has been absolutely amazing. We still walk around the palace embankment and can’t believe that we all live here. It’s truly breathtaking. I have visited many palaces and museums, especially the Hermitage which, because it’s free for students, is a regular destination for a Sunday of clearing your head. I have seen Peterhoff and been amazed by its scale and complexity; I have wandered the area surrounding the conservatory and seen many interesting spots. The Idiot Café and Bardok Café are places we frequent for work and relaxing meals at relatively low cost. We eat sushi when we can afford it…it is better here than at home. There is also a café near the dorms that has amazingly good food at very cheap prices, and the beer is on the house because we are conservatory students…did I say beer…I meant coffeeJ.

By far the most awe inspiring place I have seen is the Alexander Nevsky Monastery and Tikhvin Cemetery. One day a couple weeks ago I left the dorms early and went to Nevsky Prospect where I walked to river and then back the other direction and walked the entirety of Nevsky Prospect all the way to the monastery. I saw the graves of Dostoyevsky, Mussorgsky, Borodin, Glazanov, Rubenstein, Rimsky-Korsakov, and of course Tchaikovsky. I must have stood at Tchaikovsky’s grave for an hour just in absolute amazement. It was hard to imagine that I was literally 6 feet from the actual man. My heart collapsed in my chest. To be in such a place was just beyond all possible imagination. I thought that the conservatory was a wild place to be because of all the history that exists there…little did I know I’d only tapped the surface.

I take Solfeggio in a class room that Dmitri Shostakovich occupied for 15 years and I still have yet to get over the feeling. One of my great idols, sat here everyday for 15 years. It is just unreal. Someone pinch me so that I can wake up.

My biggest thanks to Nadia Yevstigneyeva, Bill Parsons, Russian Heritage, and all who have helped make this possible for their generous contributions to my education and to my life really. With the education I’m receiving here I could surely do anything I want. Thank you all so much. You can not possibly imagine what you’ve given me already, and I’ve only having been here 2 months. I owe you so much.

Thank you all so much. I look forward to my next update. Спасибо большоe!

Sincerely,

Nicholas Jennings White October 18, 2007

Николас Дженнингс Уайт
«Коля Белий»