Presidential project "Gifted Children"

"New names of the planet" under the control of the capital's professors
As part of the presidential project "Gifted Children", the fifth summer creative school "new names for the planet" was opened in Suzdal. One hundred and eighty children from different regions of the country will take master classes from leading teachers of the Moscow State Conservatory named after P. I. Tchaikovsky, Gnessin Academy, Central Music School and College at the Conservatory.

The summer school of “new names” received registration in Suzdal five years ago, that is, just two years after the program of the same name, formed by Ivetta Voronova, began operating. Over the years, many scholarship recipients have become laureates of international competitions, entered domestic and foreign conservatories, and master classes. The outflow of those who have matured, and sometimes those who disagree with the candy monotony of the gala concert - the general genre of the "new names" program - is compensated by the emergence of new talents, replenishing the "musical family" along with their mothers and teachers. For Moscow teachers, the idea of “new names for the planet” is important because, firstly, it allows them to demonstrate the quality of domestic pedagogy at the international level - the mastermind of the program knows how to open both the gates of the Vatican and the front doors of UNESCO, and secondly, it gives priority to the search for candidates to students.
Different children come to summer school for different things. Some hope to get into the conservatory class of a capital professor, others simply “collect” meetings with famous specialists (last year they seemed to Shafran, this year - Shakhovskaya), others came as part of delegations and do not strive for anything special, they are passive participants in what is happening.
The current school brought together about 180 children in the Suzdal center of international tourism (the estimate this year was 800 million rubles, the general sponsors of the school are Imperial Bank, ONEXIM Bank, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture). The most colorful delegation, the Yakut one, consists mainly of brass players. Their disciplined ranks were diluted by four harpists, who fully staffed the class with Milda Mikhailovna Agazaryan from the Gnesin Academy. The most numerous (70 people) and, according to rumors, generously sponsored by Surgutneftegaz, the Surgut team surprised: its only active participant, the folk ensemble "Carousel", shocked the audience with obscene folk songs performed by fourteen-year-old Pelageya from Novosibirsk.
The host country, the Vladimir region, sent only 10 people to the summer school, among whom the majority played folk instruments: the “cultural” administration of the region prefers to train not academic performers, but folk ones.
The democratic appeal of the capital's professors, the authoritative arguments of Ivetta Voronova about “loyalty to the common cause” made the provincials gasp with delight. But the “old-timers” of the school - the soloists of the “new names” - were not surprised either by this or by the praises that lasted for an hour and a half at the opening ceremony of the school, where the first Kyrgyz lady, the first adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the first deputies of local and visiting administrations spoke. Young musicians have seen this many times. But these guys know their goals well and cope with tasks that are more complex than their peers, who hesitantly play out scales using the “four sounds per bow” stencil.
Bar-by-bar work on the musical text in the classes of Valery Kastelsky (piano), Tatyana Gaidamovich (chamber ensemble), Irina Bochkova and Eduard Grach (violin) is carried out according to the eternal model of a children's music school and makes one doubt the need to take a master class from professors who once who studied with David Oistrakh, Yuri Yankelevich and others. Perhaps only Natalya Shakhovskaya turned out to be faithful to the tradition of Semyon Kozolupov and Mstislav Rostropovich, with whom she studied in her graduate class. Shakhovskaya's authority was reinforced by her impeccable performance at the concert of masters of art, where she performed the Andante from Rachmaninov's Sonata for cello and piano. And all the other mentors, with their performance, deserved those comments that they so often make to their students: “expressiveness is not due to compression, but due to vibrato” (to Professor Eduard Grach), “keep the tempo” (to Professor Irina Bochkova), “sounds arise only by the will of the air" (Honored Artist of Russia, student of Zara Dolukhanova Valentina Sharonova).
But young musicians sincerely love their teachers. And teachers pay them in kind, carefully and carefully protecting them from communication with competitors from abroad. Among the school's "long-livers" there are legends about the Swiss violinist Habib Kayali, who came two years ago, and the Viennese professor Inge Wamser (vocals), who taught at the summer school last year. But, probably, the professionalism of these people was expressed differently than the thoughtful statements of teachers: “Rococo is a shell” or “In Mozart, every passage is a melody.” And this time, critical Moscow colleagues preferred to do it on their own. For the 21st century, they are preparing spiritually full-fledged children brought up on the high moral principles of the national performing school. And they do not approve at all when some foreigner, “arriving at our grub, takes away our students.”

ELENA K-CHEREMNYKH

Newspaper "Kommersant" No. 113 dated July 18, 1997, p. 10