This is London calling!
Dr Maria Razumovskaya’s blog, following the story of Guildhall School’s involvement in the UK-Russia Year of Music.
They’re here! For several months now Guildhall School vocalists Alexandria Wreggelsworth, Jonathan de Garis and Liam Bonthrone, and pianists Emelia Noack-Wilkinson and Ugne Vazgileviciute have been hard at work: mastering a foreign language and alphabet, and delving deep into a sound-world with a distinct musical fabric which purposefully sets out to appear to be exotic.
Looking perplexed when hooted on the road for looking right instead of left, and attempting to get into the driver’s seat of the taxi, the locals shook their heads: ‘What do you expect? This is London calling.’
It’s getting up to well past midnight, but as we drive down to central Saint Petersburg to settle them into their hotel in the historic Dostoevsky district, their excited chatter reveals their apprehensions for the following day’s masterclasses with Mariinsky Soloist soprano Olga Trifonova, and the former Soloist (now Head of Vocal Studies at the State Saint Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory of Music), Andrei Slavniy.
‘What if they read the text completely differently?’
‘Will you be there with us to translate?’
‘Are you sure my Russian pronunciation is ok?’
‘Wait… Was it muka [suffering] or muka [flour]?’
Please keep following this blog to see how they got on and experience a collage of their impressions, discoveries, expectations and reflections from their time in Saint Petersburg as they participate in the Guildhall School-led project ‘Voice between Nations’ as part of the official programme of Year of Music UK-Russia.
Find out more about Guildhall School events in the UK-Russia Year of Music.
Read the previous blog post in this series: ‘To hit, or not to hit…’
