It is Saturday and I am dividing my day between piano practicing and finalizing the itinerary for upcoming concerts. I have taken care of the airfare and hotel reservations for Musical Bridges guest artists; scheduled rehearsal times; arranged meals; coordinated the delivery and pick up of dancing floors; scheduled the moving and tuning of pianos; finalized the program book and made sure that everyone will be happy. At some point I asked myself… “Is this the way to spend a Saturday evening?” Most of my friends are out Salsa dancing or attending galas, or traveling to new places. The San Antonio cultural scene has a lot to offer these days...

I still vividly remember landing at JFK airport on December 29, 1989. My son, Arseni, was 6 years old and this was his first flight. His ears bothered him during the descent and he was extremely cranky. We were armed with two suitcases, my Russian-style fur coat, three English words and an attitude that we were the best. Little did we know… Anya and Arseni in 1989 My ex-husband, Valery, who had arrived three months earlier on a cultural exchange program at Illinois State University met us at the airport in a newly purchased Chevy station wagon, which ate all our savings plus added a substantial debt. Welcome to America! AND, IT WAS...

I met my husband, Robert, on Match.com.  On our first date, we brought each other a musical present.  He brought me a CD of Russian jazz pianists and I brought him a brochure from the Cactus Pear Music Festival.  We both knew right away that this was a match made in heaven… We use to go to a lot of musical events together at the beginning of our relationship.  At that time, Robert had no idea what he was getting into by dating me – the artistic director and pianist.  Music was still a lot of fun for him before he learned that it is lots and lots and lots of work. Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Live in HD, by the Metropolitan Opera in New York...

I am a big fan of 88.3 KPAC Classical Radio Station. Every time I drive, I turn it on with the anticipation of hearing something spectacular. If I hear piano playing with enormous expressiveness, I know…this is Martha. If the piano music sounds like there are a few good men playing simultaneously on many pianos…this is Martha. The name of Martha Argerich on any label always means fire, as it does here: Record Review / Gramophone Awards Issue (London) / 01 January 1987 Argerich continues to astonish . . . Argerich plays with the blend of immaculate tone, bravura technique and temperament that have placed her at the pianistic peak . . . a...

We were having a drought and the constant news about fires was quite disturbing. I have lived in San Antonio for over 20 years now and have never seen a drought of this magnitude. Guest portable bed in Kerop’s and Tanya’s apartment…studio/living room/bedroom/guest room The day before, my neighbor Connie had called, and said that her son’s house in Fair Oaks Ranch was in danger. She wondered if Robert and I could take people in, just in case there might be refugees. Yes, we have a big house (and big hearts, I’d like to think) so we would take in people. Russian art in Anya’s house in San Antonio After I hung up the phone, I...

To me, jazz is an unexplainable mystical phenomenon of humanity, that ultimate art of improvisation. Can you imagine going on stage (if you can imagine it at all!), without really knowing what is going to happen?  Yes, there is a program, something like a list of songs or tunes, as they call it in the jazz world, and a preliminary agreement between players not to step on each other’s time, and a plan as to who plays solo after whom and for how long… but the rest is in God’s hands. Now imagine for a minute that you are a classical musician, and you are about to go on stage… You have a memorized solo program, at least 90 minutes long, that...

Genius and villainy. Are the two incompatible? Hard work and lifelong dedication versus careless talent, and mediocrity malevolently overpowers brilliance. What a plot! In reality, Salieri was probably a nice guy, who got lucky and got a cushy job working for the Duke … with a handsome salary… benefits… a nice retirement to look forward to. And here you go, young brilliant Mozart effortlessly gives birth to one masterpiece after another, freelancing for his countless female students, countesses, Dukes, courts and god knows who else. If nothing else, Salieri should have felt guilty, even without poisoning Mozart, for taking such a cozy place...

“Can I stop by now?” was a question on the phone in late June. “Sure, I am home.” Sharon Romer, Vice President of the MBAW Board, walked in with her recently adopted little shih tzu and a beautiful hand made pottery dish.  “This is your early birthday present,” she said.  My birthday is in November, and this was June.  I felt that something was off. “What is going on, Sharon?” And the news was shocking… she had metastatic cancer in her brain, and not much time left. How do you react on the news like that?????????  This is something we are all afraid of, and when it happens to someone close to you, what do you do?????????  What do you...

It turns out that India has classical music! I was extremely ashamed that after studying music for almost all of my life, I did not know India has Classical music. The Western European tradition that gave the world Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Copland (and I can go on forever with that list), is not alone in the world! WHAT a revelation! Even back in Russia, then part of the insular Soviet Union, long before I met anyone of Indian descent, I was fascinated with Indian Culture. It started with young Buddha in Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, then the beautiful poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, and more recently, The Inheritance of Loss, by...

I heard about Elena Kunikova many years before we met. Her work is admired in Monaco, Paris, London, Tokyo, and her native Saint Petersburg. The talented missionary of elegant traditions of Russian classical ballet, critics all over the world are raving about her work. Robert Gottlieb of The New York Observer called her “one of our leading authorities on the Russian classical style.” We met in New York City in January 2009, in a corner cafe on 28th and 3rd. She walked in wrapped in a white fur coat, carrying an antique lamp she had just bought for her upper Westside apartment. As soon as we started talking, we felt as if we knew each other...

An Alaskan cruise in early June was wonderful! Blankets, layers of clothes, and only 50 degrees. All of my weather complaints on Facebook were met with jealous responses from my San Antonio friends, where at the time, 90 degrees was a relief! It was a beautiful trip. Next, a trip to Dallas to meet Duo Petrof, pianists Anatoly Zatin and Vlada Vassilieva from Mexico, to figure out the details of Liszt’s Hexameron, for the December concert. A piece for 6 pianists… not easy! Hexameron has been in my plans for the last 5 years. What a fun adventure to finally begin! The piece was conceived in 1837 by Franz Liszt, who composed the introduction,...