tomorrow is my final 

audition/exam

that determines if i stay here.

and oddly im hoping they send me home so i can return my to old life.

i have about 10 scores to show them only 1 complete and maybe my score to 'waking reverie'

there is a famous composer here who studied with and worked with shostakovich, named sergei slonimsky. i will try to study with him but he is high in demand and sounds like he only accepts advanced students. there are two others im really interested in, one is named svetlana nesterova who is a young woman, russian composer that just won the mariinsky theaters opera composition competion. the other is anatoly korolyev who seems to be a good composer and teacher, and has some interesting music.

i have a base program which is composition lessons, harmony class, solfeggio class, russian language class, and i think one other class. piano! beyond that i can take additional lessons and classes like orchestral conducting, operatic training, etc...

here are some rehearsals:

tchaikovsky symphony no. 5:

tchaikovskys opera 'eugine onegin' :

this school is very classical. i will report back, when i meet more composers and teachers in composition,  and find some new music. 

some historical figures:

this is Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky, rubbing his head because he was out really late last night looking for young boys to sodomize

this is anton rubinstein, the founder of the school, saying 'wish i diddnt build this school, now i have to stand here forever'
or atleast until the u.s. govt bombs russia

and to end the night: the stereotypical drunk russian guy almost falling over in the street, while i waited for the bus. he tried to say something to me. i can barely understand russian, let alone drunk russian.

___________

NEW DAY

___________

today i met with Alexander Dimitriev, a fruit person (low fat raw vegan). probably the only in this city, (well im here now too)- i found him on www.30bananasaday.com-  there are not a lot of varieties of fruit here but there is enough. he is alone here in his health quest, but he knows it is the right thing to do, even though it goes against the culture and tradition. he is planning on spending the winters in thailand. he is excited about trying durian and fresh mangoes.

 right now there are watermelons and this other abnormally large melons. i buy large watermelons for 85 roubles, which is about $2.70, cheaper than back home, and eat a half in the morning, after running around all the parks nearby.

he took me to this market and hooked me up with a date connection. i bought 8 kilos of deglet noors (2 boxes) and 4 single kilo boxes of iranian dates which are surprisingly really GOOD! gooey and intensely flavored.

"August - October we have a season of watermelons and melons which really nice.

At late summer there are great peaches, nectarines and apricots plus a lot of local apples.

Also you can find tasty persimmons at late autumn/winter. 

Of course you can always find pears, grapes, plumes, tomatoes and other fruits but sometimes it's not good quality (sometimes it's ok). For example, I don't like to buy Pinapples or oranges here because almost always they are unripe."

im missing a lot of stuff in my own garden right now. about 25 varieties of heirloom tomatoes, blackberries, and different kinds of grapes should be sweet about now.

will try to post often. i have many challenges here. the language barrier is one, but starting tomorrow, i have three hours of language lessons 5 days a week. the musical challenges are far greater. i was discussing some of my music with a conductor, and i basically have to re-bar many of the sections to get the groove and accents i want, and to make it conduct-able and ultimately playable. i will cover that when i get it figured out. i should still cover my living situation. it is very funny. the old ladies (babooshkas) that run the student dorm are a trip. i got in trouble for opening the windows cuz they all smoke and it fills the halls. also one night i came home early like 7 and feel asleep, very tired. but they seem to think that i never came home that night, that i was running the streets. they say it is very dangerous and that i should be back by 10p.

goodnightness