When the sun is melting relentlessly, and temperature indices lead to the idea that global warming already destroys life in a separate room without air conditioning, the fjords and the northern wind seem to be a ghost. This awesome, dreamy world creates music that once created in Snowy Norway by Edvard Grieg, a musician and public figure. And under the splashes of the salt sea, the snow, the music of Grieg, the usual Zhytomyr citizen Liubov Syniak, a music teacher, tells about the connection between Zhytomyr and Norway and how to become happy where you are
“I have one friend who says that if a person does not frighten her dreams, then she does not know how to dream. In 2016, I tried to realize my dream – to found in Ukraine the cultural and public Society of Edvard Grieg and to hold the first truly international festival. Then I was extremely tedious, because I did not know how it will be, what it will be and will be at all. Everyone around me said: “Of course, you will not get anything. You are ashamed of yourself and disgrace all around. Lord, where are these representatives of the international community flying? ” Then they would have to come from the President of the International Society, Edvard Grieg of the United Kingdom, representatives from Germany, the Norwegian ambassador with the first secretary, but praising God, it was possible, and we have held the International Culture and Arts Festival GRIEG FEST twice”
“There are actually few ties between Ukraine and Norway, and there is no connection between Zhytomyr and Grieg. But I understand that every person can change society in the city where it is located. I am not strong in politics, not strong in the economy, and I can not make positive changes in these areas. But I understand that Norwegian music is my sphere, and I just tried to tie what I really love – Grieg and my city, my country. This interconnection gave birth to the idea of the All-Ukrainian Society of Edvard Grieg”
“Several years ago I began to think about the topic:” What can this be done in their field? “Finally, I learned about the existence of the Norwegian community of Edvard Grieg and learned that the branches of this community exist in more than 14 countries. In Japan, America, Italy. I thought: “There is absolutely no relation to Japan. Oh, here it is! ” I wrote to the President of this community, I was invited to Norway, where I learned about how it works with them, and invited them to Zhytomyr. Then we laughed, and the next year I sent an invitation. And thus in 2016, we formed the Society of Edvard Grieg and already held two international festivals GRIEG FEST ”
“I do this to popularize the work of Edvard Grieg, Norwegian music. But this is just one part of my task. The second is to revive the city, to culture, to inspire people close by and to show that it is not necessary for you to be born in a certain city, in a certain family with a certain level of wealth for the transformation of something around you. That dad was there, for example, the president who would make you minister. In fact, you can live in Zhytomyr and there is something to do. This year at the Festival we had already six invited guests from other countries: from Norway, from Germany, from the UK, as well as guests from different cities of Ukraine. My loving teachers arrived, who taught me in Donetsk, and now they are assistant professors of the Kyiv Conservatory. It was a great honor for me to meet the head of the department of music history at the National Musical Academy named after him. P. Tchaikovsky This is a very venerable professor Valery Zharkova who is invited to give lectures at the Sorbonne. She said: “I went and thought:” Zhytomyr School … Lord, where do I go, what will be there? ” But in the end, she was so inspired by the Norwegian-Ukrainian theme that she was ready to come and do it together now. Every year God bless new people who are enlivened by the idea and join the project”
“Maybe it looks unclear, but Grieg inspires me. What is that Someone is inspired by pink elephants. But he who loves his country and the city and seeks development, I’m sure, would find a way to start doing something for his own city through his elephants”
“My mom, grandmother are engaged in music, and from my childhood I knew that my” light path “, at least, has already been foreseen for the conservatory. But music for me is not a calling, it’s a choice. At first I thought I would get a certificate and I would go anywhere. But then I thought that since I’m already here, let it be my profession. And it was then that I realized that I did not want to become an ordinary person who would deal with a hateful life all his life, to blame everyone around, to weep and not to achieve anything. After that, it took more than ten years, but then I decided for myself: “If this is my profession, then I will find in it what I will love for her. I will find what will really become mine.” And now, if I say that I did not want to be a musician, everyone wonders: “How? It’s yours. ” There was once in my life a period when I was a fitness instructor, a stylist for wedding hairstyles, and now, when I get very tired, I have a tendency to go to janitors. (Laughs). But it seems to me that even there I would find something to love my work. It’s so cool: you know people, you can give them gifts. And it does not matter where you are, what’s inside is inside and what you want to share with people. And then God provides opportunities. Always!”
“The amazing Norwegian landscapes embodied in the music are Grig. These are the same feelings that I feel about my country and the people I love. This is the kinship of people who do the same thing, only everyone in their field. All his music – about love in different manifestations: love for people, love for his country, everything around. Grieg is always straightforward and different. There are, of course, some patterns, such as “In the Cave of the Mountain King” or “Morning”, which are used in advertising, but in the works of Grieg is a spectrum of all emotions, feelings. And most importantly, he is not just a closed lyricist. At one time, along with his playwright Bjornstjerne Bjornson, he was very active in life, and in the era of romanticism, when the Norwegian state was built, they made a significant contribution to the cultural and public sphere in the formation of the national identity of the Norwegians. Here, Norway and Ukraine, as states, are very similar: at one and the same time they experienced identical processes”
“Norway was somewhere until the 14th century, an independent state, and then the plague erupted almost half of the population, and the remnants joined other Scandinavian countries – Denmark and Sweden. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, Norway had nothing in its own right. Languages, for example. There was a Danish-Norwegian language, spoken and written, and only dialects survived in the villages. There was no literature, literature, and its first Constitution, which is still relevant, they adopted in 1814. And then the Norwegians stood on the path of self-identification and revival of their nation, while active figures Grieg, Bjørnsson, Ibsen did a lot for their country”
“I have been teaching for more than ten years, and as for me, the teacher is not just a person who comes in his working time, he reads pairs at the barrier of the teaching table and leaves, earning a salary for it. I do not perceive the teacher as a person who simply teaches his subject: someone in life may in fact need a theory of music and solfeggio, and someone will remember it like a terrible dream. Teacher is a person who gives an example, shows an alternative, gives the child hope and choice. My students are my support”
“Knowledge is a consequence. If something changes inside a person, it can not do its job poorly, carelessly to study. The depth of information and skills acquired are the effects of those changes that take place on the mental and mental levels”
“I often say:” Well, why are you sitting here? Go to Norway! ” And I could really go, but this year was such a moment when I completely realized that I would not go from here. I had a birthday, and my students put a musical. I will not be able to convey it, just whenever I recall, I always cry. They themselves organized, wrote a script, agreed on the hall. It was like a fairy tale, and each of them spoke about what I had given him in life. They spoke unspoken phrases about what I taught them to be better, to love. I looked at it and thought: “Ok, there are presidents who have power; There are millionaires who have a lot of money; there are people who travel, they have an impression, but the happiest person on earth – I, because there is no one of them ”
“For me, Zhytomyr is a place where I was born for some reason. This is my cradle. I can not say that this city is better than any other, or more beautiful than others. For about twenty years I had the same attitude as in others: a village, a hole. But at some point, I realized that I was destined to be born for some reason here, and if this is a village and a hole, then this is my responsibility, too, and I am also an affiliate. There are no mistakes in God’s plans: once I was born here, then I need it here and I have to make this city better”
Translated by Aliona Matushevich
