ON THE POLICY OF THE FUND 'NEW NAMES' IN THE AREA OF MUSICAL EDUCATION
FOR CHILDREN, CONCERT ACTIVITIES, THE CULTURE OF SMALL NATIONS
At the beginning of my article, I would like, on
behalf of the ‘New Names’ and by request of its permanent
president I.N.Voronova, to express my gratitude to the initiators of
this table discussion and to the entire festival for inviting us to
take part in this meeting of musicians. I would like to thank Mrs.
Marija Pisinova in particular who maintains the continual contacts the
young musicians in their own country and abroad.
The fund ‘New Names’ has existed for more than
ten years and was initiated by Mrs. I. N. Voronova who, at that time,
was running the department for patronage of the Russian Fund for
Culture. In this time, this fund justified its existence and the
necessity for formation of the young talents.
At the beginning, the basic task of the fund was
put on Russian Fund for Culture. At the same time with the support of
the Russian association of the world funds, it emerges as a need and
help in the formation of young talents in painting, dance, and poetry
and above all in music.
To find and care for young performers, to form a
talent of them, a necessary and valuable one at this moment in our
time and to help them find a stage and the audience that needs
him-that is exactly what this fund’s specialty is, that is what the
fund does and does it very successfully.
In the USSR before its disintegration, a solid
system of musical education for children was created and this system
included the system of professional musical education for children.
This system was unique in the world. The special professional
education of the children started at the age of five or six within the
preparatory classes of the 11 year long secondary special musical
school. This school always functioned as a part of the conservatory.
There was 40 such school in the Union. There, the children got their
general secondary education and special musical education based in
special methods and programs. Their achievements and results were
judged each year, especially in the fourth and the eighth grade. After
finishing this school with good results, these children successfully
gained entry at the conservatories within which their schools
functioned.
It is a fact that today, many new establishments
for musical education appeared such as colleges, musical high schools,
but the students can get the fundamental special musical education in
these 7 remaining schools:
- Central Secondary Special Musical School within the Moscow State
Conservatory P. I. Tchaikovsky;
- Moscow Special Secondary School Gnesin;
- Secondary Special Musical School within the Conservatory in
Sankt Petersburg, Ekaterinburg, Voronezh, Novosibirsk and Kazan.
These above-mentioned schools were a part of the
system of the Ministry for Culture of USSR and Russia. They had a
certain financial independence. (I do not want to be misunderstood,
but that was a fact). At that time, the school could send their
pedagogues and students to other towns to attend concerts or work as
visiting professors.
Today, this is practically impossible. It is
perfectly clear to us, as it is to you that without concert practice,
without stage and communication with the audience (not just with a
board of pedagogues at the school concerts), it is impossible today to
become a professional musician.
It is exactly because of this, the Program of
‘New Names’ had its important contribution. It discovered and
cared for exceptionally talented children and provided participation
in concerts not only in Moscow, but also in the provinces in both the
professional and the musical schools for children. As our leader I. N.
Voronova stated the Program “New Names”-‘found its place without
harming the other educational institutions and being their
competition, but on the contrary, helping them’. This help
influenced several branches of art.
Thus, for several years, the Program has been
organizing specialized classes of the top professors and pedagogues
both in Moscow and in the other regions of Russia including the most
remote. In Suzdal, the Summer Artistic and Creative School has been
working for 7 years with a colossal result of 800 young talented
musicians. This makes it unique. The professional organism functioning
within this school has no match in the world practice. A separate
meeting would be necessary to discuss about this school. At present we
are working on another project: creating a center for all year
functioning of the creative schools in Moscow (two have already
started functioning and the third is planned).
The realization of all these initiatives does not
disturb the musical educational system, but on the contrary helps it.
We should not forget that, together with the participants, their
pedagogues accumulate a lot in these schools because the best
musicians in Russia teach in our winter and summer schools.
In order to popularize and make young talents
available to wider audiences, the Fund ‘New Names’ has so far
recorded nine compact discs with its best scholarship students,
musical groups and soloists.
The Program gives scholarships to its participants,
helping them materially, buying instruments for groups, soloists and
musical institutions which is not something to be forsake in these
difficult times.
Let us go back to the concert activities of the
Program.
Our concerts have been held in various towns and
regions of Russia, the USSR and abroad. There were more than 2000
concerts in Russia alone. The concerts take most various forms. There
were concerts-presentations of the Program held before the President
of Russia, before the Patriarch of whole Russia, Alexei II, before the
Pope, before the Congress of the USA, before the British Queen
Elizabeth II etc. There were soloist concerts of our best
participants-laureates held in the best halls in Moscow and other
towns. There were atonement concerts organized and held in our hall at
the Russian Fund for Culture and in the salon Shuvalova. They were
also organized as cycles such as ‘The teacher and his students’,
“Golden fund”, ‘Sunday Family gatherings’ and for 2 years in
Kaluga, the abonnement concert ‘Dedicated to Pushkin’. The program
is proud of its six scholarship students who became laureates of the
11th International competition P.I.Tchaikovsky and
laureates of other eminent competitions under patronage of Buzoni, the
Queen Elizabeth in Brussels and many others.
Our first scholarship students graduated from the
Moscow Conservatory and other conservatories and we are proud of our
great role in their formation.
The specialist classes, the consulting classes, the
creative schools, the concerts, the presentations, the competitions
and the education we organize in the regions of Russia, help raising
the creative level in the area of the professional demands in the
musical schools in the provinces. The great influence that the Program
“New Names” had on the cultural and spiritual life in Moscow and
the regions throughout the country is undeniable. The Program “New
Names” is recognized by eminent political personages, famous
musicians and cultural workers in Russia and throughout the world. The
children from the Program have visited more than 40 countries in
different parts of the world.
In near future, in January 2000 we are organizing
the first Russian open competition for the young musicians from “New
Names”. More than 800 young musicians from whole Russia will
participate (on audio cassettes) in the first round and than the best
208 will be selected to take part in the second round in Moscow. Out
of these 56 will become laureates of the competition with seven
nominations. We have no doubts that the competition will help us
discover new talents. Judging by the cassettes from the first round
the competition has produced interest as far as in the furthermost
parts of our country.
Realization of this competition will also mean
another project off the agenda of the Program; the one dedicated to
the culture of the small nations in Russia called “New Names” of
the indigenous small nations in Russia.
According to the statistics (the census of 1989),
there are 180 ethnic groups in Russia. Though the centuries, Russia
has developed as a multiethnic and multinational state with
organically united traditions and unity of differences of the
so-called “small nations”, helping their development towards
progress.
Today, the most natural way of strengthening of the
unity of Russia (or any multinational country) is by improving the
cultural communication of the nations and the people as well as the
development and the improvement of the mutual understanding through
cultural transparency as a moral and natural unity.
Today’s conditions of radical social and economic
reforms, commercialization and disturbance of the cultural and
economic connections in the educational process bring a real danger of
disappearance of unique cultural heritage which is a great loss for
Russia and the humankind in general.
At the threshold of the new millenium, the entire
civilized humanity reviews the results so far, gives an account of the
achievements of the world’s mind an talent, learns from the mistakes
and losses, sets new goals and ways for their achievement and
contemplates on the destiny of the future generations.
It is of greatest importance that, at the new turn
of the evolution and the progress, we managed to maintain the immense
wealth, this fantastic multifaceted planet, the unrepeatable purity
and clarity of its nature and the sincere individuality of the
people-inhabitants of the continents.
Bearing this in mind the Russian Federation
Committee of UNESCO and the patronage program “New Names” started
a new project based on the part of the program of UNESCO regarding the
cultural pluralism and the continuation of intercultural projects
activities which contribute to the improvement of the mutual
communication between different cultures and different spiritual and
religious traditions. This project coincided with the International
Year of Dialogue of Civilizations. It is named the Activity plan of
the international tenth anniversary of the traditional small nations
and it is a part of the larger project “New names for the new
millennium”. This project, developing the humane idea about the
support of the young talented person, introduces the rich cultural
musical traditions of multinational Russia parallel with the classical
music.
The project is done on broad basis. Maintaining the
legacy of the complex experience of the program “New Names”, it
includes the representatives of the ‘small nations’ in its
programmatic activities concerning the discovery of young talents
among the creative young people and promoting their abilities through
performances. Thus, it reflects Russia’s multiethnic and
multicultural character.
The project includes searching for young talents
among the creative youth of the indigenous peoples of Russia and their
support. This includes creating conditions for development and
propagating of the national culture, its prestige and the trust in its
necessity and importance. The project will be realized with the help
of internal specialists with highest qualifications in developing and
popularization of inventiveness and who will take part in the
development, the protection and mutual interconnection of their
national cultures in order to enrich and popularize them.
Participants in our project are:
- The administration of the regions-subjects of the Russian
Federation;
- Russian Fund for Culture;
- The Ministry for the affairs of the Federation and the
nationalities in the Federation;
- Russian Federation Commission for UNESCO;
- The Interregional patronage fund of “New Names”;
The work on this project has just started and has
several stages in its realization. The first stage is working on the
Concept of the Project “New Names of the small indigenous nations in
Russia”.
In the next stage we are planning to have the First
Conference discussing about the problems in finding support for the
young national talents (in the Northern region and Siberia).
Our next steps will be to organize the
participation of the young talents of the small indigenous nations in
the work of the Russian creative school of “New Names” in Suzdal.
After this school, we will have a conference about the results where
there will be rapprochement of the classical and the national
cultures.
This is a possibility of having the third
conference in Kabardino-Balkaria with the participation of the regions
of North Caucasus.
In one of the last stage, we are planning to
organize performances of the young talents of the small indigenous
nations in Russia in the UNESCO Center in Paris.
We sincerely hope that our modest efforts will find
support and understanding among the small nations in Europe and the
world. Now, the world needs peace, spiritual relaxation, and human
respect aspiration towards the beautiful.
This can be found in the young spirit off our young talents who will
live in the third millenium.
Let us hope that, with our help, our young talents
will find their place in this New World and that they will make in
MORE BEAUTIFUL.
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