G.P.

Yesterday was a happy day for me, since I passed to the second round of the competition here in Luxembourg. And not only me, but also my classmates Rober and Yuki and my friend Ivan! It is so nice to have so many friends in the competition - it somehow keeps the atmosphere nice and relaxed and it does not become a bloody battle... Of course it was a sad day to the eight young conductors who did not make it this time - including a few friends of mine as well. I feel sad for them, but this is how competitions are! C'est la vie!!!

Going to see the Grand Duke

The funny thing yesterday was, that we were granted an audience with the head of state, the Grand Duke Henry of Luxembourg! Today he will meet Vladimir Putin of Russia, so we were in good company! Unfortunately I have no photos from inside the palace, but you might guess the interior was royal!!! Grand Duke Henry was really nice to us and asked about our lives, the choice of profession etc. He is apparently really well educated in classical music, and is a regular concert goer (we also heard that opera is not among his favorite pastimes, and that he cannot digest music of Wagner).

Today I will later go and see some of the semi-finalists. At the moment my classmates Yuki and Rober are preparing to conduct. I will not see them but wish them best of luck!

P.S. I later received this newspaper article that appeared in La Voix of Luxembourg on the May 23rd. I was interviewed for this paper briefly right after my first round performance.

I arrived yesterday to St Petersburg by train, and last night I already took a conducting lesson from my old conducting teacher Leonid Korchmar in the St Petersburg Conservatory. I have to prepare Rachmaninov's 2nd symphony for the Evgeny Svetlanov Conducting Competition in Luxemburg, and I really have had no time to study the score, so I really need "professional help" to make the most of my time. I had a great lesson on the first movement, and this morning I had another one on the second movement. Tonight I will try a little bit of the third as well, if there is time after the official conservatory students have had their lessons.

I should have taken a camera with me, by the way. On the way back to my place (thanks Serjozha for accommodating me for this week!!!) i saw a huge poster of my concert in the metro. There was a big picture of my soloist, Kari Kriikku, and his name on dog-size letters and after that a text "the most famous clarinetist of Finland". My name was there also, in small print after the program on the bottom right corner of the poster.

The big poster with Kari Kriikku

P.S. The following day I met briefly with one of the festival organizers. She told me that the poster at the Philharmonic Hall has my name on the top and the soloist below - because I am more well known in St Petersburg! She had even met some people who remember my first concert in SP four years ago! Here is the poster of the St Petersburg Philharmonic...

This poster was on the wall of the Philharmonic