Blog 1 Intro

My name is Pavel Dubinets and I am originally from Belarus. My musical background is not as fascinating as I wish it was. My grandmother had a piano in her house, and I have never had any sort of passion to play this instrument. My uncle used to go to music school, where he played the piano, and my grandmother bought one for him so he could practice at home. My mom, just like me, never really like this idea of playing an instrument. Instead of that she was an athlete, so as I. My uncle’s son, my cousin, just like his dad enjoyed to play the piano. Just like his father he went to the same music school and played the same piano at our grandmother’s house. I remember him playing that piano, I really enjoyed listen him playing, but I have never really tried to learn how to play it.

            My music education was not much more than the standard for my school in the late 90’s.We had music class like once or twice a week, from fifth to seventh grade, which mostly consisted of singing songs, learning the basics of reading music, learning about history, talking about different eras of classical music, classical composers, and some modern Belorussian and Russian composers, and NEVER playing a simple instruments. I remember we had a piano in our classroom and only people who knew how to use an instrument could use it, but other kids like me where absolutely restricted from touching it. For me and my friends music class was extra boring, most of the times we were doing homework for other classes, while girls where singing and do whatever.

I have same fear and hope for this class about the audience for classical music. Who goes to classical concerts in Tacoma Washington? This is not like New York City, where they world’s best music halls and venues. I have never went to a classical music concert and this is very exciting for me. I am fearing that it could be empty, but I am hoping that it will be packed and so the artists could get the attention they deserve. I’m also fearing that that lack of formal education on the subject like classical music could lead to fast decline in the audience for classical music, and to destroy such genre that would leave us with other spiritless genres. Less and less movies using soundtracks from classical music, but mostly pop songs. I fear that lots young people these days think that classical music is outdated and not “cool.” I am hoping that after this class I will have more classical music soundtracks on my list.

My hope for this class is that it would teach me to appreciate classical music, and start to support local artists, orchestras, and composers. I am hoping that this class would give me knowledge that I will keep for the rest of my life and maybe pass it on to my kids.  I always wanted to learn how to play at least one music instrument, and I am hoping that this class would be a starting point for me to take one of those classes, either on or off campus.