This was the second concert we offered to kids. We borrowed the clarinet and saxophone from one of Omsk music schools. Ricardo Ortiz, Pavel Kloson and Mila and Nika Shestakova rehearsed for a couple weeks at our home. The program included both classical and modern pieces topped by Riccardo’s improvisation.
A lot of life ties were curiously intertwined in this event. Through my long term collaboration with the University of Texas at Arlington I get connected with UTA’s graduates who come to Omsk to Omsk State University to study Russian and some of them work with Webilang as English language tutors. Ricardo Ortiz has been studying and living in Omsk for the last 2 years and has become practically an ‘omich’. He works for Webilang, teaching English to kids and adults. Pavel was born in Nizhny Novgorod, lived there for 5 years, then moved with his family to France where he lives now. Hу graduated from Sorbonne University in Paris and came to Omsk State University to study tourism. We became friends and Pavel joined our collaboration with Omsk orphanages. With the help of Allies in Youth Development we fine tune the pianos in both orphanages where we organized the concerts. The kids promised to respond with their own concert and I will post pictures from it soon.