Hi! I just wanted to tell you that the concert in Nis was great. Our consul actually drove us there, and we met Igor Aleksic, talented organizer and (judging by what I am told) excellent musician. More about everything later. I need just to go pack, since I am taking off for Romania in a couple of hours.

Update: well, the couple of hours turned out much more accidented than I foresaw. Our driver from Romania wasn't able to cross the border due to the strike of various unions, including the police. Strangely enough, his drivers licence was also retained by the police for a parking infraction. I ended up taking a cab to the border cross (100 km from Belgrade) - I need to say, our Serbian driver Sinisa proved much more resourceful. At the border I was threated with a fine and many hours of waiting for not having registered with the Belgrade police upon arrival (a requirement I was never informed about), and only the good will of the border patrol officer and the intervention of Sonja spared me that additional difficulty. The change of cars happened under the strongest rain I had seen in the last 15 years at least, at the parking near the border (in the Romanian side, of course). The issue with the DL prevented my driver from taking me all the way to Bistrita, so to my ecstatic enjoyment I learnt that I had to wait 7 more hours for a train, in which I was about to spend the night, to arrive near Bistrita at 6am, just in time to start a whole day of rehearsals. Very encouraging.

On the possitive side, I must say that I enjoyed the almost compulsory, dionisiac Romanian-style hospitality of Mihai Olteanu Sr., a renowned visutal artist from Timisoara. It took me 3 hours to eat enough of his generous orders to stop eating without offending my guests. I guess I have ingested enough calories and fat for a whole week in Alaska.

Timisoara seems to be not only a charming city, but also a very artistic, intelectual one, judging by the number of bookstores and their selections, far from any whim of provinciality. I plan on uploading the few photos I took before my camera's battery died out (uff) soon... I mean, as soon as I can crash in a place with a bed, a bathroom and Internet connection. At this moment, I am in an Internet-cafe thanks to the kindness of Mihai Olteanu Jr. who accompanied me here.

So, assuming that the torrential showers and the strike do not affect the train schedule (a thing that, as much as I want to reach my destination, I am seriously skeptic about), I should be taking off in 2 and a half hours to Bistrita, to meat with Francois, from France, and the Romanian musicians that will recreate Tango Rendezvous for these concerts. Wish me luck!

En estos días que llevo aquí, deliberadamente me abstuve de comentar mis impresiones sobre Sarajevo. La razón es muy simple: son muchas, son complejas, son fuertes. Existen lugares tan cargados de connotaciones simbólicas, tejidas a lo largo de los siglos, cuando no milenios, que visitarlos no deja de afectarnos a niveles profundos, niveles que no siempre se prestan con facilidad a la expresión verbal, oral o escrita, y un comentario que ignorara ese impacto sería un comentario superficial, y como tal, innecesario y ajeno.

En fin, no me sorprende enterarme que Sarajevo, entre sus varios apodos, lleva el de "la Jerusalem de Europa". Mis impresiones en mucho coinciden con las que oí de quienes visitaron Jerusalem. Es, en mi caso, una mezcla de reverencia por un pasado que me habla en presente a través de cosas grandes (la arquitectura, el paisaje) y pequeñas - la disposición de las mesas en los cafés, la obvias huellas del turco en la onomástica, el vestuario y el vocabulario, etc., de una alegría sabrosamente balcánica, meridional, que contagia su hermosa gente, y una piedad sin fin por una comunidad que fue el yunque en que golpeara el martillo del sinsentido fraticida - culto nihilista del que, increiblemente, muchos son aun adeptos.

También me retuvo el hecho, para mí penoso y empobrecedor, de que nuestro lenguaje y costumbres literarias propenden a una imaginería eminentemente visual. Y aunque sin duda el viejo Sarajevo es una ciudad visualmente hermosa, y espero, aquí entre nos, que las fotos nocturnas que saqué hayan salido bien, lo más deliciosamente encantador que sentí tienen más que ver con sutiles sombras o matices, y no siempre visuales. Subir a la plataforma que sobrevive a la antigua Fortaleza, claro está, me dio una impresionante vista de la ciudad... ¿pero cómo describir la ráfaga perfumada de azahar que me envolvió en el momento mismo que me sentaba a mirarla? ¿cómo, exactamente, describir la luz verdosa y vespertina que llegaba a mi mesa a través del arbol junto al cual cené ayer, plantado en el medio mismo de un patio interior que funciona como restaurant (cuyas sillas son cómodos sillones de mimbre con almohadones) y tienda de pashminas? Incurrir en el exotismo, o peor aun, el exoticismo, es fácil y es estúpido. La verdad es que todos esos fenómenos - naturales, sociales, humanos, arquitectónicos - coexisten en Sarajevo con la cualidad de lo auténticamente presente, de lo que es auténtico aquí y ahora. Y ésa es una cualidad muy difícil de comunicar, cuando la profusión de epítetos extiende, en vez de acortar, la distancia entre el lector y el hecho.

En fin, solo puedo decir que deseo para Sarajevo y sus habitantes el mejor, mas bellamente sarajevano de los futuros, y que espero, y deseo, tener un rol, siquiera menor, en ese porvenir. De alguna manera, Sarajevo se instaló en mi corazón, y parece que para quedarse.

Yesterday (V/27) I gave a masterclass that extended well into the afternoon. It was really enjoyable, and all of the students displayed a high level of talent and eagerness to learn. Here is the "serious" picture ("nerdy", as one of them put it):

from left to right, Amina, Neda, this humble servant, Najda, Nebojsa and Belma.

After the "nerdy" picture, we tried to improve it and take a more informal one. Apparently, the photographer took the same aproach to focusing and light, so the picture is funny, relaxed... dark and blurred:

Finally, we took advantage of the opportunity to explore new violin techniques, in the spirit of what could be called "the new Argentinean-Bosnian school of violin playing." Here are the results - the reader be the judge ;-)

Finally, we landed (or I landed, more exactly, since Sonja is stopping in another location) in the Hotel Belgrade. The room is rather small, yet it doesn't lack anything (a bigger soap bar would be desireable, though) and it is as clean as any hotel room in the world, and quite modern in its functional decoration. Immediately thereafter, we took off to rehearse the last piece of the program with Almir Meskovic, excellent local accordionist. This was my own transcription of Goran Bregovic's tango "Ausencia"(you can listen to it in its original version by Cesaria Evora here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXfzyc92EuI). I though that Sonja's idea of including a local talent in the concert was a perfect match to my own idea of including some tune that would bridge between tango and the serbian-bosnian world, so I did the transcription for violin, accordion and piano.

I had myself some typical Serbian food, went to get some rest (of course, I didn't) and at 7pm they picked me up to go to the concert.

Running a litlle bit ahead, I must say that I didn't play in a way that fully satisfied me. Part of it was the toll that the lack of sleep and the travelling had taken on me, but part of it was the strange design of the concert hall, with a very low ceilling at the stage level, and a very short stage. This led to me having to stand unusually close to the piano, and sounding as if I was playing into a shoe box (although professionals from the audience assured me that the sound came clean and neat). From another side, the crowd was really numerous (the hall was packed, in fact) and enthusiastic. One of the local professors, Irian Yashvili, happens to be the sister of my own teacher in Russia, and she attended the concert. Overall, everybody seemed happy with the program, and as an encore we did an improvisation (!) on sequences from Piazzolla's "Libertango" with Almir.

Now, in a couple of hours, I will be teaching a masterclass in the Music Academy.

This couple of days have been really busy, which kept me away from the Internet. But here I am, sitting in the restaurant of the Hotel Belgrade in Sarajevo, or, more exactly, in East Sarajevo.

Going back in time, I would say that the concert on May 24 went quite well. After the concert, I had the pleasant opportunity to reunite with Dejan Mladenovic, excellent violist and teacher with whom I had played chamber music 16 years ago in Novi Sad [this was quite an interesting ensemble, indeed: my teacher Marina Yashvili, Dejan, and Hungarian-Yugoslavian cellist Istvan Varga, plus one student of each, playing "Souvenir de Florence" by P. I. Tchaikovsky, in the Soros Fest 1994], and to personally meet Silvia Monros, a fascinating personality and an important actor in the field of Spanish literature in Serbian, who translated major works by J. Cortazar and T. Eloy Martinez into this language. This happy gathering continued well into the night thanks - again! - to the hospitality of our consul and his wife, who invited us to their home. We shared a very touching "Argentine" moment there, since we caught scenes of the (long past due!) re-inauguration of the Teatro Colon through internet TV. On some level, this was important to me, since, inspite of the heavy feelings and overall negative view on Argentina's professional music world with whichI left my country six years ago, it still matters to me. I might wish it didn't, yet I think it's good it does.

On May 25 we played for Valjevo's music high school. They have a small auditorium that, I need to say, exceeded my expectations in terms of acoustic response - playing there was indeed a very gratifying experience.

So, finally we took off to Bosnia-Herzegovina on May 26, by bus. Either we were really lucky, or Sonja's good judgment played in, matter of fact is: it was a totally decent, clean and comfortable bus, and the people at the border (the immigration people, I mean) didn't have a problem with my Argentine passport. Perhaps an opportunity to live a Kusturica-like scene was lost (something along the lines of a very multi-cultural and dirty bus, with chickens and the Balkan band that is a requisite of the genre), but then again, I came to play concerts, so that's probably a good thing.

The landscape, particularly on the Bosnian side (the second half of a 7+hour trip) is one of a charming beauty, and as we gained altitude (this is a mountain region), you could feel the change in the air and the slight drop in the temperature.

And so, we finally arrived in Sarajevo, the city whose name became the symbol of the criminal non-sense of interethnic war. I wished I could have gone immediately to explore it, but I still had a short rehearsal, a meal and a concert before me, so this exploration is something that, hopefully, I will begin in the second half of this day.

However, it is worth noting that the first thing the taxi driver mentioned to me when I sat in the cab is that his son lost both his legs because of a landmine. I have no way of telling whether this is truth, nor am I so naive as to not to understand that he was playing the pitty card on a foreigner to get a better tip... yet the fact itself that such story would sound credible is telling, and sad.

Well, well, I guess I will have to say it: today is my 40th birthday!! Happy birthday to meeeee, happy birthday to meeeee!! :) Yesterday we spend a wonderful evening with Sonja, Gustavo Dzugala (Argentine consul in Belgrade) and his lovely wife Dolores in a tipical Serbian restaurant. It wasn't easy to wake up today after that... but here we are - we took a break from our run through with Sonja (because she needed to run to the beauty parlor to dye her hair!). Tonight it seems that the generally speaking scarce Argentine community in Belgrade will be fully represented. It is funny how small the world is: the mother of one of the members of Salta Symphony, in Argentina, happens to be a long time employee of the Argentine embassy here. Also, of course, people related to the tango fan base (a species of worldwide secular religion, I must say) will be there. 

Hi there! I made it - although I had to run after every single connection plane, in Minneapolis, in Chicago, and even in Frankfurt! Yesterday I arrived in Belgrade, and immediately after lunch we devoted some 5 hours to rehearsal with Sonja Radojkovic, whom I hadn't seen in person in 17 years!! Good way of reunion indeed. Today's a grey day in Belgrade, kind of cold for this time of year. Yesterday also we confirmed that TV people will be in Belgrade's concert. We plan on having dinner with the Argentine consul, Gustavo (more about this wonderful guy later).

It took me a while, didn't it? to get back to this blog. But I am sitting right now in Chicago's airport, about to take the plane to Frankfurt, and from there to Belgrade, and I felt it would be great to chronicle, so to say, the tour on my blog. So, you'll be receiving periodical (hopefully, daily!) updates about my trips and concerts in Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Romania.