Project's author...

     My name's Vladimir Grudin. I was born in Lithuania (that's on the shore of the Baltic sea, between Latvia, Russia, Belorussia and Poland) on the 9th of September, 1986 - you can send me birthday e-cards on this date. I've already finished my music school, but I'm still studying there - to get ready for entering the arts faculty of Klaipeda's University. Once I've heard the harpsichord, I've became fond of it. That was an old vinyl and it had some musical extracts on it. One of them was an extract from Bach's Concerto for 2 harpsichords and orchestra in C. Neither the terrible noise nor the awful quality of the record have spurned me from listening to this record again and again. Later I obtained many other records, that were much better in quality and richer in repertoire, but I still remember that old gramophone record.
     In order not to misleade the reader, I would like to make it clear - I'm not a harpsichord player. I even didn't have a chance to play on my beloved instrument. The main reason for that is the backwardness of my native town of Klaipeda. We have only one harpsichord here. It's mainly used for playing in baroque orchestras and ensembles. No concert instrument is present. After all, my musical specialty doesn't differ much from the harpsichord's - I'm a pianist. I've been playing the piano for over six years now, and not that bad - at least, musical ear, sense of taste and musical talent are present. Believe me, I'm not egocentric in this. I've entered lots of pianists' competitions, and many times the jury held the same opinion (though not always, yet they were wrong).
     And it is my musical ear, which allows me to expect that one nice sunny day I would properly enough play the violin - that's my extra speciality. I have started learning to play it almost three years ago (that was the time when I've became interested in playing other instruments apart from the piano, and bought a violin), yet still no visible benefits were gained. I can't even do a vibrato, but now I'm learning to (I would be very surprised, if I manage it). Maybe, the main problem here is that the most optimal age to begin playing the violin is five-six years, and I've begun at the age of thirteen. Of course, the flexibility of my fingers is already not the same, even more so that they are already adjusted to playing the piano, and these techniques are absolutely different.
     Yet I hope in the nearest future I'll have a possibility to study the harpsichord playing. The main thing for me here is to develop a proper technique. As for the present moment, at least when playing the piano, it is not that excellent as I'd want it to be. Another thing is that it's absolutely impossible to find a harpsichord here, damn it!
    And maybe, in the forseeable future, this dream will be realized...
    As for the present, damn it again!!!
    (I'm being a little frustrated, excuse my strong expressions).

© 2003 Vladimir Grudin