Russian tour 2012

Russian tour 2012

We just landed in Moscow a few hours ago. I had a moment of deja vu, but it cleared quickly. It's nice to be back in this beautiful city with all of its stoic charm and cold weather. I miss the energy and magnificent art work and sculptures that are seemingly present on every corner. (And no, I don't mean the graffiti art either) Nothing like a 12 hour flight and 1n 1 1/2 hour bus ride to get your day going. Speaking of days, I'm not sure which day it is or how long my Wi-Fi access will work, but I do know we leave tomorrow for Siberia. Yes, I did type Siberia! The cold in Moscow doesn't even compare to the cold there. Oh well, that's the life of an entertainer... travelling to the furthest extremes to make people happy and share our gift and culture. We perform in the city of Yakutsk to get things started. I hope to continue tomorrow with more sights and sounds of Mother Russia. Until then, be well all! -mlm 12/2/12 Our first show in Yakutsk went well. We performed at the Yakutsk Republic Opera & Ballet Theatre. We had a sold out audience who gave us great energy and love. The warmth we felt on stage was comforting considering it was -57 F outside. Life up here in Siberia is very cold, but people survive and thrive. This city was founded in 1632. Hard to believe that it's been around for so long! Thank you to all the wonderful people we met and to all the crew and staf that assisted us. And we're off to the next destination... Ryazan. Ryazan was perhaps one of the oldest cities I've visited in Russia. Founded in 1062 AD. It still has a lot of old world charm. The show went fairly well despite a few technical glitches, but aside from that we were pleased! The audience also seemed to enjoy the performance as evidenced by the mob of fans we encountered as we tried to make a quick dash after the show to the train station. After a nine hour train ride, we pulled into Ulyanovsk for a show tonight. Ulyanovsk is on the Volga river. It is a very beautiful city with quite a bit happening for a seemingly remote spot. For miles, before you get to the city, all you see is beautiful countryside. If I am not mistaken, the city is named after Lenin. Ulyanovsk 's show had some major technical issues, but fortunately it was neither the dancers or me who were at fault! Sometimes, no matter how much you do during a tech rehearsal, things seem to get lost in translation come show time… Many thanks to the great audience in Ulyanovsk. It was a pleasure to make new friends and get to meet many of the fans. So glad you liked the show! Thank you for the mad Love!!!!!!!!!! We are back in Siberia again. Following our unprecedented 39 hour train ride, we are now on a 3 -4 hour bus ride headed to the city of Kurgan. We are in rolling in between the cities of Tyumen and Kurgan for the next 2 days. The train ride was quite daunting. We were only expecting to be on for 15 hours, but too our surprise, it ended up being a 2 day adventure. The planes, trains, and automobiles tour continues on. During the ride, we passed over the Ural mountains and rolled through some beautiful countryside. Some of the land lay seemingly untouched. Blanketed in snow, it truly is a winter paradise. It's still hard to believe that we have only done 3 shows in the first 7 days. We've logged so many hours on the road, one would think the tour is nearly over, but "Nyet", 10 more shows to go! Looking forward to getting some sleep and hopefully working all the kinks out for a great show in Kurgan and Tyumen... Ulyanovsk 's show had some major technical issues. Fortunately the audience was forgiving and enjoyed the energy and spirit of our performance! Sometimes, no matter how much you do during a tech rehearsal, things seem to get lost in translation come show time…We are back in Siberia again. Following our unprecedented 39 hour train ride, we are now on a 3 -4 hour bus ride headed to the city of Kurgan. We are in rolling in between the cities of Tyumen and Kurgan for the next 2 days. The train ride was quite daunting. We were only expecting to be on for 15 hours, but too our surprise, it ended up being a 2 day adventure. The planes, trains, and automobiles tour continues on. During the ride, we passed over the Ural mountains and rolled through some beautiful countryside. Some of the land lay seemingly untouched. Blanketed in snow, it truly is a winter paradise. It's still hard to believe that we have only done 3 shows in the first 7 days. We've logged so many hours on the road, one would think the tour is nearly over, but Nyet, 10 more shows to go! Looking forward to getting some sleep and hopefully working all the kinks out for a great show in Kurgan and Tyumen...Our Kurgan performance went very well! It was too cold to really enjoy many of the sites of the city, but the few that I saw will stay with me forever. We are now in Tyumen for a show tonight and then we head to Omsk. We have very little down time, but that is the way it should be on the road… The Tyumen show was fun. We're in the midst of a flurry of shows…5 shows in 5 days. Any performer knows that this is quite a daunting challenge especially when it involves finishing a show and hopping aboard a train or bus for a 3-10 hour journey to the next destination. Sleep when you can. But it's well worth it when you get to play in beautiful theaters for very appreciative audiences. Both Tyumen and Omsk were two of the nicer venues that we have performed in thus far. Not to mention the high quality of the crew and sound engineers. That always makes things nice! Though freezing cold outside, the warmth we feel inside from the audiences is genuine and loving. Is there any reason to wonder why I love performing abroad? Tomorrow we leave for Tomsk. In case you're curious, look it up on a map and you'll be amazed how far we are from home... but if only you could feel the COLD!!!!! Tomsk was a very interesting city. Aside from the -32C temperature outside, inside, it was a city full of warmth! The people there were especially warm and friendly. They truly enjoyed our performance and made us feel quite welcome. The city itself is very diverse. There are a couple of universities there which attract a lot of international students. I was impressed to see that there was a local jazz scene and quite a few jazz concerts regularly throughout the year. I hope to return with my ensemble. Unfortunately our stay was brief and we have moved on down the road to Kemerovo. Thank you to all whom we met in Tomsk for your hospitality. I am truly grateful to have come and performed in your fine city. Kemerovo was our last performance before a much needed and well deserved day off. The show went well with only a couple of hiccups. We were in and out and off to Barnaul so quickly that it was like a blur. Speaking of blur, that could describe our day off. It really was a travel day, but we were thankful to get some rest on the 7 hour bus ride. It waas nice to chill out for an evening, but again it was far to cold to really go out and see the town. Perhaps today I'll take in a few sights... The Barnaul show was almost a wash. By that I mean, my backline arrived very late and I thought I would not have any drums to play. Talk about an unexpected night off. Fortunately Andrey saved the day! Andrey is a young Russian drummer who brought his kit to the theatre so that the show could go on. He is also a drum maker who has started hand crafting drums. If you're in the market for some custom built Russian drums made with Siberian wood, please check him out. (Here's a fact, 1/3 of the world's timber comes from Siberia. That's one to grow on…) We have made it to the third and final week. Only 3 shows remain. We performed in Novokuznetsk last night to another sold out audience. The reception was very warm and gracious. Novokuznetsk is 1/2 of the twin cities. The other is Prokopyevsk. It is in the heart of the coal mine region. We stayed at a ski resort in a remote part of Prokopyevsk. It was very scenic, but also very cold. Along the way, our tour bus developed some problems and was forced out of action. We got a ride on a local city bus and the adventure really continued. Both cities are old and still display much of the typical Stalin style architecture. The theaters, also very old, are rustic, but could use some 21st century renovations and innovations. Tonight we hop on a train for 2 days and after our final performance in Surgut, we take a 3 day train ride back to Moscow and jet out of here… Back to warm, sunny Los Angeles. It's time to wrap this tour up and put a bow on it because Christmas is near.