By: C. William Hanson Jr.

When a young piano student came knocking at my door in 2010, my mental map for Ukraine was then not much better than my current mental map for Swaziland. Serving as president of a small foundation sponsored mostly by family and friends, I had contacted the international student office of New England Conservatory (NEC) that spring and had offered a room for an international student in our home.  Thereupon, Artem Belogurov, then an impecunious undergraduate studying piano at NEC, who was losing his gratis housing in Boston, jumped at the opportunity.  As it turns out, Artem is a superstar talent. It was thrilling to hear him practicing on our grand piano. 

Following his graduation from NEC, Artem has given acclaimed performances on both sides of the Atlantic.  As a soloist or in small ensembles,  Artem has performed piano or harpsichord in venues including Jordan Hall, Harvard Musical Association, the Universität der Kunste in Berlin, the Musikhochschule in Hanover, St Andrews University in Scotland, the Odesa Philharmonic Hall in Ukraine, the Rachmaninoff Society in Saint Petersburg, Castello di Galeazza in Italy, Tivoli Vredenburg in Utrecht, and Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam.  

The large majority of his concerts that I happen to have attended have been chamber music or concerto and not solo performances. Artem clearly loves performing ensemble  music, a love which goes hand in hand with his delight in people and in making music with them. Prior to his return to Europe, his house and dinner table in suburban Boston drew a local gathering of young classical music stars. Among them as fixtures were Harvard trained polymath and harpsichordist Tamar Hestrin Grader and internationally hailed Boston countertenor Martin Near.  Artem’s extraordinary flair for  chamber music permeates his playing in this performance of the  Beethoven Clarinet trio in B-flat Major Op.11

Boston enjoys a worldwide reputation as a center of early music, including the works of composers such as François Couperin (!668-1733), Johann Sebastian Bach (1785-1750), and George Frederic Handel (1685-1759).  Artem’s extraordinary breadth as a musician includes a mastery of such music and of the keyboard instruments such as clavichord and harpsichord on which the music was originally played. 

Artem inspired us to visit his home town of Odesa and to extend our foundation programs to this beautiful Black Sea port, a city of more than a million.

We learned that master violinist Piotr Stoliarsky and his students David Oistrakh and Nathan Milstein, and that pianists Emil Gillels and Sviatoslav Richter all hailed from Odesa.  As Ukrainian ballet impresario Oleksandr Stoianov has commented, “People have a lot of information about the war and politics, but not a lot about our culture, which is very strong and beautiful.”  

Not to neglect to include a recent assessment of the wartime status of Odesa, we quote an official Ukrainian government website update from a few months ago:

How is Odesa living now?

Shelling, sea mines and an increased level of danger. All these facts do not prevent residents of the resort city of Odesa from enjoying the beauty of their city and rejoicing in the arrival of summer.

After the outbreak of the war, many citizens decided to leave the city, fearing its surroundings. However, after 15 months of Russia’s full-scale aggression in Ukraine, the likelihood of fighting around Odesa has dropped to almost zero, as the Ukrainian military has done a good job of protecting the south of the country from occupation.

Now, the population of Odesa is approaching pre-war levels, which means that the city is reviving its former self. In terms of daily life, restaurants, parks and shopping centers continue to operate in the city, despite the fact that Odesa experienced one of the most powerful blackouts last year when the Russian army targeted Ukraine’s critical infrastructure with missiles

With much hinging in Ukraine and in the world generally upon the election due to occur in the USA in just five days, we provide a link to Robert Reich:

In closing let us remind you, please vote. As Unitarians might say, may god, if there is one, help our country and our world.