PAUL WINTER WOWS YEKATERINBURG
Despite the lingering presence of snow in Yekaterinburg, Paul Winter brought a note of spring cheer to music lovers at a concert on Sunday evening, April 12, 2009. The performance comprised the second night of the Izumrudniy Gorod (Emerald City) Festival that featured international and regional musicians for a week-long celebration of jazz, traditional, folk, flamenco, and other styles of music. Paul Winter was sponsored by the U.S. Consulate General in Yekaterinburg as the diplomatic mission’s gift to the city on the occasion of its Fifteenth Anniversary. The event was introduced by Consul General Tim Sandusky and Deputy Minister of Culture of Sverdlovsk Oblast, Pyotr Stepanovich Strazhnikov. The Emerald City Festival was the fourth annual event and the second time that six-time Grammy Award winner Paul Winter has performed in Yekaterinburg. Last year he performed with his own group “The Paul Winter Consort.”
This year performing with the locally well known group “Izumrud,” Paul Winter enthralled the audience at the Musical Comedy Theater with his very personal brand of “World Music.” Sometimes labeled Eco-Music or Earth Music, the sounds of whale calls and wolf howls were combined with Paul Winter’s soprano saxophone, uniting the voices of nature with the unique sounds produced by the Russian folk instruments played by Izumrud. The effect was sheer magic, accentuated by a cosmic backdrop of a cratered moon and snowy mountains. Paul Winter also played a duet with the nationally renowned Bashkir musician, Azat Ayitkolov playing the kuray, the traditional Bashkir flute. Paul Winter’s twelve-year old daughter Kitu, who accompanied him on this trip, won the audience over with her Irish step dancing performance. Also sharing the stage that night was a dynamic duo from Tomsk calling themselves “Las Cuerdas” as they played Russian-flavored flamenco with guitar and dombra.
The week before the concert, Paul Winter held a press conference at the Sverdlovsk Academic Theater of Musical Comedy that co-sponsored the event. Answering questions with Theater Director Mikhail Safronov, PAO Chris Istrati, and Izumrud Musician Sveta Solovyev, Paul Winter explained his fascination with Russian culture, music and geography. He told of his trip to Lake Baikal in the 1980s which he related to America’s Grand Canyon as a unique world feature, and also his friendship with Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko who served as his Russian cultural interpreter. Paul Winter shared his fascination with the sounds of the world’s cultures and revealed his next project as a documentary musical journey following the migration of storks and cranes from South Africa to Russia.
At a reception at the Consul General’s residence on April 8, Paul Winter was treated to a documentary film made by Vice-Consul Christopher Van Bebber in Glen Canyon, Arizona six years ago. Paul Winter had never seen the film that featured him playing the saxophone while standing on a boat at the bottom of the beautiful canyon cliffs. The film examines the possibility of restoring the ecosystem of the Colorado River forty years after the construction of Glen Canyon Dam.. The coincidence that Paul Winter should see this film in Yekaterinburg six years later was quite amazing.
The U.S. Consulate General in Yekaterinburg is dedicating its Fifteenth Anniversary – our “Green Fifteen” -- to focus attention on climate change and the need to conserve resources.