Contests, festivals, tournaments

From November to April our girls had a lot of musical contests in which they participated. The twins were playing flutes with their group of girls and took second place in the international festival .

Here they are goofing around on the piano  in their classroom while waiting for the results.

With their group and their teacher, Bayan Beketovna.

On stage receiving the award.

 Veronika and Polina formed a duet which they called Americano and performed at a Russian Talent Festival where they also took second place in the string instruments category with a Sting's song "Shape of My Heart".

Showing off their certificate

 Later they played and sang the same song at the National Contest for young guitarists and won "Judges' Choice" award.

Polina and Sophia took a carving class for the last two years, and this spring their work ended up at some contest as well.

Polina's spoon in the shape of a parrot.

Sophie's spoon with a tree branch and a ladybug.

 At the beginning of March our figure skating coach texted me that all of our girls are urgently needed for the Opening Ceremony of the International Youth Hockey Tournament. So, our girls and a few others from their synchronized figure skating team went. Some girls were leading teams out on the ice, and others were carrying flags of the countries of the participating teams (there were teams from Belorussia, Slovakia, China, Kazakhstan, and two teams from Russia). The girls only had two practices (just like about everything in Kazakhstan, it was a last minute deal) but did very well.

Waiting for the practice to start.

Getting instructions from the tournament organizers in the biggest hockey areana in the country.

Before the Opening Ceremony. The girls in purple t-shirts were the ones leading the hockey teams on the ice (Sophie is second from the left, Lina is fith, and Lexa is last), and the ones in national costumes were carrying the flags.

Flag bearers. Nika is in the national Slovak costume.

The teams were coming out of this big snow lepard (a mascot for the national hockey team).  You can see Lexa there in a purple shirt who was the first one out with her team from Russia who ended up taking the first place in the tournament.

There is Sophie with her team from Slovakia (in blue) and Nika carrying their flag.

Nika

Lina with her team from Kazakhstan (also in blue)

In front of Barys Hockey Arena

Random pictures of our regular lives

In the attempt to catch up I am going to throw in here several pictures that highlight our life in the three months of fall. We had a couple of birthdays, that is mine and Spencer's. On the morning of my birthday which happened to fall on a Saturday the girls made us stay in bed while they cooked a delicious breakfast of coffee cake served with ice cream and homemade pecan candy. Any mom that gets a breakfast cooked by kids is a lucky one! I was twice as lucky because I got a cake, ice cream, and candy to begin my day!!! Then to top it off Spencer took me out for lunch! 

Spencer's birthday fell on a Thursday which is a busiest day for him. But the kids came to the rescue here as well: while I took Spencer out for dinner after his very tiring day, Lina cooked a delicious meal for her sisters all by herself. And when we came back, we had German Chocolate cake to finish our celebrations!

In October we had our annual fall breakfast with Spencer's basketball team. This year four more girls joined the team.  There are a total of 13 girls on the roster.

On Halloween, the girls totally made up their own costumes.  Lina was a robber, Nika was Baba Yaga (Russian fairy tale witch), Lexa was a devil, and Sophie was a special forces soldier.  They had a good time trick or treating in our apartment complex.

At the end of October and beginning of November the girls (Lexa, Lina, and Nika) had a few guitar concerts.  The first one was with their classmates at the Children's Palace.  Nika and Lina also had an additional concert at the Russian Culture Festival.  In November, the Children's Palace sponsored its first International Youth Talent Festival with teams from Russia, Ukraine, and other post-Soviet states.  Our girls played a guitar piece with their group.

Lexa is the only lefty in her group of first-year students.

The kids and their teacher posed for a group photo.

Also during November, Nika and Lina had their first track meet of the season.  Nika ran the 150 meter race, and Lina ran the 60 meter race.  They both did well, and Nika placed 4th in her age group for the entire city.

On their way to the track meet.

Nika warming up.

Lina after her run.

The kids that Nika's and Lina's coach coaches (the coach is in the middle in light blue sweater.

In November we almost got a cat.  When we returned to the university from the mall one evening, this kitten was at the entrance of the university meowing.  Our three youngest managed to get it to follow them (and carried it, too) all the way to our apartment.  After we fed it, we took it downstairs and put it outside while sending a message to everyone about the possibility to adopt the cat.  The girls almost talked us into keeping it, but not quite (both Spencer and Nika are allergic to cats).

Lexa using her "Pleeeeease, mom!" look.

Babushka came over from Russia a few days before Thanksgiving, and Spencer made it back from his conference in America soon after, so we had our whole family for Thanksgiving. We didn't have school that day, and so the girls were extra happy! I managed to find a big turkey (those are hard to find in Kazakhstan, and they are very expensive), so we had a nice traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

 One Sunday evening in November the girls had an impromptu concert. They dressed up, made a program, and performed all on their own!

This was our fall. December brought us new adventures but more about that later.

Kazakh Folk Instrument Concert

The Expo has begun in Astana.  Besides the actual site with all of the pavilions, the city is geared up for visitors to come and experience Kazakhstan.  Yulia was looking at the different events and found some tickets to go and see the Tlendiyev Kazakhstan National Ethnic Folk Orchestra.  The orchestra plays traditional instruments (like the ones our university orchestra plays) and plays both Kazakh traditional music as well as classical music.

Yulia got tickets for us and told our friend, Ramona, who got tickets for herself and her girls as well as a few friends.  The concert was held at the new ballet theater, which is only about a mile from our house - within walking distance easily - and which we hadn't yet been to.  We dressed up and took the bus two stops and then had to walk about the same distance up the road. The theater is beautiful on the inside and out.  It is a modern style, but since the opera theater is classical, it is a nice contrast.

Some "plant" sculptures on our walk to the theater

On our walk to the theater. Behind us is a row of flags of all of the countries participating in EXPO

A view of the main EXPO building from the theater

Ladies

Our crew at the Ballet Theater

We didn't realize that the twins dressed this way until we got here. If you are wondering what's up, here is the deal: they are wearing Indian shirts (Native American) and Indian skirts (from India)

The chandeliers were incredibly beautiful.

Yulia and I waiting for the concert to begin.

Girls and Babushka before the concert. 

We had bought our seats online.  We sat down (about fifteen minutes early, so VERY early in Kazakh time) and had two groups of people come and try to sit in our seats.  They had hand-written tickets from the expo.  We guess that they had reserved blocks of ticket for there, but that the reservation system wasn't quite synced.  The ushers told us to stay and put the other groups in seats around us.  When the concert started, the theater was only about 2/3 full, which was a shame because it was a very nice concert.

The repertoire consisted of traditional songs with guests vocalists, classical operas, and classical instrumental music.  There were a few songs where they had different instruments doing solos and that was really neat.  We love the round clay flute especially.

Solo number with a violin-like instrument that is held between the knees.  This was probably the most beautiful song overall.

The final bow with all the conductors and singers. 

We had a wonderful time.  When the concert was over we walked to the new mall and had McFlurry ice cream at McDonalds and then walked the rest of the way home.  It was a lovely evening and a lovely concert.

On our walk to the Mega Mall we passed some EXPO buildings. They were still doing some work in places even though EXPO opened the day before.

McFlurries! Yum!

Spring Concerts

NU Orchestra Concert (April 2017)

For the past three years, the highlight of the spring season has been the end of year choir concert.  This year, we had an additional treat - the first ever concert by the NU orchestra.  The NU orchestra is a combination of folk instruments and traditional instruments and they play a combination of classic Kazakh music and songs from music and television.  Their biggest hit is playing the theme song form the BBC drama "Sherlock" and the theme song from game of thrones.

Traditional flutes

Traditional Kazakh song with guest singer from musical university.

The group formed from students sitting around in the evenings playing together and now they have an adviser who is a leading ethno-musicologist who helps them learn how to play some traditional instruments that have not been used for a long time (like a little oblong flute).

This year I have one of the girls on the basketball team who is also in the orchestra.  She plays the dombra, a two-stringed instrument (see it here).  She asked me if Yulia and I would like to come to the inaugeral concert.  Of course we couldn't turn down such an invitation, so we went.  We were lucky to be given VIP seats next to the university president and other "real VIPs" and to have a great seat in the new student theater that opened this spring in the student dormitory complex.

Game of Thrones Theme Song (Blindfolded)

The concert was fantastic.  They played very well, and the music itself was lively.  They had a few student hosts, one of whom is my student, and they were genuinely funny and very charming.

Orchestra playing blindfolded to demonstrate proficiency

The highlight of the concert was a traditional battle of dombras when four of the boys spent about 8 minutes doing various things to show that they were the best players.  It was very cool.

Sherlock Theme

Traditional Kazakh Song

We also attended the spring choir concert (the next day) and our whole family was given the VIP treatment.  The girls' participation with the choir has made us a VIP family with the choir.  The concert this year was one of their best.  They had good group numbers and fun individual numbers.  The students went a bit overboard with the dramatic story that they tried to tell to put the whole concert together, but it was a lot of fun. Leaving the concerts we had the feeling that when we do decide to leave NU and Kazakhstan, it will be a very hard day.  For as many small (and sometimes large) frustrations that crop up, we genuinely love the students and the interactions that we have with them.  They are great kids.

NU Choir

NU choir voted Nika to receive their Best Soloist of the Year Award for her performance in their Winter Concert