This is not only a spoon! The ethnic musical instrument of Russia”Ложки ROSIKI” is fantastic.

〜AKADAMA Event Report~”Let’s sing Russian folk songs together!”　

Saturday, April 1st, 2017. 2pm~at Sapporo L・PLAZA (music studio 1)

There was still slight snow in Sapporo, but it was a bright sunny day on the day. It seemed like apple flowers were starting to bloom, which reminded me of the first line of a Russian folk song”Katyusha”.Many people, men and women of all generations, gathered in the venue for the event.

Tatiana who was the Russian instructor for this event came to the venue while singing a solo by a famous folk song”Katyusha” at the opening! Then, she greeted the participants in Japanese fluently and told them”call me Tanya” frankly.Tanya, she became a professional vocalist after graduation from the National music academy in Russia and she’s lived in Japan for 15 years.

She livened up the event with her beautiful voice and hilarious talk from beginning to end.

Firstly, everybody tried to play the instrument called “Roshiki”, which was born in the19th century. You might have it as a souvenir from Russia.This wooden instrument in the shape of a spoon is used as percussion, that you play like a castanet.As Tanya said”Roshiki is the instrument,which is actually learned at a music school in earnest in Russia. But, relax and enjoy playing it today!”.Two Roshiki were handed out to the participants and we had one in each hand.The first lesson was how to make a sound.We held them vertically and tapped the backsides or slid them horizontally against each other.

The next was that we held two Roshiki with one hand and struck them on the opposite hand and our lap.We practiced striking them to keep time to familiar Russian folk music again and again.While everybody said”It is difficult!” “oops!” we were gradually starting to get the hang of it.What’s more, the participants were challenged by a more difficult technique,using three Roshik, harder and got better. Their improvement surprised Tanya.

After wrestling with playing Roshiki. It was that time to sing.Tanya gave a lecture on Russian pronunciation to sing the high point of “Katyusha” ~Выходила на берег Катюша.На высокий берег на крутойin♪〜 in Russian.Everybody sang it pleasantly and loudly.

After a break time, Tanya sang a solo gently ”ОГОНЁК(Tomoshibi=Japanese title)” , which is her favorite song.Everybody was entranced by her sweet voice.But, once a drawing game was started to win a card, they got excited.And the five people who won Roshiki, owed a duty to play it in front of the other participants.

Lastly, we all sang ”ОГОНЁК(Tomoshibi)” enthusiastically. Nyapan was touched that all amazing voices became one.

Many of the participants gave feedback , such as”This was more fun than I expected”,”I’ll try to play Roshiki using a wooden spoon at home” and “I want to sing more and more!”

I was so happy to see the deepened engagement between the participants who were smiling through this event.

The sponsor of the event “NPO Sapporo Novosibirsk Association” and AKADAMA JAPAN supported by planning and production.

AKADAMA JAPAN will create and plan international exchange and human beings exchange events with welcome feelings. We are looking forward to seeing you at our events!