Natalia Rojcovscaia-Tumaha
Composer, Conductor,
Pianist, Pedagogue,
Linguist, Writer,
Actress, Painter,
Sound Director
I felt my calling in early childhood. I was born into a creative family. We have always read a lot and it was mainly world classical literature and poetry. We have listened to a lot of classical music from different eras and genres. I'm trained to understand all the variety of art forms. I studied at the art school and my creative works were presented at exhibitions and published in several European magazines. I learned to play the piano from the age of 5, and at the age of 9 I composed my first piece "Lullaby". As much as with music, my life was closely connected with the theater thanks to my parents.
My father, Vadim Rojcovschi (1936-1998), a member of the Union of Theatre Workers of the Republic of Moldova, was a writer, playwright, interpreter, journalist, pedagogue, theatre critic and the head of the literary department of the Drama Theatre “A. Chekhov”. He was a significant figure in the theatrical and literary life in Russia and Moldova. My mother, Valentina Rojcovscaia, is a founder, artistic director and a renowned theater director of the Theatre Union of Children of Moldova “Globe” and the Children Music and Drama Theatre “Globe”, named after the famous William Shakespeare's theater and having existed for over 30 years.
Our Theatre “Globe”, with its unique, incredibly diverse performances, went to festivals and organized them itself, held cultural events in the city, organized balls, musical and theatrical Salons, where we, children, were simultaneously pianists, actors, singers, dancers on the stage, and where sometimes our own artistic works served as the scenery for our spectacles. We were also radio hosts on the Teleradio-Moldova Company for a long time. Here for the first time I felt the volume, multidimensionality, synthesis and interpenetration of different art forms, which became my creative vision.
Over the years, my love for the exact sciences, humanities and social sciences has grown with me. And a special place in my life was occupied by philosophy, spiritual searches and self-development.
During all this time I was constantly writing music. It was, remains and always will be the work of my whole life. And all other activities supplemented my life and helped me to enter my profession deeper. In the process of my composition training, I was lucky to communicate with wonderful teachers and unique creative personalities, who represented completely different composition schools and directions. Thanks to this, I got a full arsenal of knowledge, which helps me to be a polystylist and to freely use all traditional and contemporary composition techniques for my ideas. I like to find new unordinary solutions, but I am always of the opinion that music should be based on strong dramaturgy, be filled with deep meaning and speak directly to the human soul. For me, the work of the composer is working with energies that fill the world and, in general, with the vibrations of the Universe. This is a complex, most subtle therapeutic, healing, purifying and enlightening process of tuning the soul's vibrations to higher divine frequencies.
From an early age I was amazed and always fascinated by the orchestra. I have felt in it a sound source of natural elements, human destinies, energies and vibrations of the Universe. Therefore, in my work, I constantly return to large-scale form of symphonic music, and even when I write ensemble or solo compositions, the performers tell me that I still have orchestral thinking... Is it good overall and am I good at doing this, it's not for me to judge? But that's how I'm made. This is just how I feel the world and the entire world order at the same time.
At the Academy of Music, Theatre and Fine Arts, I also acquired skills in orchestral conducting, which I then applied, conducting my own compositions at the International Festival "The Days of New Music" and other projects.
Today, I work simultaneously on several music, theater, literary and educational projects.
My creativity covers many genres and forms of both Art Music (chamber, choral, orchestral music, opera and ballet) and Electroacoustic Music. I also work in such directions as theater performances, television shows, film music.
As I said before, I love literature and poetry, especially classical, so I turn to creativity by Shakespeare, Bulgakov, Lenau... Now I am in the process of implementing a global and extremely important project concerning the heritage of world literature - the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov "Master and Margarita". On the basis of this novel, I long and painstakingly worked on the creation of the Sympho-Suite "Master and Margarita" for two solo violins, piano, youth choir, orchestra and three actors.
I am currently making a phased recording of each of the three parts of this composition with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Chapel Choir "Moldova" of the Teleradio-Moldova Company for the state fund.
A few words about the concept of this work. My composition "Master and Margarita" combines two equivalent genres: Suite, as the external form of the work that is responsible for the material world, and Requiem, as the form of the higher spiritual order, which is internally hidden in it. Requiem is a parallel existing reality of the Master’s novel about Pontius Pilate and Yeshua, which finds a direct connection with the everyday life of the writer, and along with our modernity. This is the so-called "novel in a novel" by Bulgakov-Master. The problems and questions raised here are eternal.
The appearance of Woland has always been provoked by the prevailing persistently negative atmosphere in society. The devil, who once imagines himself to be superior to God, is now fulfilling his karma through the work on fallen people, thus doing the “dirty work” on Earth. In this way, the highest God's plan lies in purification and universal enlightenment, in approaching holy truths and eternal values. But the trials given to people for their spiritual growth are not always withstood with dignity by them and Woland always has work... After all, the work with human sins is on his conscience... And he comes again and again, from century to century with his mission...
Last year, I was interviewed by William Neil, renowned American composer and producer, for the Symphony Sunday radio program on the WDRT 91.9 FM in Viroqua, WI, USA. The three-hour Symphony Sunday program aired on April 26, 2020 and was also dedicated to the music by George Crumb, Igor Stravinsky, Alexander Scriabin, Johannes Brahms. The culmination of my interview was the world presentation of my Sympho-Suite "Master and Margarita", the first part of which sounded at the end of our conversation.
In September 2020, I was awarded the great honor of becoming the Collaborative Composer and Artist of the MusiCaribe Project International, Florida, USA. Under the auspices of the MusiCaribe Project International, its outstanding artistic director and conductor of the Sympho-Suite "Master and Margarita" Daniel Mattos, as well as with the support of the Samnium University of Music and the international network of Mozart associations under the auspices of the Mozarteum in Salzburg, we plan to hold a world premiere of this work in the Roman Theater of Ostia (Rome, Italy), which will become one of the most significant events of the first quarter of the 21st century and will determine the further development of art as a whole because it is based on innovative principles and synergy of integrated art forms such as music, literature, theater, cinema, laser-holographic projections, etc. This work unusually organically combines both classical secular and sacred music with jazz and swing, and classical cultural foundations along with modern technologies. This is both high art and an exciting mystical show. Together with this work, the public will make a dizzying journey into the time of Jesus Christ, will see his condemnation by Pontius Pilate, who will then be eternally tormented by remorse. All this will happen in parallel with the modern world of human passions, strife and spiritual quest. The integration of times and the similarity of the customs of people, entire nations and civilizations will manifest themselves here. Before the eyes of the audience, there will be a disclosure of common phenomena and processes, human vices and virtues throughout the historical evolutionary path, and they will also be given answers to eternal questions about good and evil, about love and betrayal, about the sublime and earthly, and guideposts will be shown for getting out of today's spiritual and material crisis leading to light, peacefulness, prosperity, harmony and universal equivalence. This is what we have arrived at the present time, which is called correct globalization: this is the manifestation of all complex, but very strong interconnections of everything that exists at all levels, both in the world of people and in the entire Universe - all this will be vividly presented in our work. Therefore, I have chosen just such a concept of combining various forms and directions, showing great diversity and, at the same time, the unity of human and cosmic Nature.
Such volumetricity and multidimensionality of the Sympho-Suite “Master and Margarita” is expressed in timeless reflection:
- similar human vices, levels of thinking, value system;
- problems of morality and spiritual growth;
- parallels between loneliness and incomprehensibility of Yeshua and the Master;
- the scale of the movement of human being;
- evolution of consciousness;
- the all-conquering power of true love and creativity;
- the importance of goodness and creation, as the meaning of life;
- the essence of the balanced coexistence of light and darkness, which make up the general harmony and unity of all things...
I managed to create the Sympho-Suite “Master and Margarita” with a dynamic and exciting drama, to realize in it both the most important and deeply philosophical meanings of the novel, and its stabbing satire along with emotional lyrics, to fill with vivid diverse Bulgakov’s images, to reflect life in all its diversity and at the same time in the internal unity of all processes.
I am infinitely happy and grateful that I am presently married to Vladimir Tumaha, the most divine man in the world, my main inspirer, the wisest advisor, whose many brilliant ideas became our new projects, my producer and music director, that we have four talented children, three sons and a daughter, that I have an incredible mother and brother, that we are all a loving family and a united team, that I am surrounded by amazing colleagues with whom we have many unique joint creative plans. These are, first of all, Angel Daniel Mattos, the head of the MusiCaribe Project International, music director at the Ascension Lutheran Church, pianist, choral and orchestra conductor, composer and pedagogue. Of course, this is Eunice Lebron Robles, oboist and business manager of the MusiCaribe Project International. This is Ana Victoria Mattos Lebron, clarinettist and the MCPI Collaborative Artist. This is Damaris Morales, pianist, pedagogue, musicologist and the MCPI Collaborative Artist. This is Ana Živković, violinist and the MCPI Collaborative Artist. This is Gabriela Tocari, the first conductor of the Chapel Choir "Moldova" of the Teleradio-Moldova Company, a university lecturer at the Academy of Music, Theater and Fine Arts and many other remarkable personalities.
Together with them, we are implementing key projects that are extremely relevant and in demand today. The Vocal Cycle "Hallel" also belongs to them. This work was created for the a cappella choir based on the poems of children of Holocaust victims, written by them during their stay in ghettos and concentration camps. I was absolutely stunned by these poems, because they are incredibly sublime, there are so much spiritual strength and purity in them, contrary to the hatred and horror surrounding the authors of these poems! "Hallel" is the glorification of children's holy souls. The epigraph of my composition is a fragment of Easter prayer and sounds like this: "Trampling down death by death". ''Hallel'' is a poignant composition with a very special meaning thanks to children's poems. Its performance in this pandemic ordeal time of difficult challenges is especially important for humanity. This is another reminder to people that the most important thing is humanity, peacefulness, compassion, responsiveness, kindness and universal unity.
Now the recording of the Vocal Cycle "Hallel" is being prepared for release at the recording studio of the Teleradio-Moldova Company, and then it will also become part of the state fund of the Republic of Moldova.
In Brazil, the Saragana Quartet recently performed and recorded my String Quartet, written in memory of my father. The composition was written immediately after his death and has the character of a light but enormous sadness. Philosophical thoughts about life and death, childhood memories and deep gratitude fill this music.
During the Candle Light Service, the MusiCaribe Chamber Orchestra performed my "Christmas Lullaby" on Christmas Eve at Ascension Lutheran Church. It was a very beautiful and significant event, full of peace and light joy. Then, using a unique technology, a video was made on the drawings of the children of the Theatre Union of Children of Moldova “Globe”. This is also a joint international Moldovan-American project of the Guild of Young Art Creators, the Theatre Union of Children of Moldova “Globe” and the MusiCaribe Project International.
The multifaceted activities of the MusiCaribe Project International are very extensive and concern the holding of concerts, services in the Ascension Lutheran Church, educational and performing master classes, teaching children musical disciplines and performing arts according to the author's innovative methods developed in many ways by Maestro Daniel Mattos, as well as by his colleagues from the MusiCaribe Project International, in which I am also preparing to present soon my method of teaching the art of composition.
This spring will take place the 2nd Audio-Visual Production featuring my chamber music. It is the Quartet "Cogitation" for oboe, clarinet, harp, piano and the Trio "Cat" for flute, bassoon and piano. The "Cogitation" is related in meaning to the poem "Cogitation" by Apollon Maykov. Its first part tells about those who enjoys a calm measured lifestyle, who seeks silence and affluence, confidence and clarity in his live. But gradually the main idea erupts that it is impossible for the author to be without movement, that to think about improving only one’s own life will not bring true happiness, that devoting oneself to the accumulation of material wealth is meaningless, that there is only a path forward to renewal, change, development, aspiration to the whole world, to universal creation. The aim of the work "Cat" was to convey the character and plasticity of the cat, the variability of its moods, relationships with the outside world and its relatives.
At the same time, audio recordings of my piano pieces "Ancient Clock", Nocturne ''Chopin'', "Nostalgia" will be released in Las Vegas, USA, and my Sonata "Appassionata" in Scotland.
I also realized a song "Frühlingsgrüße" for tenor and piano, written on a poem by the Austrian romantic poet Nikolaus Lenau. In my opinion, I managed to write an interesting composition in which the renewal of nature, along with the fragility of the first spring shoots and the life of a child, is conveyed... there is a craving for beauty and, at the same time, heavy thoughts about the needy... protest and philosophical look directed towards the light... and it all ends with hope for a brighter future... It seems very relevant these days...
Also, I have implemented projects with the performance of two of my symphonic works "Philosophy of Miracle" and "Enlightenment". Symphonic poem "Philosophy of a Miracle" based on the play by W. Shakespeare "The Tempest". It has an epigraph, which is taken from a poem “Auguries of Innocence” by William Blake and sounds like this:
"To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour".
This composition, as the winner of the competition organized by the Orchestra Unleashed, was performed in the "El Portal" Theatre in North Hollywood, CA.
The "Enlightenment" was written for the Chisinau International Festival of Contemporary Music “The Days of New Music” and was performed by the Moldovan Symphonic Orchestra on the stage of the National Philharmonic Concert Hall S. Lunchevici. This work is about the meaning of life, about his search, about finding himself in this world. Here the stages of the spiritual and moral formation of a person are transmitted, which goes through a difficult path of formation and development, meeting obstacles and resistance, trials and temptations on his way. This work is about the strength of spirit and the lofty goal of our being, which gives us true insight and enlightenment.
I am immensely grateful for the great privilege and attention that I have received at the international level. There are many newspaper and magazine articles about my creativity, as well as TV programs. My music is performed live and aired on radio stations around the world: in the USA, Canada, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, Ukraine, Russia, Moldova and Africa. My activities are featured on the New Music USA website; on the official Donne: Women in Music - Drama Musica website (UK, London) along with the most famous women composers and I was selected as the Composer of the Week; on the website of the International Alliance for Women in Music and many others. I was also presented by the WFCF Radio Station as the Featured Composer (Florida, USA).
I have many interesting projects ahead with my brother, film director and the head of the Children's Film Studio of Author's Cinema Stepan Rojcovschi. This is a series of short films dedicated to clearly topical themes. Among our works there are films awarded by an international jury. Here I work as a film composer. And recently I won a prize for the soundtrack to the Short Film "I Am Me".
I feel an inner need and a calling to raise important issues through my creativity. Even when I turn to solo instrumental music, I want to work another very important aspect of our life through the musical energies that I call to help me. This also applies to my recent composition "From Passion To Compassion" for solo cello. Soon this work is expected to be performed in Spain, for which I am immensely grateful, as well as for the publication of this article, to dear Rosa María Rodríguez Hernández, a remarkable composer, Doctor of Music, director of ITAMAR Music Research Magazine.
What, in essence, are Passion and Compassion:
We know what passion is hence it is not very difficult to understand what compassion may be. Passion means a state of biological fever – it is hot. You are almost possessed by biological, unconscious energies. You are no longer your own master, you are just a slave.
Passion is lust, compassion is love. Passion is desire, compassion is desirelessness. Passion is greed, compassion is sharing. Passion wants to use the other as a means, compassion respects the other as an end unto himself or herself. Passion keeps you tethered to earth, to mud and you never become a lotus. Compassion makes you a lotus. You start rising above the muddy world of desires, greed and anger. Compassion is a transformation of your energies.
Compassion means you have transcended biology and physiology. You are no more a slave, you are master. Now you function consciously. You are not driven, pulled and pushed by unconscious forces; you can decide what you want to do with your energies. You are totally free. Then the same energy that becomes passion is transformed into compassion.
The idea behind the piece "From Passion To Compassion" is as follows: "It all starts with a warlike human image and his unbridled desire to seize everything and subjugate to his despotic will. The musical language includes both traditional methods of material development and contemporary compositional techniques, which become the apogee of an initially destructive musical image. At the moment of the highest point of tension, the tortured cello comes to life and on a long distorted glissando, the bow, reaching the highest notes, slides off the strings and rushes further to the performer's throat, like an epee. Having achieved its goal, it menacingly stops. Along with this, the music is interrupted and there is a pause, during which only the performer's heartbeat is heard: at first it is quickened, but then gradually calms down. At this moment of cooling and rethinking of himself by a person, the bow returns back to the strings of the instrument and the cello, leading the person behind it, begins to tune itself again: open strings sound, against the background of which a melody arises - this is an appeal to light, mercy and compassion. Music leads us further, inside ourselves, to our soul and spirituality".
Here I express my beliefs regarding the prevalence of technical, constructive thinking in contemporary composition, which has brought a destructive beginning to music. Spiritually destructive. This, in many ways, has become a mechanical craft "from mind to mind" and has ceased to be a high art "from soul to soul."
I advise my students to start with the basics, reviewing and analyzing the works of different composers from different eras, deeply studying and trying in practice their ways of creating and developing musical material, harmony and polyphony in their compositions, working with rhythm and melody, a variety of musical forms.
We have all learned and continue to learn from great composers. Their heritage is our roots that sprout from the depths of centuries and hold all contemporary art. Without them, it will not be viable. Therefore, it is necessary to start from the base, thoroughly following the eras, styles and genres along with the musical art movement. After all, it cannot be said that Tchaikovsky is more modern than Bach or Debussy is more contemporary than Mozart: they are all equal and absolutely perfect, representing the facets of one spiritual greatness of the high culture of mankind. It is necessary to understand how Beethoven or Messiaen thought, what artistic means they used and for what purposes. The role of dramaturgy is also important in the composition, which is often underestimated, and in fact it represents proportional balance and harmonious movement within all elements of the composition.
Without going through this long path, one cannot immediately turn to modern compositional techniques, because they are just additional tools that our time has given us. Of course, they are also undoubtedly needed and useful. It is very wrong to believe that the emphasis in education should be placed on the modern method of thinking, then music becomes mechanical, chaotic, annoying and meaningless by ear. It has a destructive effect on a person and people hardly attend contemporary music festivals. Because there was a skewness, a separation from the spiritual connection of music with the human soul and the loss of its main mission - the cultivation, enlightenment and elevation of the human spirit and its joining the divine principle.
Everything that is discovered in music today is very good and useful for us. All this is a huge arsenal of possibilities that must be used to more accurately express the creative task that the composer faces. It's all like paints, tools and other accessories of the painter, which he selects separately for each individual idea.
It is very good to start simple, with in order to try to convey the movement and character of a particular character or phenomenon. To choose the key that most closely matches it, register, tempo, rhythmic patterns, nuances, articulation, some kind of harmonic consonance. That is, to come up with and create a musical image, just an image. If he turns out to be very expressive, then it will already be a great success, but the most important thing next is to raise him like a real child, to come up with an interesting fate for him with struggle and transformation into something new and even more interesting with gains or losses. It is necessary to be sensitive to musical images, figure out a suitable texture of musical fabric for them and skillfully use means of expression. It should be exciting. And first of all, this should touch to the depths of the soul of the composer himself who writes this. He seems to be reasoning and at the same time creating something alive out of nothing. And then this living creature will become a masterpiece, otherwise, it will turn into an unviable "Frankenstein".
We need to learn to feel energies and vibrations of the Universe. For example, how anger or compassion sounds, how a flower grows and smells, or thunder rumbles. Thunder can also be different, responding to the atmosphere that people also create: it can be perky, spring and young, or it can be formidable and fatal. After all, everything, including us with nature, is interconnected.
These principles will be the foundation of my future opera-mystery "The Tempest" based on the play by W. Shakespeare. But this is a separate big story, which I hope to tell in the next article.
I also found my vocation in teaching and writing. I have already developed special educational techniques, allowing to obtain voluminous, synergistic, internally integrated knowledge and absorb it with greater efficiency and in a shorter time frame.
I called on science, philosophy, psychology, history, linguistics to help myself in order to teach students a wide variety of musical disciplines in a new capacity with an understanding of general laws. Because everything has a wave nature and the sound vibrations is the building material of reality. The perfection of the world depends on their harmonies. And in this eternal striving, music is born. The music of our life, our planet, which grows into the sounding of the entire visible and invisible Universe. Albert Einstein's words: “I see my life in terms of music”, “It occurred to me by intuition, and music was the driving force behind that intuition. My discovery was the result of musical perception." The more enlightened and elevated the soul is, the more subtle it feels, the closer it is to God and through music it is able to speak with Him... and receive knowledge... and create. Each person is created in the likeness of God and is essentially the Creator from the very beginning. "The vibrations on the air are the breath of God speaking to man's soul. Music is the language of God. We musicians are as close to God as man can be. We hear his voice, we read his lips, we give birth to the children of God, who sing his praise. That's what musicians are", - so Ludwig van Beethoven said.
All children are born musicians, endowed with excellent musical inclinations. This is a scientific fact. Any child, even in his prenatal development, responds to the sound of his mother's and father's voices, and after his birth, long before he learns to speak, he reacts to music, its rhythm, melody, tonality, etc. That is why many adults intuitively communicate with children with using various sounds and melodic intonations.
But music is not only pleasure, it is a powerful tool for child development. Taking music is a special sensory experience. Scientists have found that there is no separate area in our brain responsible for the perception of music. Therefore, when we study music, both hemispheres of the brain work. Learning music, we stimulate the activity of a huge number of nerve cells - neurons, as well as establish interneuronal and interhemispheric connections.
Even in antiquity, people knew that the letter and the note are the sisters of education, which are united by sound. In ancient Greece, music was included in the compulsory curriculum. The traditional subjects of the ancient school are rhetoric, dialectics or logic, dance, philosophy, astronomy, where music also takes the main place. According to the ancient Greeks, the seven liberal arts of the "Artes liberales" taught the cultivation of a worthy citizen of the polis - mentally, morally and physically developed, striving for perfection in everything.
According to Pythagoras of Samos, music creates the same order and harmony within a person as in the Universe. And Plato believed that music brings harmony to the souls of people and makes them beautiful. The sooner children start learning about art, the better. Music, singing and dance classes have the most beneficial effect on a child - on his psychological state, mental activity and physical health. This is the atmosphere of high spirituality, beauty and perfection that is native to the child's soul, in which he feels happy, free, protected and confident. It creates a fertile ground for his self-expression, creative experiments, improvisations and, as a result, amazing discoveries and achievements. It's such a joy to know the world through art! Through direct communication with music, he comprehensively develops as a personality, expands his worldview, deepens his intellect, fully reveals his potential, which is the key to successful educational activities throughout all further school and student years, and then successful both professional and personal self-realization.
Here are just a few of the qualities and abilities that a child acquires when receiving musical education:
• multilateral intellectual and spiritual development;
• acquisition of ethical skills and aesthetic perception of the world, culture of behavior;
• kindness, emotional responsiveness, calm and peaceful;
• figurative, logical and extraordinary thinking;
• spatial and temporal representations;
• high auditory and visual memory;
• control and execution of many tasks simultaneously;
• insight and intuition;
• disciplined manner with increased workability;
• ability to concentrate and relax;
• correction of speech defects, development of articulation and diction;
• good coordination of movement;
• social skills (through cooperation in joint music-making process, in choral singing, in co- creation);
• acquisition of the qualities of a leader;
• the ability to set high goals for oneself and achieve them;
• getting positive emotions, attitude and self-confidence;
• be in harmony with the world and with oneself;
• a spiritualized state and a desire to create.
We, adults, those who have already embarked on our own path, must help the child remain a miracle, feel him and guide to the world of beauty. Then the little man will open his heart, and it will never become callous even during period of major challenges, he will be filled with noble and high ideas and will be able to create a happy life not only for himself and his loved ones, but also make his contribution to improving the life of all mankind. It is especially important to give this main impulse from childhood, maintaining in child the pure, divine light of his soul throughout his life. This is my main task and responsibility to people - to help this come true through all my activities and all creativity.
The art is - a mystery. And music is the highest of all arts. I tell to the students from the first lesson: the music is vivid; a heart is beating in it. Music can speak, it has its own special language, understandable to the soul. Just treat music as a friend, manage to hear it, feel it, empathize with it, and it will tell you a lot. For a child, this attitude to the world is natural. He easily enters into kinship with things, toys, animals and plants, reviving and spiritualizing them. With age, this valuable natural property, unfortunately, hides in the depths of the soul or leaves us forever.
Under what conditions is it possible to awaken the artist in a child? Knowledge, skills are extremely important things, but only as an aid to the most important thing - to encourage the awakening of a Human Being through creativity. Because at the moment of creation only one law acts on us, the paramount law - the law of love.
The main thing that I want my students to understand is that music reflects our whole life and all the laws by which it moves. And for the full sense of this voluminous vision, I talk about what music and physics, poetry, painting, literature, psychology, geometry and much more have in common. When they see this in understandable forms, as well as in similar patterns everywhere, the concept of dry theory disappears, knowledge enters into them naturally, deeply and forever.
Thanks to this approach in training, we achieve:
- elimination of information fragmentation, often requiring useless mechanical memorization of the material;
- interpenetration and complementarity of each other educational disciplines, contributing to a better understanding of the subjects of study;
- single subjects are being replaced by integrated lessons in interdisciplinary synthesis. As a result, children receive logically connected highly variegated knowledge, where everything is collected in a single historical, scientific and cultural layer.
In addition, children freely experiment in practice with the knowledge gained, independently attracting a wide arsenal of tools from various fields to achieve their goals, learn to think outside the box.
I became convinced of the amazing effectiveness of this approach during my work at the Chisinau Academy of Music, Theater and Fine Arts, when my students mastered a two-year program in harmony, music theory and solfeggio in one academic year, passing an external examination.
For more effective teaching of the English language to children and adults, I have developed the ArtWay method built on the basis of world culture, where music serves as a guide to linguistic intricacies - it reveals the whole essence of the language and intuitively delivers knowledge to the deepest layers of our memory.
Thus, this method allows in a short time to learn English Language through Musical Art and also to study various musical disciplines in the international language. This means that every language category, from large grammatical concepts to the smallest phonetic elements of speech can be most successfully explained by music means. Music gives the language a familiar voice, intonation, rhythmics, melodics, shows their common formation based on musical and functional gravitation between all elements within single structure. Musical vibrations give us feel the language inside ourselves, its vocalization immediately forms the correct pronunciation and contributes solid memorization. The MusicEnglish Club that I created was the very place where I worked extremely successfully with children of different ages using the ArtWay method. In turn, the MusicEnglish Club is a department of the Theatre Union of Children of Moldova “Globe”.
At the present, we are the largest development center with a history of more than 30 years. We have trained more than 6,000 children of different ages. We are proud of our traditions, authority, achievements, the success of our students and try to keep up with the times, developing our programs and offering new methods for the children's versatile education. I have been working here for over 20 years.
In November 2018, I participated in the International Teacher Forum held in Moscow, where I presented my methods of teaching music and English language (ArtWay method). At the same time, I starred in a documentary film on educational reform "The School of Nobel Laureates" by Mikhail Kazinik, musician, art critic, hermeneutic, culturologist, writer, director, actor, professor of the Stockholm Academy of Dramatic Arts, leading expert of the Nobel Concert, author of the method "Complex Wave Lesson", academician of the Slavic Academy, member of the International Arts Commission, honorary member of the International Writers and Publicists Association.
I won a grant from the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe Erasmus+. In the fall of 2019, I was invited to teach at the A. Steffani Conservatoire, Castelfranco Veneto, Italia, faculty of Teoria e Analisi, Composizione e Direzione.
All this added up my vast experience, which inspires me to further research in the field of art, culture and education. For example, I am working on a future fantasy novel about a musical world full of its inherent heroes and incredible adventures. Its purpose is to educate people in musical science through a fascinating reading of literary fiction, although, as everyone knows, it is the dry theory that is the most boring, but necessary side of any science. But I want to invite everyone to get serious deep knowledge and have pleasure! This is also one of my principles. In addition, I write articles, research, as well as my doctoral dissertation on the theme of the Opera Libretto, which has been little studied in the scientific world.
Over time, all my research and developments in this direction have grown into the Guild of Young Art Creators, which is designed to teach as many children and adolescents as possible to think on a large scale, provide them with support, open up new horizons and opportunities for them. I am infinitely happy and grateful that life has sent me true like-minded people, great personalities, with whom I can embody all these ideas and initiatives. This is, first of all, my husband Vladimir Tumaha - the artistic director and inspirer of our organization, this is my brother Stepan Rojcovschi - an excellent film director and artist, this is my mother Valentina Rojcovscaia - a theater director and pedagogue, these are Dmitri Nikolaev and Alla Korkina - wonderful poets and writers and other top professionals.
Our objectives are:
- implementation of innovative art projects and events based on the interaction of music, choreography, painting, literature, theater and cinema for the development of culture and art;
- creation of new educational methods and strengthening of a favorable environment for learning and creative self-expression of children and youth.
It is also known that music has the strongest impact and influence on a person. Through music and its synthesis with other kinds of art we can convey the most important thoughts and make the evolution of human consciousness, raising it to a new higher spiritual level.
For 6 years now, the Theatre Union of Children of Moldova “Globe” has been annually holding the Children's Film Festival "World through the Eyes of Children", where the works of young and older children participate in more than ten different nominations. Since 2019, the Guild of Young Art Creators has co-organized this significant event. The main goal of the festival is creative communication of children, exchange of experience between them and the continuity of professional skills from adult accomplished masters, encouragement of intercultural dialogue, instilling moral and spiritual values and priorities in life.
Also, the Guild of Young Art Creators conducts educational activities, guided by the same principles and based on innovative methods of educating children. We conduct seminars, consultations, master classes, participate in conferences to spread our ideas far beyond the borders of our organization and country. We actively cooperate with the Theatre Union of Children of Moldova "Globe", Children's Film Studio of Author's Cinema, the Russian Center for Science and Culture and with other major cultural organizations. Our joint efforts make possible many transformations in the upbringing and education of children and youth, give them incentive and motivation for the fullest creative realization and professional growth.
My vital task is to initiate the creation and promotion of new international cultural and educational projects. These will be projects based on the entire cultural heritage of mankind along with modern achievements and innovations. Their goal will be to involve people from all over the world, especially young people, since this is my priority direction, to stimulate the best human qualities in them, to reveal their talents, to strengthen their desire to preserve, maintain and increase the cultural, spiritual and humanistic values, to reinforce their commitment to improving the quality of people life, peacekeeping, peace-building and preserving the natural resources of our beautiful planet. Our bright future is in our children, who, thanks to our wisdom, will be able to imbue our ideals, continue our important undertakings and pass them on, subsequently, to their children along with a prosperous world.
And this will be possible only with total awareness and global growth of the worldwide significance of culture. At its core, culture is the cultivation of the soul. It gives us the ability to hear, deeply understand and feel each other and the nature around us, returning us to our main purpose - to be here, on this earth, CREATORS. Each of us must bring into this world something of our own, unique, inimitable and, therefore, invaluable. Because with the coming of each of us on this planet, it should prosper more and more. Every person is a bearer of a special purpose and a source of inspiration for other people. He is a necessary element of the micro- and macrocosm, interconnection, balance, consonance, unity and harmony of the entire Universe. Art is called to serve this, which from the first days educates us, elevates our consciousness, developing our individual and leadership abilities.
Almost all prominent figures, scientists, activists were related to music, and this says something in its favor! For example, Nobel laureates. We need to pay more attention to creative, cultural-educational projects that will be based on the entire cultural heritage of mankind along with modern achievements and innovations. It is necessary to involve people around the world in them, especially young people.
Because only an increase in the level of culture can stop the spiritual decline, discord in society. Culture is what makes a person civilized, highly spiritual and opens the whole breadth of his soul, expands his thinking, realizes the whole potential of the individual and unites all people on earth, making them loving and caring about each other and about his planet. A cultured person will be honest both to the outside world and to himself. He will be reasonable and will take good care of the environment and climate; his choice will be a healthy lifestyle, rational consumption and responsibly restoration of all resources of the earth, promoting the development of agriculture, caring about people.
All this will help to make the world humanistic, which by itself will solve the problems of violence and save present and future generations from the threat and scourge of war, this will eradicate crime, inequality within and between countries, including gender inequality, this will expanding rights, freedoms and opportunities all women of any origin, religion and age. A cultured person is a peaceful person of the world, positively, broadly, unordinary and creatively thinking and actively participating in building a peaceful and open society, acting in the interests of society and within the framework of global partnership and unity.
In such a broad, all-embracing form, culture creates a "cultural field" that connects us, establishing our harmonious interaction with each other and with the outside world. Culture means cultivation, as an act of creation, veneration for the world by a person, and above all this comes through upbringing, education, enlightenment and, as a result, knowledge of oneself, and through oneself while simultaneously cognition of the whole world.
Culture is a comprehensive notion that has an enormous amount of meanings in various areas of human life and has an unusually beneficial effect on all aspects of our life. And the source of culture is thought activity, spirituality and creativity, which, in turn, is a source of individual and social well-being.
Culture is the basis of art studies, linguistics, political science, economics, ethnology, history, philosophy, psychology, pedagogy and everything else.
The modern term "culture" is based on a term used by the ancient Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero in his Tusculanae Disputationes, where he wrote of a cultivation of the soul or "cultura animi", using an agricultural metaphor for the development of a philosophical soul, understood teleologically as the highest possible ideal for human development. He also spoke about the culture of spirit and mind, which are equivalent to love of wisdom, that are the definition of philosophy.
Samuel Pufendorf took over this metaphor in a modern context, meaning something similar, but no longer assuming that philosophy was man's natural perfection. His use, and that of many writers after him, "refers to all the ways in which human beings overcome their original barbarism, and through artifice, become fully human."
This is where culture leads and this is the surest way and key to all the challenges facing humanity today. And if we underestimate or lose sight of the fundamental importance of culture, we will never fully achieve and realize the noblest goals. In due time, Immanuel Kant, seeing the rapid development of civilization, already then alarmingly noted its separation from culture, which also goes forward, but much more slowly. According to him, it is this disproportion that is the cause of many of the troubles of mankind, since the cultural space is essentially is inextricably linked to the social.
The modern educational program urgently needs cultural content and must include examples of high art with the addition of arts subjects to the educational program, since art is the highest manifestation of culture, this is what makes us creators of ourselves and of all the reality around us. Therefore, in my creative work and in all my cultural activities, I always turn to the most important eternal themes that unite and spiritually elevate people. All my composer's work is based on these principles and concepts with the mutually reinforcing interaction of the arts: this is the Sympho-Suite "Master and Margarita", and the Symphonic Poem "Philosophy of Miracle", and the Vocal Cycle "Hallel" and many of my other works, both written and in the process completion.
From all of the above, it becomes clear that initially it is necessary to bring culture to the fore, simultaneously raising the cultural level of the entire world community, and to solve all pressing issues with the most effective, peaceful and humane tools that culture provides us in abundance.
For our common good and success, it is necessary to conduct as much as possible cultural educational programs, creative events, world cultural actions aimed at full highlight the main objectives of humanity. Through these, both local and global, cultural and creative projects, people, especially children and youth, will be deeply involved in these major and greatest goals and objectives, which will become their natural principles of life.
I am sure that now it is really necessary to raise the most important humanistic issues. Together we can do a lot and change for the better. Because culture is the main thing that makes us human and helps society achieve complete unity, harmony and prosperity.
"Great deeds await us"...
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