During December 6-8, a rather unusual seminar for all aspiring musicians was held in Khmelnytskyi, which touched on the topic of the musical Jewish heritage of our city. Few people know that the Proskuriv klezmer - Jewish musicians - left behind a unique mark on the musical heritage, which is extremely valuable for ethnographers and, in fact, musicians.
The seminar was held at the Thiia Community Center, located at 58/1 Kamianets-Podilskyi Street, under the auspices of the Khmelnytskyi Charitable Foundation Hesed Besht and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Its lecturers were guests from Moscow: Ilya Saitanov and Alexandra Skvortsova. Previously, these people were involved by the Joint for musical accompaniment of various events, but over time, the idea arose to create a project of seminars in various cities of the CIS with the aim of reviving musical traditions and studying local heritage. In addition to our city, similar events are held in Tula, Rostov-on-Don, Tbilisi and Chisinau.
Paradox: people from another country come to different cities to teach local musicians the melodies of their land. In fact, according to Ilya Saitanov, there is nothing strange or bad about this. That is why researchers of musical heritage are needed to know the origin of certain melodies and conduct educational work, returning them to their native places of performance. For this, archives and libraries are being studied, in particular the sound library of the V. I. Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. “Our goal,” the teacher said half-jokingly at the final concert, “is for us to come visit you after some time, and then they told us: ‘We don’t need you and your music – we remember our own’.”
The seminar was attended by interested musicians from all over the country. The youngest participant, violinist Bohdana Skutska from Polonne, was thirteen years old. Over the course of three days, the artists had the opportunity not only to learn about the history of Proskurov's music, but also to study musical parts for their instruments or vocals. The final event of the seminar was a mini-concert at Khmelnytskyi Children's Music School No. 1, which took place on December 8 and was open to all comers. In his opening remarks, the director of the Khmelnytskyi Children's Music Foundation "Hesed Besht" Igor Ratushny emphasized that the culture of our region is closely intertwined with the cultural heritage of many nationalities living here, and the task of such seminars is to preserve and multiply this heritage. Collectively, the seminar participants performed five compositions, including niguns (Jewish "songs without words"), songs, and instrumental compositions, focusing the audience's attention on those moments that were unique to the performance only in Proskurov.
