Russian musicologist Oleg Timofeyev has been studying Russian guitar for more than 20 years and will soon showcase his work at the University of Oregon.
After moving to the United States, the Moscow-born Timofeyev developed a growing desire to learn more about his cultural roots by picking up the Russian guitar – a seven-string variation of the acoustic instrument with which we’re familiar;. Timofeyev will provide a recital of the Russian guitar and lecture at 7 p.m., Oct. 8 at the Mills International Center in the Erb Memorial Union.
“The listeners will be transported into the early 19th century,” Timofeyev said, “like a private concert of some Russian aristocrat.”
Aside from performing at the UO, Timofeyev has lectured at Princeton University, Duke University, the Smithsonian and other institutions in the United States and Europe.
Timofeyev holds a Ph.D in performing practice from Duke. In the early 2000s, he discovered music written by Matvei Pavlov-Azancheev, a composer who spent a decade in labor camps. Timofeyev recorded an entire record of his pieces–2004’s Guitar in the GULag. Timofeyev’s other albums include The Wandering Lutenist (1997) and The Golden Age of the Russian Guitar (1999).
His Oct. 8 visit will feature some of the music from these albums, as well as music by other 18th and 19th century Russian composers such as Ignaz von Held and Andrei Sychra. He has accumulated old guitars and music for more than two decades; this aided him in restoring old Russian musical traditions that are not widely known in modern music culture.
“It’s an adventure,” Timofeyev said. “It’s sort of trying new things, discovering new music and having a new look at the music that you already know.”
Calling Russian guitar music “sophisticated” and “delightful,” Timofeyev aims to share the same reverence he holds for the genre with his audience.
For Julia Nemirovskaya, an assistant professor in the Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies Department, music forms a connection between people and their heritage. She said that she was excited to learn about a different culture when she moved to the United States. After a few years, though, she grew homesick, and suspects that Timofeyev’s experience may be similar.
“All of a sudden, you realize that you’re still who you are,” Nemirovskaya said. “We all are from a very rich culture so we go back to it eventually.”
Nemirovskaya speculates that this is one reason why Timofeyev invariably connects his music to his Russian roots.
The Russian guitar makes an inimitable sound that’s distinct from a standard acoustic and characteristically all its own. Fahma Mohammed, a student working at the Mills International Center, could tell Timofeyev wasn’t playing an American instrument when she first heard him.
“It’s from a different part of the world, so it opens your mind and it allows you to understand that there are different aspects to a guitar and different versions of it,” Mohammed said. “It reminded me of music from the Renaissance time. It’s very soothing, very calming.”
Although Mohammed expects mostly international students, aspiring musicians and professors to be in attendance, anyone is welcome and encouraged to attend.
The event is sponsored by the UO Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies program, Oregon Humanities Center, UO Libraries and Mills International Center.