by framersqool:
This young virtuosa is all of eleven years old; I've seen several of her performances now going back to when she was only six. Wherever she got it, she has apparently had this extreme mastery of her instrument all along, with the self-regard to handle the limelight with good humor and elegance added in.
I'd been familiar with the balalaika, the three-stringed Russian distant cousin to the mandolin if you like, for a long time, but had enjoyed it only in the generally atmospheric sense of how ancient and authentic it makes the folk songs of old Russia sound, until Nastya. The superlative degree of sophistication to which she takes this instrument is something I'd never even imagined possible, and there she is, not even an adolescent young woman yet, showing the world how her country's most beloved traditional instrument is played.
You can see for yourself, in her commanding poise and the lively expressions of her countenance as she plays, that she is deeply invested in the music and plays every note as though from the depths of a soul far more ancient than her own tender years.
Scanning around to find out more about her, I actually watched most of an appallingly idiotic kids' show from Russian state television where she was the guest: it looked as though all the early-teenaged stars of the thing must have been the impossibly spoiled and arrogant children of various oligarchs and high officials, as there was not a shred of talent or showmanship or even basic skill before a camera among them. They were just a bunch of show-offy self-worshippers like the very worst of your average junior-high social elite, and almost impossible to endure, especially since I could pick out maybe one in thirty words in Russian as they made such continual fools of themselves (which, at their age, looks more or less the same in any language...)
And then in walks Nastya. At around age ten or so, she was the youngest on the set, but carried herself with more conspicuous maturity and authentic grace than all the rest of them put together.
I knew enough Russian to add it to the body language and expressions of her hosts (and the experienced tactful restraint of their guest, not to laugh in their faces), and could see easily that they were asking her one stupid question after another: it was painfully obvious that all present were straining to disguise their intense envy of someone so much younger than themselves with so much genuine ability, as opposed to their own affected and excruciating preadolescent posturing.
This young lady, who has sat in that hot-seat before professional journalists and show hosts at least five times her age for most of her life, seems to have been able to handle them all with grace and professionalism since she was little more than a toddler. In this sense she reminds me a great deal of the very small Shirley Temple in the 1930s: a poised and charming girl-child born a grown woman, a natural celebrity in every sense of what this requires, and not pretending to her appearance of composure and discipline far beyond her years, on or off the stage, in the least.
I know very little about her, or her family or education or where in Russia she comes from, much less where on God's green earth she acquired such jaw-dropping virtuosity as a performing artist. But I think we may be seeing a lot more of her, especially if or when the Kremlin's current deeply anti-western cultural chokehold over its own formidable artistic community is ever relaxed enough for a talent like her to tour the world, and take it by storm.
framersqool
thoughts from an aging bachelor of no particular consequence who is in command of more opinions than facts (but occasionally the facts, or the lack thereof) and can make a thing seem worth writing about.
What an absolute treasure she is
So pleased to see this item become the next one our host Clayton does me the honor of posting here. I'd become as bored with writing geopolitical commentary as everyone else must have become of reading it, when this young lady entered my vision of current world reality.
I suppose what with her being from where she is from, the geopolitics won't leave her untouched anyway.
Of late I have also become a big fan of Billy Strings and his bluegrass (plus) act: my sensibilities as a music fan say that Nastya Tyurina and Billy belong on the stage together, because it would take her all of five minutes to master the form and learn some songs, and set those five men quite the challenge in keeping up with her, leaving the traditional music of Appalachia changed in the most unexpected ways from then on.
But will that ever happen? The musicians in the equation could make it happen tomorrow, and the results would be superlative, even if the players didn't speak the same language: they have their own language, and I'd dearly love to hear what bluegrass sounds like with such a stunning balalaikist adding her voice to it.
But with the type of visionless and mediocre individuals who become world leaders instead of artists in charge, such an obvious summit of virtuosi might be off the table entirely for generations to come.
Let's hope not: maybe some fine day, by some miracle, these empty suits running the world's affairs will stand down and confess they've made a right muck of it all for no good reason, and leave the rest of us to manage things on our own. Trying to imagine it being done any worse than it has been, for centuries, leaves me assuming that a world without politics would at least give us some very interesting music to enjoy, and would probably be better in every other respect.
I say, let's get started.