John Shepard, Union

I discovered the music that moves me during a choral concert tour of Russia and Siberia in 2002. I’m a regular working class guy, a car mechanic from Union, Maine, and for many years I sang with a wonderful community chorus in the mid-coast. Our director, who specializes in Russian choral music, arranged an epic tour throughout much of Russia and Siberia performing Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. It was  a thrilling challenge to sing this long-lost sacred liturgical masterpiece to Russian audiences in their language, and we were well-received, perhaps even “Rach” stars!

This whole experience was certainly moving, maybe even mystical in some of it’s aspects, but I discovered the music that truly moves me while wandering the streets of Khabarovsk, in far east Siberia. We had performed a sold-out concert in that exotic city, a place very different from  Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk back in the west. Due to a strong influence from neighboring China and Japan, Khabarovsk was booming with new construction and lively street action, yet the city retained a tangible sense of it's losses from years of involvement in the war with Afghanistan.
 
While exploring this fascinating frontier one afternoon I chanced upon a wizened old guy playing accordion, “busking” with a couple of younger men who were singing along. These singers probably were veterans from the war with Afghanistan, as they were both amputees using walking sticks while they circled about serenading the passersby. The music was traditional european I think, probably Balkan folk songs and so beautiful! It was haunting and evocative of lost glories, yet inspiring and hopeful as well… not unlike the traditional choral music our group was performing. The accordionist was a master; tireless apparently, as I tossed rubles into his case to keep the music coming. Soon the singers noticed me and came close, encouraging me to join in, trying to teach me their songs. It was a magical hour I spent with this trio, my new comrades.
 
When I returned home, I told my wife about this spontaneous “gig” with buskers on a busy Khabarovsk street, and how much I loved the accordion. It was an unexpected joy when she surprised me with my own accordion as a gift for my next birthday. I found I could plunk out a few songs, and have been a devoted self-taught student ever since. I love this instrument and it’s incredible range of musical possibilities, though of course, my favorite repertoire tends to be those sweet European folk songs.