Interview

Vladimir Sheiko. Position

TV-channel "Culture", November 2015

 

 

The formula of happiness: the man is happy at work, happy at home. And tomorrow - the same thing repeats again, on a daily basis.

 

For example: a person begins to work as an ordinary worker, then a chief of something, rising higher. He dreams to be a top boss. But even

if he becomes the first person in the country, he will not become God. It is difficult to touchGod. I was lucky to manage a lot of people who

trust me, being only just 26 years old. Therefore, there were no problems of basic power and control of many persons…

 

I'm from a musical family, my parents are choirmasters. My mother graduated from the Kharkiv Conservatory and my dad graduated from

Donetsk Conservatory. My mother was a leading choirmaster, so I always was near the choir. I knew all Requiems, Stabat Mater by heart.

When I began to conduct, I thought: How I know where it came from? - it was from my childhood. I was a musical child, fond of singing.

However, I didn’t like to play piano. I put a literary book instead the music score, and practiced my 45 minutes, an hour or more reading.

Also then I wanted to go to the maritime academy. After the 7th form I wanted to become a musician, and further – military musician on a ship.

And then it was only the desire to become a musician. Thus I became a civil musician. I studied at the Poltava College which has produced many

famous people: Victor Skoromnyy- Ukrainian Radio Choir leader, V. Lytvynenko, D. Ostapenko.

 

Since I graduated from the conservatory in 1988, I do not feel that I and my feelings have changed. Probably, my experience of working with people

has changed psychologically: personally I expect less from people in personal cases. People read different books, so they have to know that the

"antithesis" is attached with the sweet spice-cake. Otherwise, you will come to a blind alley. Basically, I am a very collegial person and it is very

interesting to work with creator. And when you establish such relationships with musicians, wishing them wellness, you will expect nothing back. But

I am happy that I passed the path.

 

I left the theatre suddenly. It’s happened that I was invited to head the Ukrainian Radio Orchestra and had to decide quickly. We had turbulent events

of all kinds in theatre, but in recent years everything was balanced. And when artistic director said that I leave the theatre, suddenly all theatre rose up,

someone cried. It was very strong impression. It is a great gift from people to me.

 

I like movies, but for lack of time I only watch news. It doesn’t matter in what country I am, such is the time. In principle, the movie is a very interesting

area and I want to combine our art with the cinema. It is the so-called symphonic movie. We take 80 minutes formats and make movies instead video clips.

Well, for example, there is a cool work by Ivan Nebesny - "Message from Ukraine" for symphony orchestra, electric guitars, male choir (choir monks) and

organ. It's very cinematic moment; there are a birth of beauty, destruction, and such a postlude. But once we made a video for cantata “Biut’ porohy”

(The Rapids Roar) by M. Lysenko. It was an 8 minute film. And our concert hall –Big Concert Studio became multimedia studio. We designed this film in our

studio. Personally, I have a cinematic vision of music. The conflict, the way out of thisnconflict and personification of this conflict – all this is very important for

me. The form is growing and becomes interesting history from this point onwards.

 

Many works are very fresh; we know nothing about some of them. They lie in a drawer and nobody can play them. And it is good that we have such festivals –

as “Season’s Premières” – a major international new music festival that takes place in Kyiv every year since 1990 and exposes many contemporary composers

of many styles. There we can perform these works and we try to play all quality works or as many as possible, in a workmanlike manner. It could be a great loss

if a new composition has a spark of talent that we did not notice.

 

In spite of difficult conditions of our existence and survival, we have a very good team. At least everybody say that we have bright aura. People go to work

with pleasure and this is very important and if they return home with great pleasure, they are happy people. This doesn’t amount with quantities of money,

it would be better to get more of course. But if a person is running for big money, and cursing the place where he works, it is really scary. Everyone in

the orchestra understands, that we must maintain an aura of friendship, good attitude to each other. There are people who had different behaviour, now they

have changed. It's nice and I am grateful to them that we live in such atmosphere.

 

In concert tour the orchestra calms and organizes. They know that there are clear rules from the moment when they enter the theatre. They clearly know

when to drink coffee or tie a knot. Next – concert, hotels. The routine is very much like in an army. And when the orchestra returns home to Kyiv, they are

very different from people that stay in Kyiv.

 

- Man and professional ... What is it, professionalism?

 

I think we should start from “perfectionist”... Professional “unperfectionist” – is not a professional. Otherwise, he will not learn anything… There is no

adaptation, it's always a new story.

 

We do not collect full halls. They fill by themselves. We do not make an advertisement and do not distribute it. Performances in Kyiv are the most difficult.

This is a capital with the well - educated public, which is spoilt in some case. So, it is more difficult to play in Kiev Philharmonic Hall with 500 seats

than in Concertgebouw or Auditorio Nacional in Madrid. So every concert is an event for us. This is not the ordinary phenomenon. Abroad, because we are

interested to return, it is important to gain an audience that will come on the name of the orchestra and we do this. I do not understand after the concert

how we played all this, in such quality, such elevation. Only in this year we performed great concerts of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Rachmaninoff’s 

Symphony No.2, Verdi's Requiem. And I am grateful to people who put the soul into the music during the concert. I am proud of them, I did not play,

they have played!

 

My dream is to do nothing, to conduct till 2 pm and go home to drink tea or talk on high themes, however, life dictates its own rules. We must do something

to go forward. Unfortunately a lot of things are happening not because of, but in spite of. Our ephemeral art lives only in time, it does not exist in other forms.

There is a lot of music that I have not yet played. So, I must go the way with new characters, new images. There is a huge amount of music for self-expression.

We have all opportunities for implementation of ideas: choir, orchestra, the biggest stage in Kiev. There is always a motion in creative work so the dream is ahead

all the time. Applause is not just pleasant for artists. They return something to the people who gave part of their souls on some energy level. They sent sincerely

spirituals efforts to the hall. Applause returns some of the heat that the artists gave to audience. Otherwise, applause would not be so desirable. And the

musician realizes when the audience applauds, valuating it, and when supports. Artists just feel it ... This is an important point for the musician.