Russian musicians sample Maine

EAST SANGERVILLE – They have toured for years in the United States, but it wasn’t until this week that a group of Russian musicians got a taste of real American life.

Instead of staying in motels and eating in restaurants, the 17 members of the Chamber Orchestra Kremlin have been guests this week of families in the Dover-Foxcroft region.

For one member that meant staying on an American farm and driving a tractor into the forest, while another shucked his classical mode and jazzed it up with his host family.

“We are feeling ourselves like home, we don’t feel ourselves far from home,” Vladimir Margovski, who plays viola with the orchestra, said Thursday.

The Maine tour is sponsored by the Arcady Music Society, which brings classical and contemporary music to central, northern, and Down East Maine. The orchestra’s visit to Maine was possible because of the holiday-week break in its U.S. tour schedule and because of Arcady’s efforts to house the musicians.

Margovski and the rest of the orchestra gathered Thursday with approximately 30 East Sangerville Grange members for a traditional Thanksgiving meal at the grange. It was a treat for the Russian residents, who have no such tradition in their country, to try a few foods that were foreign to them.

Relaxed, the visiting musicians chatted in broken English, some better than others, to guests seated next to them in the warm hall as they munched on turkey and all the trimmings.

They obviously liked their meal from their expressions of pleasure and contentment.

“It’s comfortable for us,” said Margovski. “Maine is a very good state, the people are like Russians, cheerful and friendly.”

Konstantin Ouvarov, who plays double bass and is making his eighth United States tour with the orchestra, said all of the group’s members are from Moscow. He said Wyoming was his favorite spot in the United States, until he came to Maine.

“It’s absolutely wonderful for us,” he said.

Ouvarov said Maine weather isa lot like the weather in his homeland. He said Moscow had an unseasonably warm autumn that delayed the snow. The region typically has lots of snow in October, he said, but the first white stuff fell this week.

Wearing a broad grin and steering with his hands in the air, Ouvarov related how his host, Tom Kemp of East Sangerville, allowed him to drive a farm tractor into the woods.

“I drove through the forest and woods, that was great!” he said. The musician said he felt very comfortable with Kemp because they had the same interests.

Ouvarov, who disliked the store-bought milk in Maine, said Kemp took him to a dairy farm where he discovered “real” milk like that produced in his homeland. It was a treat, he said, because the musicians don’t get “real” milk while touring.

“I almost want to live here, but I’m a lover of Russia,” Ouvarov said. Despite news reports, he said, “We have more freedom than you have in America.”

The musicians found American politics puzzling.

“How can the man who received the popular vote not be president?” Maxim Kozlov asked. “It’s a very serious problem, but for me it’s very strange.” He said he thought it’s “only a question of money.”

Lorraine Kealiher of Atkinson, co-chairwoman of the local Arcady music festival and a host, said she had to explain to her guests the entire process of how a president is elected.

“They were very much interested,” she said. The tired and happy chamber members also quizzed her about fish and game laws in Maine.

The schedule, which has included more concerts than usual, has been grueling, Kozlov said.

The group performed this week in Bar Harbor, Bangor and Dover-Foxcroft. Its next performance is scheduled tonight at the Waldo Theater in Waldoboro. The group departs for Moscow on Dec. 3.