Alexander Viazovtsev hymyilee huilu kädessään.

From recor­der to a flu­te

Alexander Viazovtsev loves playing music

Alexan­der Viazovt­sev is a Rus­sian flu­tist in the Joen­suu City Orc­he­stra. He went from sout­hern Sibe­ria to the USA and ended up here, in the city of Joen­suu. Alexan­der joi­ned the orc­he­stra a few years back in the Octo­ber of 2017. He and his wife have enjo­yed Fin­land and Joen­suu so far, tel­ling that it’s a won­der­ful city.

– I don’t like big cities, so Joen­suu is a per­fect size.

After living and stu­dying in Rus­sia, Viazovt­sev lived and wor­ked in the Uni­ted Sta­tes of Ame­rica for a long time. Then he had heard of an audi­tion in Joen­suu and deci­ded to come. And as you can alrea­dy figu­re out, he as a mag­ni­ficient musician got the job.

Star­ting with the har­dest instru­ment

Let’s get back in time when Alexan­der lived in Sibe­ria. When he star­ted stu­dying in Rus­sia, he didn’t start music with a flu­te. He saw someo­ne playing a recor­der on TV and wan­ted one from his mom.

– I wan­ted a toy. Lite­ral­ly. I wan­ted somet­hing to play with, he explains.

And so when he was six years old, his mot­her gave him a recor­der and got him music les­sons.

Alexan­der wasn’t big enough to have a flu­te, so he played a picco­lo for the first few years until he grew up a bit and could start playing a real flu­te.

– I was playing a picco­lo, which is a very ter­rible choice when you start on flu­te, Alexan­der tells.

– To start with the har­dest instru­ment of the fami­ly, he explai­nes.

The cul­tu­ral dif­fe­rences are big

Rus­sian music cul­tu­re and stu­dying cul­tu­re are both dif­fe­rent from ours. The teac­hers are more deman­ding, pus­hing you to the limits with no stop­ping.

– They eit­her break you or make you, the flu­tist sta­tes.

The Rus­sian music cul­tu­re still has a lot of influence from the Soviet time. Even though the count­ry is still full of pover­ty, the citizens enjoy cul­tu­re and enter­tain­ment.

– I think people in places like that real­ly enjoy cul­tu­re. Enjoy enter­tain­ment because they need to for­get about the eve­ry­day troubles and feel bet­ter, Viazovt­sev pon­ders.

I wish I were a truck dri­ver

Alexan­der doesn’t con­si­der his job a job. He thinks that he’s just very luc­ky to get paid for a hob­by he loves doing. “Do what you love doing, get paid for it and you will never work again”.

– It’s great to play music, great to be playing music for people. It’s won­der­ful.

Alexan­der also has a few other hob­bies, which are not as serious as this. For example, he likes com­pu­ter games and sports. Viazovt­sev used to do boxing, but he has to be care­ful with his fin­gers and face, since they are a vital part of his job.

– Some­ti­mes I wish I were a truck dri­ver so I could keep up my boxing hob­by, Alexan­der jokes.

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