When searching for refreshments while at the symphony, one can usually find the standard fare of warm soda, watered-down coffee and the occasional day-old pastry.
The quest for refreshments at Sunday’s Russian classical concert at Berkeley’s Pacific School of Religion, however, bore much more fruitful — and tasty — results.
Not only could one procure black coffee and tea from an ethnic samovar. But in glorious Russian fashion, a tray of vodka shots with the optional mixers (for the weaker of stomach) was available on the far side of the room. A further assortment of gastronomic delights — from eggplant caviar (sans actual fish eggs) to piroshkis to a variety of beet-based dishes — was also offered up.
The concert was a benefit for the Berkeley Russian School, which teaches Russian culture to youths mostly from Jewish emigre families.
And for the 150 people in attendance, the Russian ethnicity did not stop with the day’s menu. Featuring seven local virtuosos — Russian emigres all — the two-hour concert offered pieces by Russian composers such as Rachmaninoff, Mikhail Glinka and Alexander Scriabin.
The announcements were in English, but much of the crowd’s chatter was Russian, as were the handicrafts and children’s books for sale at the side of the auditorium.
The school was founded by Yelena Glikman in an effort to ensure that her son George would not lose his hold of language or culture after the family immigrated from Moscow in 1989.
“It’s very important to us that we keep our culture,” she said after the concert. “Russian language and Russian culture are very rich and very good. We want to make sure that our children remember that we brought something from Russia that is very valuable.”
The school was founded in 1995, with five children attending once each week. There are now two locations, with 20 youths between the ages of 4 and 14 meeting on Sundays in Berkeley, and another 15 meeting on Saturdays in Walnut Creek.
Students — about 75 percent of whom are Jewish — learn Russian language, literature, history, geography, mathematics, art, music and musical theater.
“We speak Russian at home, but it’s important for the children to speak Russian to their peers,” said Elena Blanter, an emigre whose two children attend the school. “We want our children to know their roots. It gives them a sense of connection.”
The music classes come the easiest because teachers at the school include Alex Glikman, Yelena’s husband and a former bassist for the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra; Arkady Serper, the former musical director of the Gnesin Conservatory Musical Theater department in Moscow; Elena Istratova, a concert pianist and Tashkent State Conservatory graduate; and Yulia Ronskaya, a soprano singer and former soloist with the Moscow Contemporary Opera Theater.
All performed on Sunday.
The rest of the recital’s musicians — including Olga Ortenberg-Rakitchenkov, a principal harpist for the San Francisco Opera — were contemporaries in Moscow. They played Sunday with a passion, as if to firmly announce the existence of this veritable trove of Russian musical talent in the Bay Area.
The group was accompanied by award-winning pianist Sergei Podobedov, who traveled from Los Angeles for the day to join his mother. She is violinist Marina Podobedova, formerly of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra.
Concert proceeds will go toward current programs and the exploration of other possible classes. One such avenue might be the introduction of Russian culture to non-Russian natives.
While most of the families whose children are enrolled at the school have recently moved from the former Soviet Union, there are now several Americans enrolling their adopted Russian children in an effort to keep them in touch with their birthright heritage.