“I am already composing music dedicated to Paris…”

Readers of our newspaper are well familiar with the “young star” Varia. In March of 2013 Varvara Vasylieva, fourth grade student at the time, became the first Ukrainian contestant of the Bravo International Music Competition in Belgium, where she won the first prize in her age group – among the youngest participants (10 years old and younger). A few weeks before it happened, the friendship between Varia’s family and The Day began. When it became known that the girl has a chance to perform at that festival, her parents began to look for opportunities to pay for the travel expenses to Belgium and back for the girl. This search led them to Den/The Day editorial office… We, in turn, appealed to the Myronivsky Khliboproduct Company, which provided financial assistance to the young violin player. After this we started to carefully keep track of all the achievements and victories of Varia, genuinely enjoying how confidently and purposefully the girl implements her dreams. Soon another amazing story happened. And it’s also about making dreams come true!

On May 17, 2013 in the historic courtyard on Andriivsky Uzviz “Foundation in Support of the Newspaper Den’s Initiatives” gathered like-minded people – friends, partners, readers, and the staff of Den newspaper. Varia was invited to play on that spring night. She charmed the audience performing Etude No. 25 by Jacques Fereol Mazas and a fragment of the third part of the Concerto No. 9 by Luciano Berio. She also had the task to choose the winner of the lottery with the main prize being airplane tickets to Paris from “Aquavita Tour” company, by pulling out someone’s business card from a vase… The lucky business card was Yevhen Marchuk’s and he immediately gave the tickets he just won to the young violin player. The moment was even more special because the day before that concert night Varia wrote an essay about her dream to visit Paris…

Recently Varia with her mother Yulia Pasichna and a young sister Melanka came to Den’s editorial office to tell about Varia’s new achievement and victories and to share their impressions of the French capital.

“GERMANY: WORLD OF CLEAN CITIES”

This summer was busy with concerts and traveling for Varia. In late July she went to Germany. There she took part in the jubilee 10th International Youth Music Festival in Rodachtal. At the festival, the girl first played with an orchestra – Berlin Orchestra! The orchestra of 45 musicians was led by 30-year-old conductor Andreas Schulz.

Along with Varava, Ukraine was represented at the festival by a trio – violin, cello, and piano – students of Mykola Lysenko Kyiv Specialized Music Boarding School attached to the National Music Academy of Ukraine. The festival brought together children and young musicians aged from 5 to 25 from Belgium, Latvia, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, France, England, Austria, and other European countries, as well as from different parts of Germany, such as Bavaria and Thuringia.

“Our kids were the best. Varia worked tirelessly – one day she even played two concerts in different places. Besides, for the first time she performed with the Berlin Orchestra on the town square!” said Yulia Pasichna, Varia’s mother, with a great joy and pride for her daughter.

“Germany is a world of clean cities. Everything was amazingly clean there!” Varia shared her brightest impressions of the country.

PARIS: MONA LISA, VENUS, PICASSO…

Four days after returning from Germany Varia and her mother again packed their bags to go to Paris.

“I heard a lot about Paris – about the Louvre, Mona Lisa, the Eiffel Tower, Venus, and Nike. I wanted to see it all with my own eyes, visit Notre Dame, and the Orsay Museum. I wanted to go to the Georges Pompidou Center, see Picasso’s paintings, which I love greatly for their style. It was a very magical moment for me, when I heard that Yevhen Marchuk presented those tickets to me!” said Varia and added that Paris did not only disappoint her, but it even exceeded all her expectations and ideas of the city.

“I was very surprised by people’s attitude to the environment where they live. There are lots of trees, lots of greenery, fountains, benches – there is everything to make people comfortable and cozy,” said the girl. She remembered with a smile how they were looking for Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s painting Summer in a wrong wing of the Louvre. Finally, not without some adventure, they found it. The girl also said that they managed to come to Mona Lisa as close as possible and were able to see the masterpiece in all the details. “I was greatly impressed with Mona Lisa. I really liked the other paintings by Leonardo da Vinci too, but Mona Lisa was certainly the best! The artist skillfully conveyed feelings and emotions with color,” said Varia.

Walking along the Seine, Varia and her mother came to a bridge where people hang locks. “We also bought a small lock for three euros, wrote ‘Varia and Yulia’ on it and fastened it to the railing and threw the key into the river,” said Pasichna. Varia told that next time they come to Paris they would try to find that lock. The girl also said with a smile that in the two days of their visit to Paris they walked around so much that it could be enough for ten years ahead. Their routes were rather intensive: they visited the Paris Opera, saw the ceiling painted by Marc Chagall, wandered around the park, walked under the Arc de Triomphe and climbed the Eiffel Tower, visited the Louvre and Orsay Museum… Among the items on their “cultural plan,” which they haven’t done yet, are the visit to Georges Pompidou Center to see Picasso’s paintings there, and also a visit to Rodin Museum. “It’s ok, next time we will do it all,” said the girl smiling.

After hearing Varia’s emotional story, fascinated with the beauty and artistic charm of Paris, the Editor-in-Chief of the Den newspaper Larysa Ivshyna asked the girl: “Perhaps, now Varia you will have the inspiration to write music and dedicate it to this city?” To that Varia said, a little shy: “I am already composing music dedicated to Paris.”

Answering the question about what soundtrack would fit the best to the visual range of Paris if it was a film, Varia said that it could be The Kreutzer Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven.

NEW DREAM – VIENNA

After hearing such an emotional story about visiting the French capital, we simply couldn’t help but asked Varia about her new dreams. One of them is to visit Vienna. There the girl plans to visit places associated with Beethoven and play something from the composer’s musical heritage with Vienna or the Paris Orchestra.

“On St. Nicholas day I got a very interesting book about Beethoven by John Suchet. It contains a lot of interesting and useful information about the composer, copies of his certificates, his letters… It was such a great inspiration for me! Beethoven was born in Bonn, but created his music in Vienna. I want to go to the places that he had been to, where he wrote his music. I will dream about this now because I know that dreams come true!” Varia shared her plans for the future with great enthusiasm. By the way, the girl is not just dreaming, she is working hard to make those dreams come true. Every day Varia practices music – she plays the violin at least five hours a day. We believe that all of her dreams will become reality one day and look forward to hearing the melodies composed by Varia inspired by visiting European cities.