Zsolt Bodoni is a Romanian artist, who experiments with a range of media in his paintings to create dimension. His latest venture are semi-transparent multi-layered works with light. In late 2021, his exhibition viewed in darkness at David Kovats London, introduced the artist to the UK. We were really excited to talk to him about his process, the evolution of his practice and what comes next. Find Zsolt: https://davidkovats.com/artist/zsolt-bodoni/ https://www.instagram.com/zsoltbodonid/?hl=en https://davidkovats.com/artist/zsolt-bodoni/ Find Ksenia: https://www.instagram.com/essentialaspects ..read more

Irina is from Moscow and takes much of her creative inspiration from Russian cultural references that she discusses in this episode, especially film, art, and literature. Irina got her MA in graphic design at the Stroganov Academy of the Applied Arts, the alma mater of Rodchenko and Mayakovsky. She moved to Antwerp, Belgium to study Dutch and then to London to work as a designer and art director at magazines such as Harper’s Bazaar and Empire. After 10 years in the industry, she took the leap in 2020 to set up her own business, a sustainable e-commerce brand called Kikina Designs aimed at Gen ..read more

Saffy talks about her research into the influence of literary legend Fyodor Dostoevsky on African American literature and the Blackness of Alexander Pushkin. Saffy talks about her favourite novels and recommends the best way for newbies to Russian literature to get into Dostoevsky. She also discusses the existential themes of suffering, salvation and oppression that appear in Dostoevsky’s work and subsequently relate to African American slave culture in African American literature. Saffy also explains why it is argued that Pushkin had an affinity to black culture through his own suffering and ..read more

This episode is about Music and War. While preparing I came across an mazing work by Brent Thomas Yorgason who wrote a dissertation on the subject in 1997 for Utah State University. I found it very informative and complete, so todays episode is based on this work. War has always had a powerful influence on music. At times it has the ability to motivate composers even more than love, religious belief, or money. Throughout the ages, both war and music about war have changed dramatically. The destructive power of war has reached its ultimate capabilities -- the potential to eliminate all life. As ..read more

Jess is a Canadian born and raised, Elmira a Muscovite. Both currently reside in Vancouver and met for the first time when they became flatmates. Jess is an illustrator and Elmire a piano teacher and copywriter. Jess had lived in Siberia for a few months and speaks Russian, meaning that Elmira and she would talk often about Russian language and culture, including swearing. Together over lockdown they decided it would be fun to create and Instagram account of the most inventive Russian swearwords to entertain their friends. Suddenly their account became an internet sensation and people from all ..read more

Many of Rita’s students remember her luminous nature, her laughter and positivity, which is very rare amongst music teachers. Often, too often teacher’s authority is based on fear, humiliation and suppression of a student. But how is it related to Rita?  In this episode I’ll tell you how Rita (probably totally unconsciously) broke a cliché of dominant teaching method and introduced a loving, kind and patient approach. You will also hear various people talk about Rita: amongst them pianist sir Andras Schiff, cellist Steven Isserlis and her students. At the end you’ll hear a compo ..read more

Listen in to Serian’s Russian journey, starting with her teaching post in Chelyabinsk leading her to dedicate years of study to the field of Russian cinema, particularly Soviet-era youth cinema and the crossover of the themes of bodies, gender, health, and nationalism on screen. What a way to start the new series! Find Serian and Dr Rachel Morley’s chapter here: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-45160-8_12 Find the Soviet Sex Podcast here: https://sovietsexpodcast.wordpress.com/ Find Slovo, UCL’s postgraduate-run academic journal on the SSEES region, here: https://student-jou ..read more

In the conversation with classical cellist and life coach Tatiana Bejenari we try to find the way to carry on while the East and the West are in the state of a major conflict. How can we eat, sleep, shop, be creative, make love and smile without feeling guilty and responsible? We must start with looking after ourselves, our children, partners and parents. We must work and socialise. Because now and here we need to control what we can still control and look after things that are still in our reach. But will this keep us going? Will this keep us alive? The talk will consist of 7 chapters. Like 7 ..read more

This episode is about one of the greatest compositions of the 20th century - a piano concerto in G by French composer Maurice Ravel. So why is it great ? It is a known fact that Mozart could create works of a great length in the matter of days (the famous example is the Linz symphony which was composed in 4 days) and could hear the symphony instantly in a matter of seconds before putting it on paper. The other composers take longer time to come with original and non-trivial music. It took Ravel 4 years of sleepless nights and struggles. It is written for solo piano and symphony orchestra and c ..read more

Episode 5 of Talking music with Olga Jegunova podcast is about Stage fright or Performance anxiety. It is a common state of mind before or during performance and public speaking. Symptoms of it can vary from cold hands, stuttering to nerve ticks and dizziness. If not taken under control, state fright can destroy a performance. Many artists suffer from it. Frederic Chopin, for example, played only 10 concerts because of the stage fright. There is also cellist Pablo Casals, soprano Rene Fleming and pianist Glenn Gould, who has even decided to fully concentrate on recording sessions, and so many ..read more