KEYS — The music came from instruments shaped like balls and giant triangles and was sung in a complex language hardly ever heard in the Cookson Hills.

But kids at Tenkiller Elementary School found some common ground among Cherokee, American and Russian culture as a quartet from the Washington Balalaika Society paid a visit there Monday.

“Their music is different from ours, but they have mystical legends,” fifth-grader Katelyn Girdner said, after hearing about such legends as Rusalka, the water nymph.

Girdner had learned that Russians have folk tales much like Cherokees do.

The four musicians are visiting several Tahlequah area schools as part of the Russian Folk Project Workshops Festival. Funded through a grant from the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the musicians discuss Russian culture, perform Russian folk songs on balalaikas and domras, even teach the kids a few Russian words.

The visits also are promoting the upcoming presentation of the Massenkoff Russian Folk Festival, Oct. 26 at Tahlequah High School Performing Arts Center. The festival is part of Northeastern State University’s Galaxy of Stars Series.

The visiting musicians have yet another link with the Tahlequah area. Two of them, Max McCullough and his wife, Francie Fite, have a vacation home near Tahlequah.

“We live in Virginia part of the year but built a residence out here,” said Fite, a Muskogee native.

McCullough formed the Washington Balalaika Society in 1988 and serves as its executive director.

He told the Tenkiller students that a balalaika is a triangle-shaped stringed instrument often used to keep rhythm in folk songs. McCullough needed a stand for his contrabass balalaika, which had a triangular body as big as the kids’ desktops.

Fite hit the downbeat with her lap-sized alto balalaika.

Zhenya Tochenaya, a native of the Ukraine, played melody on the round-bodied domra, which is similar to a lute. Tochenaya is the concert mistress for the Balalaika Society.

During the 45-minute session, musicians also showed kids traditional stacking dolls and a samovar, which was used to keep water or tea hot during long trips.

Kids also asked questions and seemed most interested in how much the instruments cost.

McCullough said his contrabass balalaika cost about $2,000, making the students gasp.

Another student asked how Russian children lived and went to school.

According to Tochenaya, who came to the United States in 1993, Russian schools seem much like American schools, with children getting a three-month vacation each summer.



Reach Cathy Spaulding at 918-684-2928 or Click Here to Send Email