Last night Stefan's piano teacher Karill performed at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. We went with our friend Aleen, who is the worst back seat driver ever, and makes everything more fun. Karill and a violinist played Beethoven's Sonata #7. The conservatory has two halls, a malinki (small) and a bolshoi (large), and has performances nearly every evening.
A Tuesday evening and our performance was packed. The regulars know the strengths of each performer, have their favorites, and are familiar with the pieces they will play–sort of the way we are with American Idol. Karill played beautifully and afterwords Stefan and Peter took flowers to him during his bow. Hopefully that wasn't a huge faux pas because no one else gave any of the men flowers. Or hopefully Karill can explain that we are stupid foreigners. Or maybe now the three of them are engaged, who knows? There were two more performers after the intermission, but we had to leave right after Karill played because Stefan was overcome by a severe case of full-body fidgets. On the way out the sound of many people playing different piano pieces drifted out of the open practice-room windows.
twenty-something years of "what have you been up to?" 
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