Memory Office: V. Majorovas
Vladimiras Majorovas, a man of Lithuanian-Russian origin, tells about his childhood in Russia during the war and settling in the native land of his mother, Lithuania. He shares stories about places dear to him in Kaunas, his first teachers, students of his own who became famous Lithuanian musicians and composers and about his legendary apartment that heard the voices of the most famous Lithuanian performers.
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“My father worked as a teacher. He was the headmaster of a village school. In 1937, he was arrested and had to build the Volga-Don Canal. In other words, he was repressed. No one knew why. Virtually for nothing. /.../ To be more precise, another person wanted to occupy his position and wrote to KGB and asked to arrest my father. And I don't remember him. Only him holding me in his arms. I remember that feeling.”
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“During the war, we lived in a village next to Smolensk. I saw all the atrocities. It was as light as it is now, during the daytime. From the fire, from everything. I was still a child. Germans passed us twice. My sister was three years old. And already during that time, she had an acute stomach. She was crying, poor child. There was this group of Germans going, catching partisans. And there is this one elder German. He had a box next to his belt. A small wooden box. He took out a candy and gave it to a little girl."
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“My first teacher was my elder brother, who was my ten year senior. He told me to play Hanon, know certain exercises. Twenty of them. But you see, I was too lazy for that. I did not want to do anything with music. And there was this clock on the wall with a pendulum. He told me: “When the hand returns to its place, you may stop playing.” I used to stand on the piano, move the hands and ran away to the village. In the village, it was more interesting for me than in front of the grand piano.”
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“I lost a lot because of the fatigue, but I was probably rather talented, because the teacher loved me very much. My teacher was this old lady. Lingvienė. She lived next to the fountain, Metropolis and there was a tobacco factory nearby as well. Since there was no bridge and ice was flowing, I could not return home in winter. So I lived at hers. I had a spot on the floor and slept there. When I reached the seventh grade, I was handed to another teacher Marija Alšlebėnaitė. She lived in P. Višinskio Street, just in front of the Resurrection Church. I was her student for two years. And I will tell you this: no one has given me what she has. Not even in the conservatory.”
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“When it comes to the legend... People working in music schools or singers used to gather at our place. There was this Chmieliauskaitė Teresė, she is an old lady now. She was a very good singer. We used to rehearse with her. Friends from Gruodis school used to come as well. Andriuškevičius, piano player and a very good improviser. We used to gather in our flat and play. Or we used to play and rehearse, my wife and me. We used to even rehearse with open door. And we used to hear someone clapping in the yard.”
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Vladimiras Majorovas
Vladimiras is a son of a Lithuanian teacher Barbora Stanislova and Russian Mironas Fiodoravičius. He was born in 1934. He lost his father when he was only three. Afterwards, together with his mother, older brother and younger sister, he lived in his father's land ravaged by war and close to Smolensk. This was the first time he witnessed death, when one of the German soldiers nearly shot his mother. After the war, the family moved to Kaunas, Panemunė and this is where Vladimiras spent his childhood. At the beginning, he did not speak Lithuanian, and learned it from his friends in the yard. He also learned to play the piano. He attended the music school, and was taught how to play by his brother, as well as teachers Lingvienė and Alšlebėnaitė. Later he started studying at the conservatory, where he met his future wife Olga, who was also a musician. Majorovas family practice music to this day.
Date of the interview: 10-09-2018