Around the World in 30 Days with Sabrina Roche

In this blog I'll be talking about the traditional music of Russian.  Let me begin by giving a quick lesson about Russia before getting into the music from there. Russia, officially called the Russian Federation, is the largest country in the world in terms of landmass. It stretches from the Baltic Sea to the Pacific Ocean and from the Arctic Ocean to the Black Sea and the Caucasus. It expands through most of eastern Europe and north Asia and shares borders with fourteen neighboring countries. The really cold and dry climate of the country makes it nearly impossible to have any type of good agriculture. Mount El'brus, Europe's tallest peak, and Lake Baikal, the world's deepest lake, are both found in Russia.  Russia is a federal semi- presidential republic, meaning there is a prime minister who leas the legislature and a president who is the executive role in the government. The USSR, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, fell in 1991. During the Soviet Era music was scr...

Music's been a really important part of my life because of my parent's love for it. My mom especially has been a musician her whole life so I decided to interview her for this blog.  So before I begin I should give a little bit of background on my mom. Most of you know her as Mrs. Roche and she's the main accompanist here at Converse College. She received her undergraduate in piano performance and her masters in accompanying and has been playing the piano since she was pretty much able to walk. Me:  What is your favorite memory or experience of music? Mom: Ohhhh that's hard.... my favorite experience? Gee there's so many to choose from but what I remember with great fondness is playing for operas and musicals at Brevard. Being in orchestra and you know making these shows come alive. Helping the kids learn it and then see the finish product when it was done. I never got to see any of it while I was coaching them I could only hear it and then to go to the final perfor...