ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 4, 1997 TAG: 9703050010
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG/STAFF WRITER
The residents of Grandin Village Apartments are familiar with the sounds of Marina Zelikovich's violin.
She practices four to six hours a day. Scales. Works by Handel. Jewish music known as klezmer.
"I want to be a professional violinist," she says in careful English, tinged with the accent of her native Russia. "I practice."
Of course, her father points out, "practice is not music."
Boris Zelikovich realizes that some of his neighbors may not appreciate his daughter's gift, and that he will need to buy a house some day so the notes from her violin will reach only the ears of her supportive family members.
Marina left Russia for America - for Roanoke - in June, accompanied by her parents, brother, sister and brother-in-law, to escape anti-Semitism in her homeland.
"I was concerned about the future of my children," Boris Zelikovich explains.
Resettled here with help from the Jewish community and family members who came before her, the first order of business for Marina was to pick up where she left off on the violin.
She is 15 now, a high school student with a serious nod and a quick smile. She's been playing violin since she was 7, and when she runs her bow across the strings, her body sways with her music.
"There are things that can be taught and things that cannot be taught to be an artist," says David Ehrlich, a violinist with Virginia Tech's Audubon Quartet and one of Marina's teachers at the Renaissance Music Academy. "What cannot be taught, she has."
Lessons are expensive, though. Violins are expensive. Her mother works at Maid Bess Corp. in Salem; her father works through a temp agency at Virginia Transformer Corp. There is not much money for extras.
Earlier this year, a woman in the New River Valley donated a violin - a good one - to the Renaissance academy. Ehrlich gave it to Marina, to replace the instrument she brought with her from Russia.
On Sunday, the Jewish community is holding a benefit concert for Marina at Roanoke's Temple Emanuel. There is no admission charge, but organizers hope the music will inspire people to help fund Marina's lessons.
Ehrlich will perform, along with his wife, pianist Teresa Ehrlich, and cellist Clyde Shaw, who also plays in the Audubon Quartet. And Marina will play, accompanied by Eleonora Fedomenko, a pianist and medical resident who emigrated to America from Ukraine in 1992.
Marina does not appear worried about the recital.
Over the past year, she has dealt with more nerve-wracking things.
She entered Patrick Henry High School. "The first day was scary, but then...,'' Marina says.
She has adjusted to new violin teachers, who are trying to get her to hold her instrument differently from the way she was taught in Minsk. She is still adjusting to different clothing styles, different foods, a different language.
"Sometimes I have home ... homesickness. I miss my friends," she says.
But playing in front of an audience - this is something she knows.
Marina has performed on Russian television with a youth orchestra, along with her twin brother, Yuriy, a percussionist.
She performed at a party for the Jewish and Russian communities in Roanoke, just a month after moving here. She performs with the orchestra in school and with the youth symphony.
She performs, when called on, in the living room of her uncle's home, playing "Farewell to My Fatherland," a favorite of her parents.
"She's really passionate about what she does," says Erik Leveille, who for the past few months has been Marina's main teacher at the Renaissance Music Academy.
"She has a great understanding of the poetry of music," adds Bill Kinzie, string orchestra teacher at Patrick Henry and other Roanoke high schools. "She doesn't play notes, she plays music."
With her violin teachers in Blacksburg, where she travels every Saturday, Marina is shy. She waits for instructions behind a music stand in a large, open room in Squires Student Center while her father studies English in the lobby.
In the music room, the language barrier is no problem. Leveille picks up his own violin and lets her hear the way her tone should sound on a high note. "Marina, will you play a little of G minor for me?" With his bow, he moves her elbow down a notch. He uses the words that are a part of all lessons, everywhere: "Again, please.
"That's right. Now the polonaise."
Marina unfolds a piece of worn sheet music and begins.
She is passionate in her playing, her teachers agree, a good thing.
"You must play like a singer," Ehrlich tells her. "You must hear every note. From your singing, teach yourself how to play the violin."
He asks her to use her fingers to practice a vibrato on her forearm.
And then he offers words of praise: "You have a very beautiful sound. You do good work."
She has improved greatly since the first time he saw her play, just a few months ago, he says. She has promise.
"She feels a lot and has a good rapport with the music. This is also something that cannot be taught. And she has showmanship - lots of things that are very important to be an artist."
``A Night to Remember,'' a benefit concert for Marina Zelikovich, will be held at Roanoke's Temple Emanuel on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free, but contributions to Marina's musical education will be accepted.|
LENGTH: Long : 111 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Marina Zelikovich dreams of being a concertby CNBviolinist: "You must play like a singer, instructor David Ehrlich
tells her. "You must hear every note. From your singing, teach
yourself how to play the violin." 2. DON PETERSEN/Staff. 1. Marina
Zelikovich's retreats to her bedroom every afternoon after school to
practice her violin for four to six hours. The Russian native lives
in a Southwest Roanoke apartment with he mother, father and brother.
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