Peter’s acquaintance with balalaika music began a long time ago on a sunny autumn day. Class 1A of School 135 in Kiev (then in the USSR) gathered for a regular music lesson in the school’s auditorium. The seven-year-olds loved their teacher. She was an excellent pianist and a relative of Isaak Dunayevsky, one of the great composers of his time. Ms. Dunayevsky used to be a singer, but something happened to her voice and she could no longer perform professionally. When Peter and his classmates met with her she spoke only softly, so they got used to being very quiet to hear what she had to say.
This time she wasn’t alone; there was an older man with her. He looked just like another teacher—a grayish suit obviously worn for many years and thick horn-rim glasses. His whole posture was that of an experienced if not somewhat-tired-of-the-routine teacher who had spent a long time dealing with pupils.
“We have a surprise for you,” said Ms. Dunayevsky. “We have performers from Class 6 who came to play for us today. They study with Leonid Ivanovich,” pointing to the man in the thick glasses.
Two boys sporting the distinctive red ties of the Young Pioneers (Russia’s Boy Scouts) took the stage of the auditorium. They had funny-looking triangular instruments that Peter had never seen. They began playing.
The kids were mesmerized. The feeling that the two boys from Class 6—just a few years older than their audience—were able to generate was unbelievable. Could it be true? Could these simple instruments produce all those colors and sounds… change so easily from soft to loud and from fast to slow and back?
Time stopped in the auditorium of School 135. Everybody was frozen in a moment of inexplicable beauty.
“Who wants to play like this?” Leonid Ivanovich asked, and two-dozen hands immediately shot into the air. Peter's hand was one of those.
After school Peter talked to his mother. “Mom, I signed up to study the balalaika. The teacher asked for you to come to school to clear the formalities.”
His Mother’s reaction was swift. “Are you out of your mind?” she said. “You don’t have any musical abilities. Neither do I or your father. And you don’t have a musical ear. It’s nonsense.”
“Can you still go with me to see the teacher?” Peter insisted.
“OK, I’ll go,” she said, “if just to tell him that you don’t have a musical ear.”
The next evening Peter and his mother went to the school to see the balalaika teacher.
“It’s some sort of misunderstanding,” Peter’s mother began. “My son doesn’t have any musical abilities. Nobody in our family does. He doesn’t have a musical ear—the bear stepped on his ear.” (This was a common metaphor.) “He absolutely cannot go to study with you. Plus he’s extremely busy elsewhere.”
The teacher was baffled by such vigorous opposition. “Let’s not jump to conclusions,” he said. “Let’s see if he has any talent. He has good hands and a strong desire.” And the teacher took Peter and his mother to a piano in the school’s gym.
“Can you sing this note?” he asked Peter as he struck a key. Peter produced a sound. History does not tell us whether it was the same note that was played or not, but the reaction of Peter’s mother and the teacher were exactly opposite.
“See, I told you,” she said.
“See, I told you,” he said. “I’ll take him.”
In the discussion that followed, Leonid Ivanovich was able to convince Peter’s mother that it would be good for Peter to take up the balalaika. His major argument was that the school was in the same block as Peter’s house, so he could just walk to the lessons and his mother wouldn’t have to bring him to lessons. Several years later, when the school of music moved to a different location, Leonid Ivanovich would volunteer to pick Peter up at his regular school, then put him on a trolley bus to go home after his lesson so his mother wouldn’t have to worry about taking him to and from music school.
That’s how it all started. Thanks to Peter’s first balalaika teacher, Leonid Ivanovich Kovalenko, Peter’s journey into the world of music began. Later, Peter was able to study with such great musicians as Yuri Aleksik of the Tchaikovsky Kiev State Conservatory of Music, Dmitry Kazachkov of the Kiev Cultural Academy and the Orchestra of the International Center for the Arts in Kiev, and Victoria Vassilieva of the Glier Music College.