Marcus fled, not understanding the road. His legs themselves led him into a grove where a small river flowed nearby. He walked over to her and sat down on the beach. His cheeks were still on fire. His lips alone betrayed his thoughts in a whisper: - How could I do such a stupid thing ... now he will not talk to me ... but he was so close to me ... I'm going crazy ... I'm sitting here and talking to myself ... I heard lungs behind Steps. Marcus turned around and saw a girl with streaked blond hair in a thick braid walking towards him, lying on her shoulder. She was wearing a dark blue dress with a white collar, over which a black coat was thrown over. She slowly approached him. - What are you doing here, Kara? Marcus asked her in an icy tone. - Aren't you glad to see me? Well, well, I missed you so much, - said Kara, puffing out her lips in a playful way. - I know you very well. Did you follow me? - No, I didn't. I was just walking home and I saw you running up here. You look disheveled and nervous. Well, I decided to calm down and help you. - I don't need anything from you, especially since I'm already leaving. Marcus stood up resolutely and, passing by Kara, went towards the house. "How rude, I just wanted to help." - I know how your help ends. Kara's lips curved into a terrible smile. Naivety no longer shone in blue eyes, instead of it, a fire burned in them, which could not only burn, but also kill.
Jonathan sat on his bed, hugging his knees. He locked himself in his room and for the second hour had been looking at the piano, on which he was very fond of playing. But this evening he did not see the brightness that had emanated from him before. He remembered returning Marcus's bike to his house. Marcus's mother opened up to him, she thanked him and said that she had not seen her son. Then John had to leave. And now, sitting alone, he still felt the softness of his lips and the pleasant minty smell on his lips. Feelings mingled within him. He abruptly stood up, went to the piano and began to play his favorite tune, which always calmed him. Tears began to flow down his cheeks, but he did not stop playing. Someone knocked on the door, but Jonathan only played louder. Tears have already begun to drip onto the keys. But it didn't matter. All the thoughts in my head began to slowly fall silent, and soon completely disappeared. After finishing playing, Jonathan felt very tired. He went to the bed, lay down, and immediately fell asleep. He had a strange dream. He stood in the middle of the park. There was no one around him. Suddenly he saw the silhouette of a man quickly approaching him. The closer he was, the more clearly his outlines were visible. John felt wild fear and ran away. But no matter how hard he tried, he felt that the man was getting closer and closer. Turning around, he saw that the man running after him was none other than Marcus. Jonathan stopped and slowly the fear began to go away, but somewhere inside he burned with a strange pain. Running over, Marcus gently hugged John and looked at him with his gray eyes that glittered with silver. His lips moved slowly towards Marcus's neck. John felt Mark gently kiss his neck. And suddenly he suddenly woke up. His T-shirt was soaked through with sweat, his breathing was rapid. Jonathan sat up in bed and sat like that all night without closing his eyes.
Two dozen professional musicians on stage, hundreds of spectators in the hall. Their eyes were riveted to the piano, at which sat a young, thin pianist in a strict black suit. He extracted amazing sounds from the instrument, but he didn’t do it with his fingers, because he doesn’t have them ...
The melody died down, and in a second the hall burst into applause. 15-year-old Alexei Romanov started playing the piano two years ago. When its out orphanage took Louise Levachkova to her family.
A gift of fate
“For the first time I saw Lesha ten years ago,” Louise shared with StarHit. - Then I worked as the head of the youth club. On New Year's Eve, I was sent to spend a matinee at the orphanage in Zelenodolsk, a small town 40 km from Kazan. I remember how the kids ran up and started reaching for gifts. And on the face of our Santa Claus appeared fright. One boy had no hands.”
After the holiday, she approached the child and asked what his name was. Later, the educators told her that Lesha Romanov came to the orphanage from the baby house. His parents abandoned him when they found out that their son did not have hands and one foot. He grew up and, together with his peers, learned to dress, draw and even sew. True, he did it his own way. “For example, once one of the teachers tied a spoon to his hand with a rope - so he began to eat on his own,” Levachkova continues. “Now Lyoshka confidently holds all the cutlery with both hands.”
The boy was lucky - there was a family that took him to her. But Louise did not want to lose contact with him and once a year for the New Year holidays she dressed up as Santa Claus and charitable foundation came to congratulate: “Each time he looked straight into his eyes and seemed to understand that it was me.”
This went on for six years, until the adoptive parents found out that they were expecting a child. Immediately, it became crowded and uncomfortable for them to live under the same roof with a disabled boy. And Lesha was again in the orphanage. Aleksey found a way to recover from what had happened: one evening he secretly made his way into the auditorium, opened the piano lid and began to randomly press first on the white, then on the black keys. This was repeated for several days in a row. The teachers of the orphanage decided to meet him halfway and allowed him to rehearse. Soon he made his debut at the matinee, together with the teacher in four hands they played a simple melody. Lesha Romanov's task was simple - to press two keys at the right time. After the speech, he heard the first applause.
Big family
Levachkova began to visit Alexei often, over time she was allowed to take the teenager home for the weekend. There he quickly became friends with her sons. Louise and her husband Vladimir have two natural sons: 24-year-old Artur works as a photographer, and 23-year-old Denis is studying to be a lawyer. And two foster children: 17-year-old Ruslan and 22-year-old Ilya. Once, when Lesha left, the boys offered to become a foster family for him. This idea was supported by the husband on the council. Fortunately, the conditions allow - the Levachkovs have their own three-room apartment, Vladimir is a military pensioner, moonlights as a guard, Louise is the head of the Solar Circle charity foundation.
When Alexei was informed that they wanted to take him into the family, he, in joy, began to collect documents for foster parents. He was very much expected in the new house and in honor of his arrival they prepared a gift - a synthesizer. At first, Lesha picked up simple melodies, and later asked his friend Olesya to teach him the basics of the game. “She graduated from a music school in the piano class,” says Luiza Levachkova. Leshka practices for three hours every day. Shared experiences with a friend. Once he admitted that he has a fear: the audience in the hall can feel that he played wrong. Olesya replied: “Don't think about it. Everything is as it should be, if you yourself accept your game, then the audience will feel it and accept it too.
// Photo: From the personal archive of Alexei Romanov
Soon Louise and Vladimir began looking for a piano tutor. But even the most experienced teachers refused, arguing that nothing good would come of it. Only an old friend of the family, Larisa Glinskaya, agreed. Lyosha mastered musical notation in three days. And in two years he learned to play many works, for example, by the Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi and the soundtrack from the movie "Twilight".
“If I want to play a melody that I like, then I will definitely achieve this. I don’t see any barriers,” Alexey shares with StarHit. - If, due to the lack of fingers, it is impossible to play a complex chord, Aida Shaukatovna and I, she is also my teacher, figure out how to make it accessible to me. At the end of December, she and I were invited to a performance by the La Primavera chamber orchestra in Kazan. I listened spellbound. I tried not to miss a sound. After the end of the concert, Aida Shaukatovna took me to the dressing room of conductor Rustem Abyazov. He asked to play, and I played the soundtrack from the movie "Twilight" - River Flows in You. When I finished playing, there was silence in the air. The conductor did not say anything, but only signed the booklet as a keepsake.”
Two days later, he called Alexei and offered to perform with his orchestra in the Big Concert Hall of the Republic of Tatarstan. “Two days before going on stage, we met at a rehearsal. He played with the orchestra only once. On the eve of the performance, I rehearsed all morning, I didn’t worry much. I put on a suit in which I go to school and went to perform. But when I went out into the hall, I realized that my legs were shaking. The first half was hard to play, so many people were looking at me ... And in the second part I went into a rage and came off to the fullest!
// Photo: From the personal archive of Alexei Romanov
After a grandiose performance, the leadership of the seventh music school offered the guy to study with them as an external student. He agreed. On March 31, Lesha celebrates his 16th birthday and plans to arrange a concert for friends and relatives. And as a gift she dreams of getting a new leg prosthesis, with which she can swim and take a shower. It is not cheap, but the leg grows, and the prostheses wear out like ordinary shoes.
“I was offered to have an operation on my hands, but I refused. I don’t want to, and why - I’m used to it, I can do everything myself. I also have a lady of the heart. She appeared two years ago at my new school, ”Lesha admitted to StarHit. He has recently started composing music. But he does not want to show anyone until he brings it to an impeccable look. Lesha hinted to Louise that he would dedicate the very first composition to her.
Pianist Alexei Romanov from Tatarstan performed at the Nordic Business Forum, which is a notable event in the business world. The young man independently learned to play the piano, despite the absence of hands, reports Sntat.ru
The handsless, self-taught pianist rose to fame last year when he performed the hit song from the Twilight movie, "River Flows In You," with an orchestra. A gifted guy from Zelenodolsk quickly became a star, he was shown on all channels, he was admired by the world press.
But especially exciting was his trip to Finland. The young pianist has just returned from Helsinki. A 16-year-old teenager from Tatarstan was invited to speak at the forum, which brings together the best marketers of the planet with world brands. One of the topics of the meeting is “Disadvantages and Advantages”. The Russian musician most eloquently demonstrated how you can overcome any obstacles in your path.
“When I first saw the hall, and it is designed for 5.5 thousand, I thought: my God! And this is still at the rehearsal, when it was empty! I was very nervous before the performance. But then he began to calm himself, said: Everything is fine, he went out and played, ”says Lesha.
While the young Tatarstan pianist performed his composition at a chic piano, the audience supported him - thousands of lights flashed in the hall from special bracelets on the hands of the forum participants. Alexei appreciated all this later on video recording.
“I did not see the audience, because I completely focused on the music. My right hand always wanted to hit the wrong note, and in my head and before my eyes I had only notes so as not to be mistaken. But everything turned out well, so that I myself was shocked by myself later when I looked at the video, ”Aleksey laughs.
At the request of the forum organizers, he performed the soundtrack to the film "Twilight", but later in another room he played two more new works for VIP guests - "In un, altravita" and "Odd days" by the Italian composer Ludovico Einaudi.
“Of course, we were very worried. The hall was huge, in the middle of the stage, that is, they looked at the speaker from all sides. But he gave a wonderful performance, the audience was very interesting and grateful. Everyone shook their hands to the beat as he performed. I was so worried, but after the first performance, I felt that he became everything, like my own, ”the adoptive mother of the student, Louise Levachkova, who accompanied her son on the trip, shares her experiences.
Orphan Alexei Romanov became a sensation in the musical project "Stars from Tomorrow" of the Kazan Chamber Orchestra La Primavera. A 15-year-old boy, who was born without hands and one foot, at a concert in the State Concert Hall named after. Saydasheva last Friday masterfully performed the soundtrack from the movie "Twilight" on the piano, accompanied by an orchestra, and struck the audience to the very heart. People couldn't believe their eyes: "How does he do it?!"
As the chief conductor of La Primavera Rustem Abyazov admitted, when he first heard and, most importantly, saw Alyosha Romanov playing with the stumps of his hands, he “just sat down in surprise.”
As it turned out, the gifted ninth-grader studies at the Kazan boarding school No. 4 for children with disorders of the musculoskeletal system, where he came from the Zelenodolsk orphanage, changing several schools and guest families “along the way”. Recently, patronage parents from Zelenodolsk, to whom he travels on weekends, have taken care of the teenager.
- Alexey, they say that you started to master the piano without even knowing how to read music? - the correspondent of "Evening Kazan" asked the young musician.
Yes, two years ago I did not know the music. But I have always liked music. Especially classical and modern instrumental. I downloaded a lot of music from the Internet. And the more I listened, the more I wanted to play myself. Picked up chords by ear. And then friends helped. One familiar violinist taught me the basics of musical notation, and another pianist friend suggested which composer I should listen to, threw off the scores by mail. He started with simple children's songs like "Yolochka".
- Where did you practice? Did you have an instrument?
Here at the boarding school there is a piano. Once I just approached our music teacher Aida Akhmetshina and asked to show how to play the melody I liked. Notes downloaded from the Internet. She showed. Then he came a second time. And then she started working with me. Every day. A year ago, I was presented with an electric piano - for winning the republican competition for children with handicapped. I played a Jingle bells song and a Tatar melody there. I'm crazy about the electric piano!
Have you ever performed with an orchestra before?
This performance on the stage of the State Grand Concert Hall was the first. To be honest, I was very afraid. God forbid I make a mistake! .. Therefore, at first I was nervous. But thanks to the support of the musicians, I seem to have grown wings behind my back. I relaxed, and the music itself poured out of the instrument.
- Rustem Abyazov wrote the orchestration for you?
Yes. My teachers introduced me to him - they just brought me to him backstage after the concert. They showed me. I played him. The first thing he asked was if I had tried composing music. I answered no. And then the conductor invited me to participate in the Stars from Tomorrow project - as an exception.
- Why did you choose the "twilight" soundtrack River Flows in You for the performance, and not Chopin or Bach?
I love soundtracks in general. The melody from the vampire saga is, let's say, already played. I taught her for a year. I also play soundtracks from the films "Pirates caribbean", "Titanic".
- What are you studying now?
Composed by the Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi. I really like him. He wrote music for the films The Reader and The Black Swan.
Are your hands tired after exercise? Corns, perhaps?
There is no pain. Just enjoy the game.
- Do you want to become a professional musician?
Honestly I do not know. I also like to draw with pencils and felt-tip pens, to skate...
In an interview, Alexei, out of modesty, did not tell us about his problem. He recently broke his prosthetic leg. And since there is nothing to replace it (the prosthesis is very expensive), the teenager walks on a broken one, which rubs his leg badly. As they said at the boarding school, they turned to the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan and the President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov for help in purchasing a new prosthesis. There is no answer yet. Well, from the good news - a week ago Alyosha was enrolled in the 7th music school of Kazan, where he will study externally.
Photo and video by Alexander GERASIMOV.
Pianist without fingers amazed the audience of Kazan with a virtuoso performance of the soundtrack from the movie "Twilight"
Orphan Alexei Romanov became a sensation in the musical project "Stars from Tomorrow" of the Kazan Chamber Orchestra La Primavera. A 15-year-old boy, who was born without hands and one foot, at a concert in the State Concert Hall named after. Saydasheva last Friday masterfully performed the soundtrack from the movie "Twilight" on the piano, accompanied by an orchestra, and struck the audience to the very heart. People couldn't believe their eyes: "How does he do it?!"
As the chief conductor of La Primavera Rustem Abyazov admitted, when he first heard and, most importantly, saw Alyosha Romanov playing with the stumps of his hands, he “just sat down in surprise.”
Watch the video
As it turned out, the gifted ninth-grader studies at the Kazan boarding school No. 4 for children with disorders of the musculoskeletal system, where he came from the Zelenodolsk orphanage, changing several schools and guest families “along the way”. Recently, patronage parents from Zelenodolsk, to whom he travels on weekends, have taken care of the teenager.
- Alexei, they say you started to learn the piano without even knowing how to read music? - the correspondent of "Evening Kazan" asked the young musician.
- Yes, two years ago I did not know the music. But I have always liked music. Especially classical and modern instrumental. I downloaded a lot of music from the Internet. And the more I listened, the more I wanted to play myself. Picked up chords by ear. And then friends helped. One familiar violinist taught me the basics of musical notation, and another pianist friend suggested which composer I should listen to, threw off the scores by mail. He started with simple children's songs like "Yolochka".
- Where did you practice? Did you have an instrument?
Here, at the boarding school, there is a piano. Once I just approached our music teacher Aida Akhmetshina and asked to show how to play the melody I liked. Notes downloaded from the Internet. She showed. Then he came a second time. And then she started working with me. Every day. A year ago, I was presented with an electric piano - for winning the republican competition for children with disabilities. I played a Jingle bells song and a Tatar melody there. I'm crazy about the electric piano!
Have you ever performed with an orchestra before?
– This performance on the stage of the State Grand Concert Hall was the first. To be honest, I was very afraid. God forbid I make a mistake! .. Therefore, at first I was nervous. But thanks to the support of the musicians, I seem to have grown wings behind my back. I relaxed, and the music itself poured out of the instrument.
– Rustem Abyazov wrote the orchestration for you?
- Yes. My teachers introduced me to him - they just brought me to him backstage after the concert. They showed me. I played him. The first thing he asked was if I had tried composing music. I answered no. And then the conductor invited me to take part in the Stars from Tomorrow project as an exception.
- Why did you choose the “twilight” soundtrack River Flows in You for the performance, and not Chopin or Bach?
“I love soundtracks in general. The melody from the vampire saga is, let's say, already played. I taught her for a year. I also play soundtracks from the films "Pirates of the Caribbean", "Titanic".
- What are you studying now?
– A composition by the Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi. I really like him. He wrote music for the films The Reader and The Black Swan.
Do your hands get tired after class? Corns, perhaps?
- There is no pain. Just enjoy the game.
Do you want to become a professional musician?
- Honestly I do not know. I also like to draw with pencils and felt-tip pens, to skate…
In an interview, Alexei, out of modesty, did not tell us about his problem. He recently broke his prosthetic leg. And since there is nothing to replace it (the prosthesis is very expensive), the teenager walks on a broken one, which rubs his leg badly. As they said at the boarding school, they turned to the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Tatarstan and the President of Tatarstan Rustam Minnikhanov for help in purchasing a new prosthesis. There is no answer yet. Well, from the good news - a week ago Alyosha was enrolled in the 7th music school of Kazan, where he will study externally.
Photo and video by Alexander GERASIMOV.
