Beijing-based musician says his violin knows no borders

A young Ukrainian with a passion for music stays connected with the world from his home in China, Mike Peters reports.

Volodymyr Baran wasn't supposed to be a violinist. "I didn't really come from a family of musicians," says the 34-year-old Ukrainian now based in Beijing. His mother has a PhD in bio-chemistry, while his dad has a doctorate in botany. "But they love singing," he says. "And I was a solo singer from kindergarten through middle school."

As a boy he wanted to play the piano, but piano courses were not available for him at that time, and so he wound up in a violin class.

"It was like destiny," he says now. "I did study and play piano as a second instrument for more than 10 years, but the violin has always been my soul."

Today Baran is trying to spread that passion over two continents, promoting an international music competition in Europe that will include master classes for youth for the first time. So far 10 European students have signed up, and Baran is hoping that by the time all 50 slots are filled, some of the students will be Chinese.

"The distance is a bit of a problem," he says, but he's hoping there is time to recruit sponsors to help defray the cost.

Baran has plenty of practice organizing such events. He left his university in Kiev at age 19 to study music in Switzerland, where he lived for more than 10 years. During his advanced-degree studies and afterward, he coordinated many festivals and charity concerts, and the network he built then serves him well today. The global music community has been part of his life since high school days, when young Volodymyr won music competitions in Italy and Canada while some of his classmates came home with honors from Italy, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Baran is just back from a two-week swing through Europe, where he negotiated with cultural groups, performance halls and even embassies for support for the midsummer festival, which will be in Malta.

Malta?

"Well, I had been working with a touring orchestra in Germany," he says. "It was a festival orchestra, so it wasn't based in a single concert hall and it wasn't full time. When there was a performance, they would simply contact us and fly us in for the event."

That was a good situation for Baran, who had met his future wife while in the UK. Sun Wei was a Chinese accounting student who was in England visiting relatives, and they continued the relationship after she returned to Beijing. The flexibility of working with a touring orchestra not only allowed Baran the time to visit China a couple of times a year, but sometimes a music festival picked up the cost of flying him back to Europe.

But then he was offered a full-time position with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, and the young couple decided to move to the capital, Valletta, almost four years ago.

They had two weddings - a church wedding in Malta, an overwhelmingly Roman Catholic country, and then a civil ceremony in China.

Though Malta was very small compared to China and even Ukraine, they like the family-oriented nature of the country and the traditional society.

"Malta is a small, isolated island," he says. "So it doesn't really have the booms and busts they have in some of the bigger countries of Europe."

After three years in Malta, Sun Wei was feeling the tug of home. The young couple started talking about a move back to China, which was already familiar to Baran and where he knew he could find work. He knew he could also "commute" to international festivals from anywhere, and was up for the challenge of promoting his second Malta International Music Competition from Beijing.

There was a big culture shock for Sun Wei after living in Europe for a while, but she, too, has been mobile in her young life - visiting relatives for extended periods in England and visiting Baran in his homeland, Ukraine. Sun Wei came back to China's capital in the fall of 2010, and Baran followed last April. He works many days as a studio musician in Beijing, recording with a small orchestra ("about 15 musicians, all Chinese except me.") to provide soundtracks for films and advertising.

He notes that politics in Europe is sometimes more colorful than in China. In Malta's parliament, for example, politicians recently took the floor with a live cow to make a point about agriculture. Such antics are a source of great entertainment for his Chinese in-laws, Baran laughs. "Every time they call me to watch the television news, I know something kind of crazy is happening at home in Europe."

Today, he is buoyant with the possibilities of this summer's competition, which unlike last year's premier event includes master classes as well as concerts.

"We will be teaching piano, violin, chamber music, flute, cello and composition, offering most classes at three levels: ages 8-12, 13-17 and 18-33," he says. And while the violin is his "soul" - his personal instrument is an Italian Master Violin made in the 19th century - his eyes light up at the mention of chamber music.

That form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments with no soloist or conductor, was traditionally performed in a palace chamber or private salon. Each instrument takes a part, and the intimate atmosphere has given chamber music the label "the music of friends": For centuries musicians have gathered in their homes to play chamber music for their own pleasure.

"To become a soloist is an honor," Baran says. "But to become a good chamber musician is a special talent and an honor as well." Performing it requires different musical and social skills than an orchestral work, he says. The great German writer once described chamber music (specifically, string quartet music popularized by Hayden, Beethoven and Mozart) as "four rational people conversing".

Baran says most humans cannot live alone, without friends and family, and that chamber music has a special way of uniting people.

"It makes musicians and music lovers have conversations," he says. "Music is the only international/world language understandable for everyone!"

In Malta this summer, such music will be enjoyed at a series of student concerts at hotels as well as four main concerts with professional performers. There will be a charity concert in the historic square at Medina, the island nation's old capital, and a final concert in the national theater in Valletta, the capital.

Baran is currently seeking various sponsors for the participating musicians, including airlines that will get them there.

"Airlines are often more eager to participate in sporting events," he says, smiling. "But we are optimistic."

Since 2012 marks the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Malta and China, he is also hopeful that support can be found for Chinese students who want to be part of the master classes, and perhaps a Chinese orchestra can make the trip for the professional concerts, despite the daunting distance.

"Of course the Internet helps us get students," he says. "I understand why Asian students want to study abroad -Western composers still represent classical-music culture's homeland for most professional orchestras in the world - but some also say China is good enough for them."

"Malta is a small country," Baran says. "So I am doing everything I can to make the mix more international."

A bit like his own life.