A Special Evening for Russian Majors

Dinner at Bar Koko

Last Sunday, all of us Russian majors were treated to a “dinner and a show”- all expenses paid. We attended the JoAnn Rachs! performance at the Blaisdell Concert Hall put on by the Hawaiian Symphony Orchestra, and then we had an incredible dinner at Bar Koko, a Persian restaurant.

I had never attended a symphony before, and my exposure to classical music is not that robust. I’d say watching Disney’s “Fantasia" as a child was about the extent of it, at least in terms of watching something solely dedicated to classical music. This concert featured compositions by Paul Hindemith, Samuel Barber, and Sergei Rachmaninoff. The conductor was the critically acclaimed JoAnn Falletta. And on the violin was Bella Hristova, who has won multiple international awards for her unbelievable talent.

Bella Hristova bowing after her incredible violin solo

As a quick aside- It’s interesting to me that we were invited to the symphony because in my philosophy class on beauty and aesthetics, we were JUST talking about the superiority of music to bring about a truly aesthetic experience- according to many prominent philosophers. (did you know many famous philosophers also have written books about the philosophy of art? -Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Dewey, etc. I honestly had no idea until I took this class) Anyways, I just thought it was a cool "coincidence of the universe," let's say, for my philosophy class to line up with my Russian studies.

Anyways, the symphony performance was spectacular! I really enjoyed it (and I was trying to see if I could “feel” why philosophers like Nietzsche and Schopenhauer claimed the superiority of music as an art form. I don’t think my “music sense” is quite as cultivated as theirs was, but it was fun to try.) But still, as my first time to the symphony, it was a great experience.

The Hawaii Symphony Orchestra

After the symphony, we all went out to dinner at Bar Koko. What I love about get-togethers outside of the classroom is that you get to talk to people who you normally don’t talk to. I had a lovely conversation with some of my fellow majors who are more advanced in the program who I don’t see as much. Also, we had the chance to chat with our visiting scholar Marina Balina from Illinois Weslean University and her husband who joined us for the evening. This led to my other favorite part of the evening- listening to native speakers of Russian talk to each other in Russian. I mean, sure its good practice for listening skills, but for me personally, it brings back pleasant memories from my time spent living abroad in Georgia, at times surrounded either by all Russian speakers or all Georgian speakers. =)

Dinner at Bar Koko

Definitely a great night! I feel thankful that the Russian department was able to hold such a great event for its majors!