Demetrius Spaneas performs the music of William Susman at The Stone in NYC. Works include Waves (with Quintet Tabor), Native New Yorker (for multi-wind player, strings, and percussion with film) and Duo Montuno (with Elaine Kwon, piano). 8PM

Uzbekistan, February 2009

As most of you know, I am a performer and composer who travels overseas extensively, presenting concerts and lecturing at colleges and conservatories, most especially in Eastern Europe, Russia, and Central Asia.  My cultural initiatives are either of my own creation, collaborations with international artists and organizations, or as a ‘cultural ambassador’ working with the US Embassy system, primarily in the former Soviet Union, to promote American music and artists while stimulating dialogue and interaction with local artists.

You must also understand that none of my work is political by any stretch of the imagination. Unless you’re Pete Seeger, the mixing of art and politics is usually a foul one and is successful only rarely. I don’t care about politics–I do care about Humanism and the soul of the Individual.

This last visit to Uzbekistan, my third since 2007, was quite an experience on multiple levels. It showed me not only the state of the human condition and the fear instilled in certain societies, but it also proved to me the great human desire to communicate and share one’s feelings, and even one’s hopes…

I left on February 22 out of NYC, transferred planes in Moscow (after a 7 hour wait…typical, but I don‘t have any complaints about Aeroflot except the quality of the food…), and arrived in Tashkent on the morning of the 24th.

The first part of my trip was to be in collaboration with the Ilkhom Theater and the Omnibus Ensemble; the former being the only independent and uncensored venue in all of Central Asia (and before that in the whole of the Soviet Union) and the latter being the only contemporary music ensemble in Central Asia. These are wonderfully gifted people who are doing tremendous work, literally an oasis of art in a multi-country region. It must be understood here that this theater has received great pressure from the Uzbek government, and also great assistance from Western Embassies and art/culture groups, most notably the US Embassy and the Goethe Institute (Germany). The founder and director of the theater was murdered in 2007, a few weeks before my first visit. It is widely thought (and understood) that this was not a random occurrence, but one meant to stifle the theater for good, thereby destroying the one venue for free speech…

…but they battle on…

For this, our third collaboration, I was to be a featured composer and performer at the Black Box Music and Vision Festival. We were going to premier three new films scores that I composed especially for the festival: two films by Uzbek film-maker Sukhrob Nazimov which I would perform live to the films on saxophone with electronics, and a large film by Greek film-maker Eri Skyrgianni, which would be me performing as soloist with the Omnibus Ensemble, once again live to the film–basically this one was an hour and ten minute concerto. After much rehearsal, and must exhaustion, we presented a wonderful concert which was met with great reaction from both the audience and journalists present–a great success!

That was the 25th.

The next morning, the 26th, at 4AM I was picked up by the US Embassy delegation to fulfill the second part of my work there, which was as a cultural ambassador and to present concerts, lectures, and master classes in the country’s major cities: Bukhara, Samarkand, and back in Tashkent.

So…for eight hours we traveled across the plains, the cotton fields, the arid morning of Southern Uzbekistan. It was during this journey that it was learned that three Uzbek journalists (friendly to the West) were arrested and convicted of criticizing the Uzbek government….they were given 12 years in prison…

At this point, you must understand that this government, especially on the local levels, is one that is not only based on instilling fear and controlling speech and learning but also quite corrupt. The above mentioned cotton fields are worked by students forced out of school, and the roads are kept clean by the people in cars stopped by police on the highway for only that reason.

These arrests were probably a factor in what happened next.

It seemed as if the local governor of Bukhara decided that having an American jazz musician speaking at his music college was a bad idea. They may have been fear of a pro-democracy riot that my presence would ignite, or fear that jazz, that symbol of Western decadence which was outlawed in the Soviet Union, would allow the students too much of an understanding of freedom…

…these may be, and probably were for the most part, true, but it must also be known that probably the biggest factor was the fact that he was insulted that the US Embassy went above his head and below for permission, but didn’t ask him directly…

…so he decided to put an end to it…

We found out that the teachers who had invited me decided to move the event off-campus to a local music school, thereby following the letter of the law not to allow me on campus, but not the spirit. After a quick talk through, I took stage with three Uzbek teachers who have a jazz trio. We had fun, and the students there got something new and had the opportunity to learn…the director of that school was tremendously stressed because he knew that once the officials and the NSS (former KGB)knew of the location, they’d shut it down and take people away…which is what basically happened.  After we got off stage, and as I was overrun with students asking questions and wanting autographs, the NSS came in, and told the director of that school that he was to report to headquarters…as far as I know, he was only reprimanded.

From that point on, we were under constant NSS surveillance. Wherever we went: restaurants, hotels, walking in town, driving…we were watched and followed. We would literally turn around and 2 people would duck behind a building…and it wasn’t the same people all the time, either…you would think that they would have better ways to spend their money than to follow a jazz musician all around the country…

The next day, the 27th, we headed towards Samarkand. Now, in this instance, the director of that school was called in before-hand and forced to shut everything down and not allow me anywhere near the College of Music, and anyone who may have wanted to work with me was told that they better not even try. This was frustrating…I’m not the one hurt by this, the students are…their education is being truncated by arrogance and fear…all they want is dialogue, and that’s what they are denied.

To try and salvage something, we were in contact with a number of journalists who wished to do a television interview with me to help set the record straight and to show how beneficial this dialogue with me would be. We planned a meeting at the television studio, only to later find out that the studio was told that if I were to enter the building, it would be shut down. We organized the journalists to meet us in the conference room at our hotel, which we secured earlier that day…when we arrived, all rooms were closed to us, NSS men sitting in the lobby…

…so, we had an informal talk there in the lobby–no cameras were allowed. As it turned out, one of the teachers in Bukhara connected us with the one jazz musician, a pianist, in Samarkand, who invited me to play with him that night at this club in the city.

So, we all went. We had a fantastic time. The journalists recorded everything and interviewed me, and the pianist and I jammed for hours. It was all good until the journalists left…they were ‘called in’ by the NSS, their equipment and the footage confiscated…

Fearing the worst, we left the next morning (28th) for Tashkent to present there at the College of Music, NSS not far behind. We contacted the school and told them what happened, and were told that no one has said anything to them. We arrived, I taught, I played, I answered questions–it was a great event, exactly what the other two should have been. There were NSS men there, I believe (the auditorium was large, so I couldn’t be sure), but they sat and listened, took notes, and must have reported back that no pro-democracy riots had occurred and that I was actually quite the gracious guest…

Obviously, since I was doing something in the capitol city, the seat of government, it must be alright..

After all of this, I worked with some composition students from the Uzbekistan State Conservatory, crashed for about an hour (thankfully, I gave up regular sleeping back in the late 80’s) and was picked up by an Embassy car to go to the airport at about 2AM, March 1rst. They sent me through the ‘diplomatic passage’ just in case, but I don’t think that there was too much worry, but one never knows…something could have been planted on me which would make my stay in Uzbekistan ‘extended’ to say the least…

So now what, you ask? Well, I’m going back–I have to, my work is not done yet. Again, I believe that these actions were generated by fear–fear of losing control, fear of the unknown…the most basic human need is that of communication–this transcends arts and politics–people have a desire for dialogue. These teachers and journalists risked their careers just to communicate with me–this act can not go unheeded . I am in the process of organizing a new, large-scale, cultural initiative which will hopefully, with the Uzbek government’s approval (which by the way, on the highest level I believe wants this) stimulate artistic and educational dialogue between Uzbekistan and the West…

…we can only gain from this…we can only evolve as souls by learning from each other…and talking…

Thank you for reading,

Demetrius Spaneas

Composer-in-Residence and featured solo performer at the Omnibus Black Box Music and Vision Festival, held at the Ilkhom Theater in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. New multimedia/film collaborations with: Sukhrob Nazimov, Spokoinoi Nochi Vesna and The Cold, Barren Way, both for soprano sax and electronics; Eri Skyrgianni, Artrip 1 (An Ode to the Eye), for soprano sax and chamber orchestra. Made possible by Meet the Composer/Global Connections.

Aeolian Windbag, his collaboration with composer Nickos Harizanos and film-maker Panayiotis Tsangas, featured at the Montpellier Film Festival, Montpellier, France, Oct. 24-Nov. 10, 2008.

Aeolian Windbag, his collaboration with composer Nickos Harizanos and film-maker Panayiotis Tsangas, featured at the MIR Festival, Athens, Greece, September 20, 2008.

ArtConcept Festival; includes a presentation of my Mythology and Modern Perception film/multimedia program, as well as new collaboration/installation with Russian visual artist Andrei Efi, entitled The Carefree Princess, and an improvisational performance with Nieva Dance; Pushkinskaya 10 Art Complex/GEZ21; St. Petersburg, Russia

Guest lecturer and performer in residence at the Latvian Academy of Music; will lecture on topics ranging from electro-acoustic composition and performance to working with film and multimedia; will present a concert on the 12th at Stone Hall which will include both new works for winds (flute, clarinet, saxophone) and electronics and my Mythology and Modern Perception film/multimedia program; Riga, Latvia

Ethonographic Museum; guest lecturer and performer; topics include the APXE project and the influence of Ancient Greece on modern society; St. Petersburg, Russia

American Corners/Petrovsky College; guest lecturer and performer for the Future Leaders program, supported by the US State Department; topics include modern music and writing for film; St. Petersburg, Russia

Concert and lecture on working with film and video; American Corners program (US State Department), St. Petersburg, Russia