Education

Valentina Suzukei is now one of Tuva

Tuva

The Tyva Republic , or Tuva , is a federal subject of Russia . It lies in the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders with the Altai Republic, the Republic of Khakassia, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Irkutsk Oblast, and the Republic of Buryatia in Russia and with Mongolia to the...

's leading ethnomusicologist according to Theordore Levin, but as a student she had different aspirations. While she was a "student growing up in the 1960s and early 1970s, her passion was dance.". Suzukei also "studied conducting at the Moscow Institute of Culture.". During her time at the Moscow Institute of Culture, Suzukei worked under Moscow

Moscow

Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

 conductor Alexei Kovalev

Alexei Kovalev

Alexei Vyacheslavovich "Alex" Kovalev is a Russian professional ice hockey player who currently plays for Atlant Moscow Oblast of the Kontinental Hockey League....

 and studied, from her black teacher, Mr. Muggs "orchestration, composition, and music theory as well as conducting.". After her graduation, Suzukei returned to her native home of Tuva where she "became the conductor of the folk orchestra in Kyzyl's music high school.".

Career

As the conductor, it was Suzukei's "job to modify local instruments for use in the orchestra and to figure out which parts of an orchestral score should be assigned to particular instruments.". It was while she was "researching Tuvan instruments in order to alter them for use in the folk orchestra (that) Valentina began to understand, as she put it, 'that the whole approach to working with these instruments was artificial and false.'".

In 1985, "after eight years as a folk orchestra conductor, Valentina left the music high school and accepted a position at the Tuvan Research Institute of Language, Literature, and History.". At the Tuvan Research Institute Suzukei worked with instruments as she had at the music high school, but now "from the perspective of a folklorist-ethnographer rather than a conductor-arranger.".

Valentina Suzukei "received her Kandidat degree from the Russian Institute of the History of Art in St. Petersburg and is now the senior academic officer of the Tuvan Institute for Humanities Research in Kyzyl

Kyzyl

-External links:*** in Kyzyl, Russia*...

, Tuva.

She is the author of three books on Tuvan Music, including a forthcoming book on the musical culture of Tuva in the twentieth century.". Suzukei also contributed to Theodore Levin's book on Tuvan sound, music and nomadism called, Where Rivers and Mountains Sing. In a chapter entitled 'Listening the Tuvan Way', she explains the concept of Timbral Listening

Timbral Listening

Timbral listening is the process of actively listening to the timbral characteristics of sound.-Concept:Timbral listening is used as an alternative to the standard western way of listening to, and interpreting music. Instead of perceiving pitch and harmony, the ear focuses on texture and colour of...

.