Self-study activity:
Watch this four-minute video featuring Alina Ibragimova, a young Russian-born violin player, who has taken part in the series Britain through my eyes, where a number of immigrants to the UK talk about their feelings towards their adopted country.
What do the following figures refer to?
four or five
six
three or four
eleven
eight and ten
fourteen
What did Alina's father do?
What does Alina like about British schools?
How does she feel in Britain as a violin player?
You can self-correct yourself by reading the transcript here.
This is Britain through my eyes.
For me, classical music, it's life. It's not work.
Today, I think England is one of the strongest classical music places.
You look at Time Out magazine...
...and you have, I don't know, four or five events that you really want to go to.
It's incredible, the amount of different directions you can go.
The first memory, I think I was six and I played in the Bolshoi Theatre, a big hall with an orchestra.
And I played, I think, every year for three or four years.
I wasn't nervous, particularly.
It was, of course at the age of six, you don't realize that the Bolshoi Theatre is important.
So, it was easy. It was fine.
My father got an invitation to play in the London Symphony Orchestra.
So, we all decided to move to England, which of course was a big step for everyone, I think.
My mother or me, we didn't even see the house we were going to live in at that time. We just turned up.
So, I went to a music school, the Yehudi Menhuin School.
And I auditioned and got in at the age of 11...
And of course, as every other child, I loved to perform but not to practice.
And the Menhuin School gave me the ground to decide which way I wanted to go.
It's funny. It seems so much smaller.
Okay, after you. Here we go.
It's incredible to be here again.
Sounds nice!
It was a very intense time here.
You have to do your practice,...
...you have to do chamber music, orchestra, music lessons, academic lessons.
It's a lot.
This is where my old violin lessons were.
I was here mostly between eight and ten every day so, what's that? 14 hours.
It was tough but I can't think of a better place I could have gone to.
I studied with Natasha Boyarsky who is a renowned violin teacher.
She's wonderful.
I mean, she's strict; she makes you very disciplined...
...but you very much feel it's practicing because I want to make it better, you know;...
...not because I've been told to; because I have to do this amount of time every day.
What I think is wonderful in this country is that in every school you get at least a very basic knowledge of music.
So, most children will have played an instrument at some point.
Everybody knows what it's like...
...and that's, I think, very impressive and it doesn't happen also in many places and it's great to see that.
I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact that there are so many people from so many different cultures here...
...because I don't feel this conservative thing that I feel in other places with listening to something new.
What's incredible in this country is whatever you do, you know that it will be welcomed and respected.
And it gives you that kind of freedom on stage that you wouldn't otherwise have.
That's why when I come and play, I feel like I'm home;...
...I feel like I can explore in any direction I want and experiment.
And that's a great feeling and that's very special.
