FACES

Some more impressions from the "Step Forward" Festival in St. Petersburg. Keep in mind that all of this artists have some disabilities - blind, deaf...

LIFE IS GOOD...

Yesterday I met a boy. Five or six years old. Bright, high spirited. Can't resist a piano, when he finds one he at once sits down and starts playing. And he likes to sing. He is full of music. And he is blind...

And this blind boy is sitting on the stage and is singing "Life is good".

One has to reassess his own priorities from time to time...

NEXT STEP FORWARD

This "Step Forward"-Festival in St.Petersburg is really fascinating. All this Masterclasses, Workshops and Concerts they organize for children and young people with disabilities. And one sits there and listen to the beautiful music and almost forget to take pictures...

At the Masterclass...

...and at the concert in the evening at the St. Petersburg Philharmonia

A STEP FORWARD...

The first day of the festival was quite chaotic ... As usual - so that later everything is going well, it was needed to lose sometimes the addresses; getting lost in St.-Piet's streets a couple of times, scaring off the (illegal) parking attendant; argueing with security, irritateing a little bit the orchestra conductor...

And as a result there are a lot of wonderful pictures of absolutely amazing and very talented children who sparkled today on the stage of the Great Hall of the S.-Petersburg Philharmonie. Here are some of the kids - all three of them are 100% blind...

Ekatherina Zaharov, Violine.