When Sonya Zholobova (kyiv, 2004) plays the piano life seems to take a break. The gazes fall silent and the visitors of the Prado Museum They begin to arrive at his living room, partly surprised; partly dazzled. She had only four years and a half when his mother, music teacher, thought it would be a good idea to teach his daughter instrumental art. Her father, at first, opposed it. After, lived proud.
The ukrainian dressed in a solemn blackwhich contrasts with the olive green of the museum walls and the gold of the picture frames, as do his hands on the piano white. It is likely that no one ever imagined that a very young Sonya (he turned 20 on April 9) would star in a scene like this, at least not to so many kilometres From home.
“I I never thought that I could do this in a way professional. But life brought me here,” he explains. Zholobovawhich serves THE SPANISH moments after having played for twenty minutes for visitors to one of the museums most visited in the country. But up to this point he would not only bring her life, he would also war.
Sonya Zholobova during her performance at the Prado Museum.
Jose Verdugo
[La increíble historia de Jude Kofie: el niño autista que no ha dado clases y será el próximo Mozart]
war refugee
Sonyawho lived and studied piano at a school in Kyivwas forced to leave her country with only 17 years. It would be after the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. “My life changed from one day to the next. At night I was with my friends at the bar, talking. I come home to have dinner with my family, I go to sleep and when I wake up the next morning all the messages are that The war started. You’re fine, you’re alive, but your head is collapsed. “You don’t know what to do,” she says, while her eyes look at him. museum floor.
The next thing was a “horrible” weekas she says, in which she and her family had to live in the parking of his building to protect himself from the bombs. “I cried a lot and in the end I told my family that I couldn’t take it anymore.” Then, she left. She would have had a different fate than his parents and his two little sisters: “I left alone, I was very nervous. My parents They left later and now live in Swiss“, he explains. The reason why he came to Madrid He has a first and last name: his teacher Vadim Gladkok, ukrainian pianist who teaches classes at Katarina Gurska Higher Center for Musical Education. With it he continues to perfect what already seems perfect.
rehearse during six either seven hours up to date. “Fivewhen I don’t have time,” he smiles. “I eat breakfast, practice, and sleep when I’m not practicing.” When he got to Spain, rented a room. His adaptation was difficult, he says. “The first month was bad. Besides the fact that I was scared of being alone, I didn’t understand the mentality of the Spanish… in Ukraine we are colder. But I am already more Spanish nothing,” he celebrates. Now he lives with his partner’s family, who is waiting for him today at the exit of the museum so he can go to eat.
Sonya Zholobova while talking to EL ESPAÑOL.
Jose Verdugo
He is clear about his future. “I arrived to continue my career as Pianist and not just to be here,” he says. Seeing the faces of the visitors Prado Museumseems to have worked. Sonya he dazzles the public with a repertoire typical of the gallery he inhabits. She does it without any sheet music, from memory. Next to it are works of the Renaissance of the Italian painter Raphael. And then the notes merge with the strokes. Every time he finishes, people applaud. And she, shy, bows her head and receives affection.
[‘Elegance’, el fenómeno del piano que agita Sevilla: ‘Antes cargaba cajas, ahora me gano la vida con esto’]
Sound brushstrokes
Today it will be like this during three times: at 12pm, at 1pm and also at 4pm. And so each Tuesday and Thursday. It does so under a program Museum called Sound brushstrokes, that seeks to support young people in their personal, academic or artistic development. “Every year we bring a different pianist, before Sonya were Cristina Sanz and “Natalie Schwamova”Explain Virginia Gardethe Public Coordinator of the National Prado Museum. Both the room and the repertoire vary every month, so it will be a year of musical atmosphere.
Gardenwhich explains how the program works, does not hesitate to praise the talent of Zhalobova: “We all sometimes have a moment of stress at work. It’s awesome to go down and listen to him play the piano.” So do the rest of the visitors: “It’s marvelous“simply wonderful,” he says. Juana tourist from Valladolidat the end of the performance.
AfterSonya He gets emotional when he remembers his days in Ukraine, to his friends, to his school. But seems happy. Thank you for the opportunity that the museumyou have time to remember his representativeto his teacher Yet the life. In her eyes there are certain glimpses of delusion. Although at play the piano, closes them. “When I’m in the middle of a piece, there’s a moment that’s so beautiful to me… it’s like: I’m in heaven right now,” she says. “But I’m serious. Totally serious,” she insists. So, silence falls. And it rings again Chopin.
