Monday’s Music Moves Me: The Spectacular Anastasia Tyurina

Monday's Music Moves Me 2 Minutes
Anastasia Tyurina. Source: Facebook.com

Her name is Anastasia Tyurina, and she’ll be 11 in October. She’s been playing at least five years (I think the earliest videos I saw were from when she was five) and has become a virtuoso on the balalaika, a three-stringed instrument analogous to the guitar or the ukulele. I found her a while back as I was going through YouTube videos, and when I started listening to her, I couldn’t stop. She’s not just a little girl playing a balalaika: She’s a real rock star. Her bio from her YouTube channel:

Anastasia Tyurina (balalaika) Winner of national and international competitions. The winner of the All-Russian television competition for young talents "Blue Bird". Fellow of the Vladimir Spivakov International Charitable Foundation and Charitable Foundation "New Names"

She also has a Facebook page and an Instagram page.

Anyway, let’s get to the tunes… I’m only giving you 8 today, but there’s a lot more on Youtube.

  1. "La Paloma": Written by S. Iradier and A. Tsygankov and performed by students of the children’s music school in Tambov. The triangular instruments are balalaikas, the round ones are domras.

  2. "Fantasy" on a JS Bach Theme: Sadly, I don’t have names for the other musicians here, though the girl playing saxophone might be Anastasia’s cousin Sofia. This was from last June 12, "Russia Day." I love the leather jacket with the formal dress.

  3. "Tritsch-Tratsch": This is a polka by Johann Strauss. The musicians are from the National Academic Orchestra of Folk Instruments of Russia. This concert celebrated their 100th anniversary.

  4. "Valenki": I believe this is a Russian folk tune. She’s accompanied by Denis Matsuev, who’s a pretty dynamic pianist that we will be hearing more from later.

  5. "Kalinka": A song by V. Gorodovskaya played with the Ensemble of Russian folk instruments "Tambov." The other musicians, left to right: Alexey Artemiev, button accordion; Roman Baranov, domra; and Stepan Kochetov, bayan bass.

  6. "Venice Carnival": By Niccolo Paganini. She’s accompanied by the Lipetsk State Orchestra of Russian Folk Instruments, under the direction of Alexey Morgunov.

  7. "Cinderella": Written by A. Arkhipovsky. She’s playing for the Dalian Dance Troupe; this is from their ballet and acrobatic show "The Nutcracker." This is from the TV show "Blue Bird" (I think; the description is in English translated from Russian).

  8. Paganini/Rachmaninoff, "Caprice #24": This is a tremendous jam with Denis Matsuev on piano, Ekaterina Mochalova on domra, and Andrei Ivanov and Alexander Zinger, bass and drums (not sure which is which).

As I hinted, Anastasia’s cousin (I’m pretty sure she’s not her sister) Sofia plays the saxophone. I might feature her next freebie day.

I really hope you’ve enjoyed Anastasia Tyurina. That’s Monday’s Music Moves Me for July 12, 2021.

Monday’s Music Moves Me is sponsored by Marie, Cathy, Alana, and Stacy, so be sure and visit them, where you can also find the Linky for the other participants.

Published by John Holton

Internet disc jockey, lover of old TV (especially the commercials), inveterate wise guy.

Published

14 thoughts on “Monday’s Music Moves Me: The Spectacular Anastasia Tyurina”

  1. Pingback: The Mid-July Week That Was – The Sound of One Hand Typing

  2. The look of complete and utter confidence on her face is really something.. Good one, John. I’m going to archive this one!

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  3. John,

    She’s a talented little thing, isn’t she? Kids are amazing! She’s so posed, too. I hope she excels in her music career! Thanks for sharing and for joining the 4M crew on the dance floor, my friend. Have a boogietastic week!

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    1. Like my uncle said in his comment, she looks like she has a lot of confidence in her ability, and the fact that most of the musicians she’s playing with are adults doesn’t seem to intimidate her. And she’s a real fan favorite. Not to mention as cute as a bug’s ear, as Mom used to say.

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  4. She is amazing for sure and tooooooooooooooooooooooo cute!!! Look at her go! She’s just wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing. I’m still trying to figure out different sites to say the least. :( I just can’t get the hang of anything. Oh well, time to move on. Nice talking with ya John. YOU ROCK!

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    1. Glad you enjoyed her. I must’ve sat for a couple of hours when I discovered her just watching her videos. She’s confident without being cocky, and she doesn’t seem like a diva. She just looks like a kid who loves to play her balalaika.

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  5. I did enjoy, especially Fantasy and Cinderella. Amazing, watching her high speed fingering, but I totally enjoyed the entire orchestras that she was playing with. Just great musical selections in general. I had never heard of the Blue Bird competition so spent a little time trying to find out more.

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    1. I think Blue Bird is like America’s Got Talent or one of those shows. I didn’t check, but there are likely a couple of videos out there of it. I thought the music was magnificent and was totally charmed by her…

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      1. Blue Bird did kind of remind me of AGT, but just for children (I am assuming).

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  7. She is a true Wunderkind! I so enjoyed listening and watching her perfomances. She just lives and breathes music and just knows how to play this wonderful instrument which is another of my favourites. Playing Kalinka truly blew my mind as well as the Cinderella theme, part of the Blue Bird theme with that amazing acrobat and his umbrellas.

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