Siberian Pediatric Heart Project

[Boris]

Dr. Yakov Elgudin is planning to go to Kemerovo, Russia in July with this project. This is done under the aegis of RAMA. He will write more about the project in the next few days.

http://borisvino.googlepages.com/home

We will need your support!

[Boris]

TO ALL RAMA AND FORUM MEMBERS AND GUESTS:

OUR WORK STARTS NOW!

Today we (Yakov Elgudin and I) signed a contract with the Newsbridge, Inc. about our fund-raising concert in Cleveland on August 16th, 2008. We must get together and apply all our efforts to have this concert and make it a complete success. Please, help - bring more people on board, sell tickets, raise funds - anything goes. This is the FIRST real RAMA project that has a chance to succeed.

The evening will feature the Grand Prize Winner of the 2007 Cleveland International Piano Competition - the world-renown pianist - Alexander Ghindin who will perform solo in a two-part concert. We are in negotiations with the Cleveland Orchestra to accompany Maestro Ghindin's presentation of the works of Sergey Rakhmaninov among others. The concert will take place at the world famous Severance Hall and will be followed by a champaign reception and a Gala Dinner at the Hall.

Tickets for the event will be on sale shortly.

We are inviting individuals and businesses to sponsor this charitable event. Our goal is to raise $50,000. All proceeds will go to the Siberian Pediatric Heart Project. Please, see information for sponsors on the web sites of RAMA and RAMA-Ohio. All updates will be published in the Russian newspaper "Prospect".

You do not have to live in Cleveland or the state of Ohio to participate.

We are in it together.

http://borisvino.googlepages.com/facesofhope

[Boris]

An update - http://borisvino.googlepages.com/facesofhope

[Monty]

Mark August 16th, 2008 in your Calendar. At Severance Hall in Downtown Cleveland – Alexander Ghindin – World Renowned Pianist and Winner of the 2007 Cleveland International Piano Concert – will be playing to benefit the coordinated efforts of RAMA and the International Children’s Heart Foundation.

Tickets, which normally range from $100 to $300 dollars, are being offered from $50 to $100 with a $10 discount for students and senior and preferred seating for Corporate Sponsors and those who wish to provide additional charity contributions!

We need everyone’s help - ALL Russian Physicians, Nurses and other Medical Personnel – your little effort will add up to have a great impact on those kids who need the help of the International Children’s Heart Foundation. Please talk it up to your friend and family – you are the voice of RAMA! RAMA is sending a team of 20 Medical Professionals to Siberia in July / August 2008! Please do your part.

So - how can everyone help? Two ways:

1. Please buy tickets and attend! Buy tickets as gifts for an anniversary or birthday – A Piano Triumph with Alexander Ghindin will be magnificent! Buy tickets for a family night out. To purchase tickets go to www.severancehall.com or call the Severance Hall Box Office at 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1411.

2. Please give us introductions to those you do business with – not more – just Introductions!
~ Introductions to the public relations departments in your hospitals so we can get the word out in their monthly news letters
~ Introductions to your medical supply representatives or anyone you do business with – if you spend money with them – they will want to support what you support.
~ You don’t need to do anything but e-mail Elizabeth Schuttler (elizabeth@mastereventsmeetingplanning.com) from our Fund Raising Committee with your name and the Business / Hospital Contact (with their e-mail and/or phone number). We will contact them with information on the Concert and how they can become a corporate sponsor.
~ Business who sponsor the event will received the benefits ranging from preferred seating, recognition in publications all the way up to a personal reception with with Alexander Ghindin himself!

Thanks for the help – see you on August 16th!

David Montgomery
RAMA Ohio Board Member


cc: by E-mail

Bachtiyarov, Diane and Bakhtiyar
Brown, Edward
Elgudin, Yakov and Larissa (MD)
Estrina, Olga and Yuriy (MDs)
Grenke, Fred
Kolkin, Alla (MD)
Koman, Igor
Korobkova, Irina (MD)
Kostenko, Olga (MD)
Kuperman, Marianna
Lobanova, Julia (MD)
Lowe, Marilyn
Montgomery, David
Muenster, George (DO)
Oleynik, Andrey (MD)
Schuttler, Elizabeth
Vinogradsky, Boris (MD)

[Boris]

We now have tickets for this concert on August 16th. All of them will be sold at standard prices of the Severance Hall. We suggested to everyone who is byuing tickets that they can contribute to the SPHP. That part of the ticket price is voluntary and is tax-deductible.

If you want to purchase tickets, contact me, Yakov Elgudin, Bakhtiar Bakhtiarov or Zhanna Magaram. You can also purchase tickets at the Severance Hall box office and on-line at the http://www.clevelandorch.com/purchase/calendar/index.aspx

More information - www.clevelandorch.com and on the RAMA-Ohio web site.

[Boris]

Alexander Ghindin confirmed his participation in the Cleveland concert on August 16th.

[Boris]

- May 28, 2008-

Article in the Cleveland's Plain Dealer about maestro Ghindin's performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music on May 23rd, 2008.

Pianist Ghindin's recital confirms his status as prize winner

By Donald Rosenberg


The history of musical competitions shows that only a handful of top-prize winners go on to major concert careers. Whether Alexander Ghindin thrives as a result of his victory at the 2007 Cleveland International Piano Competition remains to be seen.

But Ghindin's first recital here since taking first prize in August confirmed that he is no pianistic fluke. He was poetic and charismatic in "From Russia With Love," his program Friday at the Cleveland Institute of Music's Mixon Hall. The advertising turned out to be truthful: The repertoire remained firmly entrenched in the pianist's homeland, and he played as if he adored each of the gazillion notes his fingers projected.

Ghindin's creative compatriots helped him bring out qualities his competition performances had only suggested. The night's main pieces were big, descriptive works by Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky, though the capacity crowd lured the pianist back for four encores (all by Russians, of course).

Tchaikovsky's "The Seasons," Op. 37b, actually is misnamed. Its 12 sections evoke the months of the year in music of vibrant color and contrasting emotions. The collection calls for a pianist who balances subtlety, fluency and incisive rhythm. Ghindin employed these characteristics in mesmerizing fashion.

Unlike the often-galvanic intensity the pianist displayed last summer, his Tchaikovsky was a lesson in patient, cogent phrasing and delicate shading. The moments of revelry registered with requisite brilliance, but Ghindin was at his sensitive best in the score's lyrical and lilting moments, which he shaped with flexible assurance and tonal beauty. Aside from the occasional wiping of his brow, he hardly appeared to exert himself.

He did so after intermission, when Ghindin the extroverted virtuoso filled every corner of Mixon Hall with Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition." Although best known in the Ravel orchestration, the original version is a bold exercise in keyboard tone painting.

Ghindin's approach was earthy and urgent, full of imaginative touches that compelled the audience to listen anew. "Bydlo" has rarely sounded as heavy or forceful. In the "Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks," Ghindin teased lines to depict the birds' unpredictable motion.

A few smudged notes and steely sonorities cropped up along the way. But Ghindin played with such extreme commitment and attention to detail that Mussorgsky's vignettes commanded attention.

The encores ranged from moody Rachmaninoff (Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3, No. 2) and eruptive Prokofiev ("Suggestions Diabolique") to graceful Balakirev ("The Lark") and propulsive Scriabin (Etude in D-sharp minor, Op. 8, No. 12). They emerged from Ghindin with mounds of love.

And those who couldn't obtain tickets to last week's event need not despair: Ghindin gives a recital at Severance Hall on Saturday, August 16, of music by Russians and others to benefit to benefit the humanitarian medical misson of the Russian American Medical Association.

[Boris]

Yakov Elgudin and I met today with the CEO of the University Hospitals of Cleveland - Dr. Fred Rothstein. We talked about RAMA, its Ohio chapter, our work in a community, SPHP. We also talked about bringing Russian doctors here for observership, and patients for treatment. WE also talked about the August fund-raising concert of Alex Ghindin.

A separate topic of discussion was about academic and clinical cooperation between the UH, RAMA and, potentially, Russia.

[Boris]

The team is leaving this Saturday - July 19th. I hope they will have time to post notes and may be YouTube videos here.

Good luck to Dr. Yakov Elgudin and his team!!!

[Boris]

Yakov Elgudin did the first 2 cases in Kemerovo. Lost of other work. His wife - Dr. Larissa Elgudin started her project also.

Hi, Boris,
I am writing this e-mail from Kemerovo. We are all extremely busy here. Yakov did 2 cases today, more are planned for the next 10 days. I started my project here - psychological support to parents and children going through cardiac surgeries for congenital heart defects.
Say hello to everybody.
Larissa.

[Boris]

By way of Dr. Yakov Elgudin (well, he is still suffering from a jetlag, so I am posting his message:tongue::redface:)...

Dear All,

It is with great pleasure that I am reporting to you that the first humanitarian mission organized by the Russian American Medical Association in cooperation with the International Children's Heart Foundation to the city of Kemerovo, Siberia had been completed successfully!

A group of doctors, nurses, and volunteers spent two working weeks in Kemerovo. Almost 20 operations were performed on patients with congenital and acquired heart defects; over 50 patients with complex and uncertain diagnoses were seen and consulted; 9 lectures and multiple clinical and practical seminars were delivered for the audience of physicians from all over the Kemerovo's region; Children's Hospital #4 in Novokuznetsk was visited for lectures and patients' consultations.

The mission attracted a lot of attention from the local and regional administration and the media. At the end of this mission an agreement between RAMA, Administration of the Kemerovo Region, and Kemerovo Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery Center was signed defining the first such an agreement of RAMA witrh local governments in Russia. There is also an agreement pending between RAMA, Kemerovo Center of Cardiology and Kemerovo Regional Psychiatric Hospital in regard to perioperative evaluation, treatment and follow-up on patients with congenital heart disease and their families.

A full report on the mission will follow shortly; there is a large amount of pictures and video materials including the story aired on the Kemerovo's regional and Russia's national program "Vesti".

I would like to thank you all for your support and help in organizing this mission!!!

"YES WE CAN!!!"

Thank you!

Yakov