This month I am going to ask readers to travel nearly 6,000 miles from home to discover some faraway connections, deep and strong, to Pottsville and Schuylkill County.
First, we’re going to board a jet, crossing the Atlantic Ocean and then the Mediterranean and Black Seas. As we land, our plane swoops over the Caspian Sea, in reality the biggest salt lake in the world, to begin our descent into Heyder Aliyev International Airport, an ultramodern landing terminal and gateway to Baku, the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan, about 250 miles from that country’s border with Iran.
We hop a taxi and travel the 12 miles between the airport and center city. Wide boulevards are packed with Hummers, SUV’s, luxury cars and state-of-the-art electric busses; construction is underway everywhere. We head to the Old City within fortress walls, where traffic is restricted and pedestrians can roam narrow streets scented by roses in bloom. We check into our hotel and head back out. Our first destination: the birthplace of piano teacher extraordinaire Julie Askernia, who has her studio at the Art Center on Mahantongo Street in Pottsville.
I’ve done it. I’ve made my “Pottsville-Baku” connection, thanks to Julie, whose talent, personality and, most importantly, friendship wakened my interest in this part of the world. Now I stand in front of the building where Julie spent the first years of her childhood, a typical solid home of golden stone with a view of the nearby Caspian Sea.
When Julie was born, Azerbaijan was a Soviet Republic, and the city carries the mark of that presence, with many buildings constructed in what is known as the “Soviet Orientalist” style: the train station, the National Academy of Sciences, and many big apartment and office buildings found in the modern city’s vast pedestrian zone dotted with fountains and parks.
Julie’s life is marked by that presence as well. Once she completed her piano studies in Baku, she went on to study at the Moscow Conservatory of Music, the training ground for some of the greatest pianists in the world. Three of my favorites (besides Julie) studied there: Lazar Berman, Radu Lupu and Bella Davidovich, who like Julie was born in Baku.
My sister Jane, my niece and nephew, and I have studied with Julie. From my first lesson, I knew something exceptional was happening. This was not simply a piano lesson, I was experiencing music at is best. Julie opened new worlds by simply teaching me to place my fingers differently on the keys, to obtain a different sound, to “make music.” I was partaking, at my modest level, in that long and demanding Russian tradition of taking music seriously and playing joyfully.
With or without my trip, in Schuylkill County, a solid connection is already in place to Baku, Moscow and one of the greatest piano-teaching methods in the world, thanks to Julie Askernia, a musical gift to us all.
Today, in Baku, things are changing fast. The city is becoming a showcase of contemporary architecture. Dominating the skyline, three flame-shaped skyscrapers burn in the night, thanks to the LED-screens covering their surface. These Flame Towers are also a reminder of the city’s Zoroastrian past. There’s also the new carpet museum, inaugurated in 2014, tracing the history and celebrating the art of carpet-weaving in Azerbaijan. The building has the form of an unrolling carpet, complete with motifs.
The crowning jewel is the Heyder Aliyev Center, a museum, conference center and concert hall, designed by British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadad, who died an untimely death in 2016, the year of her creation’s inauguration.
Baku underwent its first growth spurt at the end of the 19th century, when oil was discovered. Today, once again, it feels like a boom town, clean, modern, prosperous and safe. Like in China, prosperity comes with a price. The same family has been ruling the country since 1993, and it’s best, as many journalists know, not to criticize the regime.
Politics, however, has in no way dampened the hospitality of the people of Baku. They give freely of themselves and help above and beyond the call of duty, as I learned when I arrived in the city on a night train from Tbilisi, Georgia. Mila, the Azeri woman who shared a sleeping compartment with me, took me in hand, joined me in a taxi and dropped me at my hotel.
Then Julie’s friends Nellie, Rassima and Karina took over, showing me the town and above all, offering me the experience of the best in Azeri cuisine. First I sampled “dushbara,” a delicate broth with tiny dumplings, then melt-in-the-mouth stuffed grape leaves, eggplant salad, grilled vegetables, “qutab”—light and delicious crepes filled with herbs, ground meat or pumpkin; rice pilafs, and grilled meats, accompanied by the local red wine. For dessert, baklava and watermelon-rind jam that we washed down with black tea, the national drink.
I walked the seaside, visited museums, took in the local sights, relaxing after 10 days on my own in Tbilisi, Georgia, where I taught at the national university. No one took care of me there and the Georgian language and alphabet were often a challenge, but in that country, more democratic but less prosperous than Azerbaijan, I encountered the same hospitality and kindness from students and strangers. In a country actively developing its tourist infrastructure, its culture and natural beauty call out to be explored.
While there, I was also able to satisfy my curiosity about another local connection, one I noticed during a visit to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. Near the Visitors’ Center, there’s a signpost with arrows pointing to important raptor-watching spots throughout the world. One is in the mountains of Georgia, above the city of Batumi on the Black Sea coast.
Though I did not go to Batumi, I was not far away from the “largest and most diverse raptor bottleneck in Eurasia,” as it is described by two leadership interns from Hawk Mountain, Johannes Jansen and Wouter Vandsteelant of Belgium. They have played a central role in establishing a raptor-observation site near Batumi and I encourage readers to learn more at https://www.hawkmountain.org/science/batumi-bottleneck-georgia/
In the past month, my world has become wider and richer. It has also become a friendlier and more familiar place, thanks to connections between home and abroad.
