“My teacher couldn’t give it to me. Only my students could.”
Vitalii Kuzovkov grew up in Chelyabinsk, Russia - in his words, a “working city.”
I remember searching for the name in my mind as if I had heard it somewhere long ago. Then, he solemnly reminded me of the Chelyabinsk asteroid - the shocking meteorological event that befell the city in 2013. I listened intently and smiled gladly at the thought that the meteor had exploded midair and that he had survived. He has now become a piano and band teacher for young musicians in Shanghai.
I first crossed paths with Vitalii in September 2023. I began taking his lessons, and my first impression of him was something like an ever-quiet master of his craft with the friendliest demeanor. He has since left an indelible mark on my musical pursuit; like me, many aspiring musicians are where they are now thanks to him. Sometimes, that makes me forget that he was also once a young musician.
“I started playing piano when I was 8… My parents just asked me, ‘Hey, what instrument you wanna play?’ They didn’t ask me if I wanted to play.”
“When I was 10, I was interested in pop music… Bands, these kinds of things. I really wanted to be part of this.” He cited the influence of his mother, as this was the music he grew up listening to. He was always sensitive to music - music could evoke his goosebumps and tears sometimes, he told me vividly. By college, he was already listening to Rachmaninoff, Chopin, and the like.
For him, Ludwig van Beethoven always stood out amidst the greats, inspiring him in hard times. “A deaf musician,” he mused with some disbelief as if it was the first time he heard about it. “It’s like… it’s like a painter who cannot see.”
Allegedly, Beethoven desperately banged on pianos to barely hear the notes, banging so hard as to break some of them. Beethoven suffered, but he persevered. It was not long until Vitalii would also need this kind of perseverance.
His path to music college seemed so natural that he didn’t consider any other careers, though he drew extensively, no doubt a talented visual artist. He had much fun drawing two short animations and even ventured into drama, writing a movie with a friend. No matter what he did, it involved his unwavering commitment to artistic creation.
He found his way into the South Ural State Institute of Arts (named after P.I. Tchaikovsky), located on Pobedy Avenue. He was rather caught off guard by the extreme stress and limits he faced there; disheartened, he stopped practicing towards the end of the fourth year of his studies, right before the final exams. To this day, he still describes traditional music education as severely confining.
After graduating, he became very disenchanted with music and wanted to distance himself from it, citing his college life as the main reason. He described it as walking on a road for his whole life and then realizing it “led to nothing.” It led to a brief hiatus, a momentary departure from the rhythm of his musical journey.
A pivotal turn awaited him in the busy streets of Shanghai. He began teaching at a music school called Starcle Music Center in 2017. It completely transformed him.
He discovered spectacular artistic freedom and fell in love with music again. “My teachers couldn’t give it to me; only my students could,” he said. He explained that interacting with his students brought him back to the endless possibilities of creation. For him, the experience was like banging on a wall and finally realizing there was a door out of a confining room. Now that he was outside, the possibilities were endless.
What endears him to his students is his unique approach to teaching. I believe his philosophy and approach to teaching were extensively influenced by his experiences at the State Institute in Chelyabinsk. Vitalii explained that teaching was a mutual exchange of creativity and thinking, rather than the student only passively receiving information from the teacher. He believes a good teacher should help students develop their interests and have the ability to recognize when to “push” the students and when to let them be.
When I tell him a good teacher is exactly who he is, he only smiles and thanks me as usual. He heads home - all I know is that he will keep opening the door to his little classroom with the humble but beautiful piano, spreading his knowledge and love for music.