Crystal Harmony trio uses glass as instruments

Many have heard the sound made by rubbing a wet finger on the rim of a glass or by blowing across the end of a pop bottle.

Using much the same principle, three musicians from Siberia will prove to Great Falls on Monday that beautifully intricate classical music on a grand scale can arise from instruments made of glass.

Crystal Harmony from Siberia brings its soaring musical sounds to Great Falls for the fifth concert in the Great Falls Community Concert 2008-2009 series.

Three young musicians, Igor Sklyarov, Timofey Vinkovsky and Vladimir Perminov, founded the group in 2001.

The trio plays unusual musical instruments made of glass — the verrophone, glass harp and glass flute.

The verrophone is made of open-ended glass tubes arranged in various sizes, usually in a chromatic scale from large to small, like the pipes of a pipe organ.

Sound is created by rubbing one end of one or more of the glass tubes or by striking them or rubbing them with a special mallet. The tubes are close together so that chords are formed by rubbing more than one at the same time.

The glass harp or glass harmonica uses a series of glass bowls or goblets graduated in size to produce musical tones by means of friction.

The glass flute produces sound when air is passed over the ends of its tubes, much like passing your breath across the end of a bottle.

Crystal Harmony's repertoire consists of variations of popular classical melodies of Mozart, Boccerini, Vivaldi and original compositions written specially for a crystal harmonic from Mozart and Glinka.

Sklyarov, glass harp player, was born in 1968 in Barnaul, Altai Krai, Siberia. In 1992, he earned a Master of Performance degree on the accordion at the Novosibirsk Conservatory. Sklvarov previously played with the national orchestra in Siberia.

In 1998, Sklyarov began playing the glass harp as a hobby and jokes that playing "glass music" confirms his surname — according to Sklvarov, "skl'yanka" means glassware in Russian.

Timofey Vinkovsky, who plays verrophone, was born in 1967 in Shipunovo, Altai Krai, Siberia. He studied at a special music school at the Novosibirsk Conservatory and followed with classes in music theory at Barnaul Music School.

In 1991, he completed his studies in music theory at the Novosibirsk Conservatory. From 1999-2001, Vinkovsky worked as an arranger at Schauspielhaus Theatre in Dusseldorf, Germany. The idea to play classical music on glasses came to Timofey in 1997.

Vladimir Perminov, glass flute player, was born in 1962 in Barnaul. Perminov has had an eventful professional career. He began studying flute at a children's music school at age 4. He went on to study in the Barnaul Music School, the Odessa State Conservatory and Krasnoyarsk Institute of Arts.

In 1995, Perminov was trained in the Summer Academy of Ancient Music in Innsbrook, Austria. He has played in the symphonic orchestra of the Altay State Philarmonic Society, a symphonic orchestra of the Odessa Regional Philarmonic Society, and for music comedy at the Altay Theatre. Perminov was part of an ensemble of ancient music called Ars Longa.

His performance credits include stints with such groups as The Petersburg Mosaic and the St. Petersburg Stars, and he has toured across Poland, Yugoslavia, Germany, Austria, Spain, China and Malta.

Perminov is currently a member of a symphonic orchestra of the State Philarmonic Society of Altai territory, part of the Itkulsky Quintet and the Crystal Harmony ensemble.

Admission is by series season ticket or individual ticket. Individual tickets cost $30 and are available at ticketing.greatfallsmt.net.