BBC Learning English People and Places Alexandra Kloss bbclearningenglish.com
SIG William: Hello and welcome to People and Places, the programme from BBC Learning English that introduces you to interesting people from around the world. TAG Today you're going to meet a very talented young musician, Alexandra Kloss. Alexandra is living in London and studying at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music. You’re going to listen to Alex talk about her life and as you listen I want you to try to answer four questions. You can see these questions on the People and Places webpage on bbclearningenglish dot com. But I’ll also tell them to you now. OK? Here are your four questions. Number one – what instrument does Alexandra play? CLIP That was a hint! Number two – What languages does Alexandra speak? Number three – What project has she been involved in, at the Royal Academy of Music? And, last one, number four – What kinds of music can one play on Alex’s instrument? Right – I’ll shut up now, but at the end of the programme I’ll come back to tell you the answers… STING Alexandra: My name is Alexandra Kloss, I’m from Germany, I’m twenty years old, and since September last year I’ve been studying at the Royal Academy of Music in London… and I’m playing the recorder in the Early Music Department there. Fantasia no. 7 (G.P. Telemann) I’m actually half-German and half-Russian, so my mother comes from St Petersburg and my father comes from Germany. So I speak both languages… English is also my first foreign language. Somehow, my two mother languages, they help me because somehow I understand the languages a bit, yeah, easier. But maybe also because German is so… yeah, so similar to English. Sonata no. 1 (F. Mancini) The Royal Academy is really a nice place. There are many different people there and different cultures, so, yeah, people from everywhere. And um, we’ve got loads of projects. First of all, I’ve been involved in a very interesting project, um, with Baroque dance, where um, the students of the Royal Academy, we had to dance in costumes and play. And it was a very nice experience to dance in the costumes. Yeah, they are very beautiful, but also very uncomfortable, to be honest! Sonata no. 1 (F. Mancini) For a very long time, recorder was just an instrument for children or for schools to use it for the music lessons, but um, it’s not an instrument like that, there are loads of different models of recorders, and there is, in fact, loads of music for it: all the Baroque period, Renaissance, Medieval stuff and now also lots of modern music is composed for recorder. So, I think, yeah, it's getting better again… Sonata no. 1 (F. Mancini) STING William: That was words and music from Alexandra Kloss. She was playing one of the twelve Fantasias by GP Telemann, and then at the end, F. Mancini’s first Sonata… and she was playing them on the recorder, which was the answer to the first question. How about the second question – what languages can Alexandra speak? Well, she is bilingual in Russian and German, because her mother comes from Russia and her father from Germany. Of course, she can also speak English, which she calls her ‘first foreign language’! Question three: What project was Alexandra involved in? Well, she said she had to dance wearing costumes, so, clothes, from the Baroque period… and she had to play the recorder at the same time! The Baroque period, by the way, was from around 1600 to around 1750. And, the last question - What music can be played on the recorder? - Alexandra said that there was loads of music for it, including Baroque music, Renaissance music and Medieval music. In addition, Alexandra says, lots of modern music is composed for the recorder… although I don’t think she’s talking about U2 or Coldplay! Goodbye! The Nightingale in Love (Francois Couperin)