From Russia with love for the arts

The car transporting Alexander S. Sokolov -- minister of culture and mass communication for the Russian Federation -- slid into the driveway of downtown’s New Otani Hotel recently just behind a shiny black Hummer bristling with chrome. An American passenger on the ride was about to apologize for this high-ticket, low-mpg symbol of conspicuous consumption when Sokolov observed: “This car very popular in Moscow.”

Who would have guessed that Moscow believes in bling?

Sokolov, a trained violinist in his mid-50s who serves as rector and dean of music theory at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory, assumed his government post about a year ago. His main reason for a midwinter visit to L.A. was to promote this year’s Rachmaninoff International Piano Competition and Festival, a joint venture of his department, the city of Los Angeles and Master Classes International, an L.A. nonprofit that brings international artists to the region. Sokolov will be among the judges for the competition, to be held June 4-18 at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

But while he was here, Sokolov was also out to help quash some of the stereotypes about each other that Americans and Russians have toted around since the Cold War. Even after the collapse of the Soviet Union more than a decade ago, he quipped, most Americans still take their impression of modern Russian life from the Beatles’ “Back in the USSR.”

As he admired the mountain views from downtown, he acknowledged that back home Russia was blanketed in snow, but added that didn’t mean life there still looks like “Doctor Zhivago.”

“My mission for my generation is the renaissance of Russian culture,” he declared.

Sokolov was a judge for the previous Rachmaninoff competition in 2002, but on that visit he never saw the ocean because he was sequestered at Pasadena’s Civic Auditorium while pianists 30 and younger competed for a grand prize of $30,000 and a new Kawai piano. This time, he was determined to do a little exploring.

His four-day tour included a visit to Disney Hall and three hours at the Getty; an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences luncheon at Sony Studios; meetings with city and county officials; and a lavish soiree amid the French antiques at the Pacific Palisades manse of Dennis Tito, the wealthy businessman who paid a reported $20 million in 2001 to join a Russian Soyuz mission to the International Space Station.

Part of Sokolov’s aim in his new government post, he explained, is practical: He wants Russia to establish American-style laws of philanthropy that would allow nonprofit arts institutions such as Moscow’s Bolshoi Theater, traditionally supported by the government, to start fundraising in the private sector. He would like to establish the legal groundwork for Russian-American film co-productions and launch a Moscow-based U.S.-Russian film festival that would help familiarize Russians with America’s independent films, not just Hollywood blockbusters.

Russia, he said, could also learn some lessons from the U.S. entertainment industry about copyright law, as well as the best way to combat the counterfeiting of its videos, DVDs and CDs. And he would like to see his homeland encourage cultural tourism. “Not just the central cities like Moscow or St. Petersburg but some of the provincial places are of historical interest, especially in the north of Russia, Siberia,” he said.

Although Sokolov was here to promote Russian culture, he often evidenced the comic timing of an American stand-up. In the New Otani lobby before a visit to the downtown offices of county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky -- whose ancestors conveniently hailed from Ukraine and Belarus -- he listened as Beverly Hills gallery owner Suzanne Zada, part of his ad hoc entourage, vented her frustration with the ignorance she had encountered at local broadcast outlets as she tried to set up interviews for him. The personnel, she said indignantly, kept asking her to spell “Rachmaninoff,” something she insisted would never happen in her native Hungary.

Sokolov grinned. “I can tell you, in future years, they will not be able to spell ‘piano,’ ” he said.

Indeed, although Russians, too, worry about pop culture displacing the arts, Sokolov maintained that the problem is greater among showbiz-and-sports- crazed Americans. “They are obsessed also with winning,” he said. “There is nothing to win in arts.”

For her part, Hope Boonshaft, executive vice president of external affairs for Sony Pictures Entertainment, acknowledged that Russia, not the arts, was the reason for the studio powwow with the culture minister.

“About once a month, we have visiting dignitaries from around the world,” she said. “We are all global companies, and Russia is new, burgeoning -- there is marketing potential there. When there is a high-ranking official in town, we’re all doing business.”

At Tito’s home the night before flying home to Russia, Sokolov seemed to have judged his visit a victory for the arts. He thanked the attendees, including Los Angeles County Arts Commission executive director Laura Zucker, recently selected to head a new nonprofit to market the city as a cultural destination.

“I am full of new impressions. I hope we will come to have new traditions between Los Angeles and Russia,” he said. Amateur cosmonaut Tito hoped so too.

“As opposed to what I had grown up with as a view of Russia and the Russian people, we seem to have a lot in common. I find them very personable and humorous and fun to be with,” Tito said.

“I think we started cultural exchanges maybe in the 1970s, to a limited degree, but I think a major breakthrough was the joint participation in space flight, with the Apollo-Soyuz project in 1975 and continued joint efforts in space in the 1990s which led to other cultural exchanges. What we see happening now is just an evolution of that.”