Chapter 8. A New Chapter in Life.

Official divorce

Well. According to statistics, both in Ukraine and in Russia, around 70% of married couples eventually get divorced. This fate did not pass us by either.

Of course, I am not going to analyze now what, how, and why it all led to this. What difference does it make, really. As they say in Ukraine: we have what we have.

I will only say (and I hope this does not sound like an excuse) that the children were no longer very young (the older one was 17 in 2024, the younger one 13), and they took it relatively calmly.

And no, I have no illusions about this. The separation of parents is undoubtedly a serious stress and a psychological trauma for children for life. But still, I think that modern children tend to perceive it a bit “easier” than, for example, children born in the USSR. Of course, I cannot look into their souls. And even if I could, I wouldn’t do it. But honestly, I did not see any major tragedy on their faces or drastic changes in their behavior. Once, my older son came up to me and said: “Dad, you really need to get divorced.” What can you add to that? :)

Perhaps only that they are brothers, they live together, and they strongly support each other. And that, of course, makes me very happy.

We moved into separate apartments starting January 1, 2025. But throughout 2024 we were still living under the same roof, even though we officially divorced back in May.

Performances in Swedish churches

So now I will focus on our everyday and creative life in Sweden during 2024, setting the visibility of family conflicts to 100% transparency off — in other words, completely hiding them from the reader.

In February, cellist Titus and I performed a concert in one of the most well-known churches in Gothenburg — Domkyrkan. By the way, all the concerts I mention are listed in the “Events” section of the website. It was a concert of French music, with a very interesting program, including the famous Sonata in A major by César Franck. These concerts in the church are called “Saturday Music” and take place on Saturdays at 2:00 PM.

Later, we played two more concerts: one in March at the church where Titus’s mother works, and another in June at the church where his father used to work. We also had an opportunity to perform another concert with a new program, but I declined because I simply didn’t have time to prepare new repertoire for just one performance.

Looking ahead, I will say that now Tima has completely replaced me in this duo. In my opinion, this is even better, since Tima and Titus are of the same age. Such ensembles always look more natural from the audience’s perspective.

Meanwhile, Tima had an important event coming up. In Sweden, there is a popular TV program called “Radiohjälpen” (for children around the world), which is broadcast only once a year on the main national TV channel SVT 1.

The conductor of the Dream Orchestra, where Tima is a regular pianist — Ron Alvarez — received an invitation from SVT 1 and decided to give this opportunity to Tymofii.

I would like to highlight how well everything was organized. First of all, not only Tima was invited to Stockholm for the filming — the whole family was invited. Our travel and accommodation were covered. Tima was also given money to buy a proper concert outfit.

Everything went great. You can watch the recording of Tymofii’s performance from the live broadcast above. He performed his own arrangement of the well-known Swedish folk song “Vem kan segla förutan vind.” We were in the audience.

Music and football

Meanwhile, Nikita continued attending school. I was always touched (and still am) by his Swedish pronunciation. As is well known, children absorb foreign languages much faster. Nikita was no exception — he immediately picked up the unique melody of Swedish speech. Alongside school, he continued pursuing football at a serious level.

As for music, he has always had a strong foundation. The creative atmosphere that has always existed in our home could not help but influence him. After concerts, Nikita always tells me and Tima what mistakes everyone made :)

Unfortunately, I was not able to continue teaching him piano. Mostly, of course, due to family circumstances.

But for some reason, I am sure that in 20–30 years, he will return to it on his own. Maybe even using my videos :) After all, he is a member of Piano BASE — the best online piano learning platform today (sorry, couldn’t resist 🙂).

And just like that, the year flew by.

I increasingly realized that getting a state job here would probably only be possible in another lifetime. No one needs competition. Everything is either “bra” (“good” in Swedish) or “jättebra” (“very good”). And insiders always have priority. Which, in a way, I actually find quite understandable.

Because of this, I focused more and more on developing my online work. In particular, at the end of the year I launched the project I mentioned earlier — I will talk about it in more detail in the next chapter.

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