Interview with Tatyana Ryzhkova – by Giuseppe Chiaramonte third part

Giuseppe Chiaramonte: Who is the guitar-maker of your instrument? Have you ever played a handmade Italian guitar?

Tatyana Ryzhkova: The guitar that I am playing now is made by a German luthier Michel Brück. It is a cedar double-top and it is pretty new, from year 2010. When I searched for a new instrument at that time, I have tried a lot of different guitars from many countries (of course not all, but many) and this guitar was the only instrument that said to me: “take me with you!” It was a love at first sight. And we are still very happy together.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have an opportunity to play any Italian guitar.

Giuseppe Chiaramonte: You are also a poet. Tell us something about your poems.

Tatyana Ryzhkova: I began to write my poems when I was 14 years old. At that moment I had a difficult time in my life, because I couldn’t play the guitar. And because I had so many troubles and couldn’t put them in my music, I had to found another way – to put the feelings on paper. At first, there were only dark and pessimistic poems, with a lot of pain. But with the passage of time it became lighter and more positive. The poems have helped me to stay up and to become stronger.

4-5 years ago I began to write music to my poems, and from that time on I write only positive and optimistic poems. I feel happy and would like to share this happiness with all people. I think there are too many dirty and painful things in our world to speak one more time about them. So I just would like to give people on my concerts a little piece of happiness and love with my songs, just to make the audience feel happy, even for a one hour…

Giuseppe Chiaramonte: Other than the guitar, what are your other interests? How do you like to spend your free time?

Tatyana Ryzhkova: Fortunately, I don’t have a lot of free time (otherwise it would mean that I have not enough work, which would be a pity). If I have some free minutes, I’m doing something that is connected with my music, website, songs, Facebook profile, answering Emails. But the easiest way to spend some free time is to go to Internet. I haven’t figured out yet how you can manage this time trap, where you get caught every time, when you just like “to check mails or read some news”, but you have no problems with your free time after that.

I like travelling a lot, to see new places, like to cook (specially sweat thing - desserts, cakes etc.), like to be with my family. At the moment I am trying to learn how to cook Macarons (devilishly delicious French dessert) – they are so tricky! So I need more practice… What a luck for my friends!