Coming to summer school at the conservatory "has been a life-long dream," said the California general practitioner, who has been in Moscow a little more than a week.
Burner, an amateur violinist, was chosen to attend the Moscow Conservatory's three-week summer school. The program, which is being offered for the fourth year, accepts about 75 foreign students and rejects at least 25 percent of the applicants.
The musicians, each of whom pays $1,620 to attend the school, range from a 14-year-old Japanese girl to a 70-year-old American woman.
Burner is the only non-professional musician attending the program. Professor Veda Zuponcic, a visiting American professor who is dean of the program, said that Burner was an exception and that the session is more than just another summer camp.
Though he is a practicing physician, Burner's true passion is classical music. Burner said that at the age of 5 he fell in love with the voice of the violin. "I was like a child following the Pied Piper," he said. "It gripped my very life."
His music teachers in the United States were also graduates of the Moscow Conservatory, inheritors of a tradition that has produced some of the world's great musicians and composers, including Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.
Burner began thinking about coming to Russia to study after a trip around the world 20 years ago that included a stop in Moscow.
It was the recent death of a close friend that convinced him he should take time in life to fulfill his dream. The study session abroad is allowing him to "get away from all the distractions and immerse myself in music," Burner said. "These other performers here are some of the best I've ever heard."
The summer session professor, Sergei Kravchenko, a Conservatory graduate himself, said that the major challenge for the foreign students, who come from Italy, England, Taiwan, Japan, Australia and other countries, is that "their focus on technique gets in the way of emotional flow."
Kravchenko, who has taught in Europe and America, says he enjoys teaching in the summer program for foreigners.
"Of course, if you know something, you want to leave something behind and it doesn't matter where," he said.
None of the students knows Russian. Each lesson or lecture comes with an interpreter. The students spend most of their time studying and practicing and have little time for touring the streets of Moscow on their own, although excursions are scheduled every weekend.
In the dorm where they live, each room is equipped with a piano and a mirror so that they can check their hand technique.
Kyung-Yi Yang is here from Korea, and has aspirations to compete in the next Tchaikovsky competition. She said she had come to Moscow because "Moscow, Russia is the foundation of music. It's deeper musically. And I wanted to learn strong technique."
Burner echoed her sentiment: "I love Russian music and being here, I feel a great debt."
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.