[S07E05] February 2026 - Lydia Kavina




In the February 2026 edition of the Theremin 30 podcast, host Rick Reid plays music from Canada, Finland, Peru, and Russia. Rick's guest is thereminist and teacher Lydia Kavina.

FEATURED MUSIC*

*The full-length recordings featured in this show were used with the knowledge and permission of the artists and composers. Please support the artists by visiting their websites, purchasing their recordings, and attending their performances. 

ADDITIONAL MUSIC

INTERVIEW GUEST

CALENDAR OF THEREMIN EVENTS

MEDIA & NEWS LINKS

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST

CONTACT

CREDITS 

Copyright 2026 Rick Reid 


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TRANSCRIPT

Please note: This transcript was created with the help of speech-to-text AI.  It may contain some errors.

David Brower  0:04
  
Rick, this is Theremin 30. 30 minutes of Theremin music, news, events, and interviews, with a new episode about every 30 days. Now. Here's your host, Rick Reid.

Rick Reid  0:17
  
Hey! Welcome to the February 2026, edition of the Theremin 30 Podcast. I'm actually recording this in January, but it's so close to the end of the month that I decided to round up. For this edition, I've rounded up some innovative and fascinating Theremin music from around the world, and my special guest is Lydia Kavina. She has a new website designed to help Theremin beginners with recorded lessons, demos and other training resources.

Rick Reid  0:51
  
To get started, I've got new music from Canada and Finland. The second track I'll spin is from Susanna Viljanmaa, who does live looping for a haunting and dark rock track that debuted just a few weeks ago in an online Theremin mMusic Ffestival. But first up, KeriLatimer of the Winnipeg folk band Leaf Rapids goes almost all electronic with an ambient side project she calls oFukami. This first single from her new album is called DR34M, which is kind of a scifi way of spelling D, R, E, A, M, dream. I'll tell you more about both recordings on the other side.

Rick Reid  8:42  

We began the show with a track called DR34M, or Dream from oFukami, an experimental project from Keri Latimer. It's the first single off her debut solo album called When the Future Tried to Take Me. Keri plays Theremin, analog synthesizers, a makeshift Koto, and sings the ethereal vocals. The album is available for pre-order now from her website at ofukami.com. To get there, click on her name in this month's show notes. After that I played Borrowed Time, a new track from Susanna Viljanmma of Espoo Finland. It features Theremin, vocals, beatboxing, bass guitar and more. Susanna composed and recorded the song all in a single day and made a performance music video to go along with it for the Theremin Times annual Christmas Thereminology online music festival on YouTube. I have a link to the video in this episode's show notes at Theremin30.com. 

Rick Reid  9:39  

It's time now for the theremin 30 calendar of Theremin events. On February 1, Charlotte Dubois and Gregoire Blanc play a pair of sold out scifi music recitals in the Vity of Music museum in Paris. On February 17, Rob Schwimmer celebrates his 71st birthday with a show at Joe's Pub in New York City. And on March 28 the All Japan Theremin fFestival takes place in Tokyo with an all-star lineup of Japanese and European performers and a pop-up Theremin museum curated by Yoko Onishi from her private collection of instruments. For details about these events and more. Click the Calendar tab at Theremin30.com. 

Rick Reid  10:24  

Another event I want to give special attention to, occurs on March 5. It's a fundraising raffle called All for Vero. It will benefit recording artist and teacher Veronik of Lima, Peru. Just a few days before Christmas her house caught fire. The good news is that the damage was mostly contained to one room and nobody got hurt. But the bad news is that her family can't live there while making extensive repairs, including replacing all the electrical wiring. And she told me she hasn't yet been able to test all of her musical instruments and recording gear, so she doesn't know how much of it may have to be repaired or replaced due to damage from smoke and heat. If you'd like to offer her a little help by purchasing a raffle ticket, there's a link in this episode's show notes. I've also included Veronik's PayPal account. If you don't live in Peru, it may be easier to show your support with a direct donation, rather than through the raffle. Let's listen to some music now from Veronik. This is from her 2024 album, Dangerous iIllusions. It's a track called Cancion para un regresso, which Google tells me translates to Song for a Comeback. That title seems appropriate right now.

Rick Reid  12:02  

That was Cancion para un regresso, or Song for a Comeback by Veronik. I realized recently that I've been pronouncing her name as Veronik, but she says Veronik, so I'm going to go with that from now on. 

Rick Reid  15:24 

Professional thereminist and teacher, Lydia Kavina has unveiled her brand new website, ThereminSchool.com. It's a comprehensive collection of information and other resources for people who are new to Theremin and want to learn how to play. I recently spoke with Lydia from her home in Oxford, England, to get the details. 

Rick Reid  15:38  

Lydia, thank you so much for being on the theremin 30 podcast.

Lydia Kavina  15:42  

Yes, my pleasure, really, to be here again.

Rick Reid  15:45  

The last time we talked on the show, you were just starting your online Theremin lessons, and that's still going right?

Lydia Kavina  15:52  

Right. Must have been six years ago then, because I've been doing it for almost six years now.

Rick Reid  15:59  

And you've got a new project that I'm pretty excited about. It's a new website that kind of goes along with your teaching. Tell us about that.

Lydia Kavina  16:06  

Well, the new website is actually the online platform for it's called Theremin School, and it is the platform for Theremin learners, for Theremin beginners, but also for teachers, for both sides to meet each other, to find each other, and of course, big part of this learning platform are my exercises and links to my teaching and online classes In particular, but a lot, also a lot of links and information about Theremin, learning books, teaching videos of different Theremin teachers like Carolina, Ike Kay processor and Randy George and Whatever, so many, many teachers from the world, but also useful links to such platform as CEM and world.com and, of course, to your podcast, to chats in Facebook so that people can exchange their experience and ask questions and find the answers to the questions.

Rick Reid  17:23  

So it's not just about promoting yourself as a teacher. You're actually promoting your competition in a way other teachers around the world.

Lydia Kavina  17:32  

Yes, because I think that's what people need. If you are new for the to theremin and look how you can learn the theremin of what is the teaching resources? What teacher you can find near you? You go online. So everything is learned online today. So I thought that's where such people have to find this information, you know?

Rick Reid  18:04  

So somebody who is interested in a theremin maybe hasn't purchased one yet. Where do they start on your website?

Lydia Kavina  18:12  

First of all, they can learn what the theremin is. So what is this instrument? So it is a brief explanation. And also they see some videos immediately, because we we know that theremin is worth to see first, to answer a lot of questions. What it is so and, and then I hope it is quite a clear system, like every school has got, the classroom teachers, a library, books, exercises, so and, of course, the events calendar, with the events of different teachers and different Theremin societies. When I say Theremin societies, it belongs to Theremin learning process very closely, because every time we have got Theremin sessions, thereminist gatherings, we play ensembles, we exchange, we teach, or we organize workshops, for example, for for ceremonies, and we organize concerts together, festivals together. So this is very close to educational process, because very often, big part of Theremin communities are students of the same class or several teachers. So that's why Theremin the promotion of Theremin classes and promotion of Theremin associations or societies community. Is are both very present on this website.

Rick Reid  20:03  

You have some self guided exercises. How does that work? What would we expect to see on your website?

Lydia Kavina  20:09  

Well, this page is for those who like exercises, because it's not everyone, everyone who likes exercises, but they are people who like exercises and they they want to have in front of them, like pages of exercises that they can go through and gradually master their skills. They are my exercises, so a part of many links to other tutorial books of other terminists. I do not have a book. I have it online. So I think this is this is this must be very comfortable for people today, because everyone wants to learn online and at the same time, it is not a not a perfect finished book. I add exercises like every week new and add videos for those exercises or audio files. So it is like growing and flexible page.

Rick Reid  21:23  

Do you see these exercises as a supplement to working with a teacher or a replacement for working with a teacher if you don't have access to one in your community?

Lydia Kavina  21:33  

it depends on the person you know. Every everyone is, every person is so different. We know that there are people who like to to learn by themselves. So they will deeply dig in all kind of resources and very closely learn from exercises, from videos, from books, from information other people need a personal contact. So they would say, online, it's not for me. I want to come into your and have it offline. But how they would find this teacher? They can find the teacher, for example, in their country, you know at least, or a festival or offline workshop in their town, for example. And some people read music, some people don't. So for those who, who like who went through this process of learning another instrument and know how, how it is, normally classical way to learn traditional instrument. For example, violin, you always go through the exercises. So that would be something that they would expect from the learning Theremin as well. So they would look for exercises for the theremin and they can find the exercises on my page.

Rick Reid  23:05  

How long did it take to put this together? It seems like quite a big project.

Lydia Kavina  23:09  

Yes, of course, it has been developed through many, many years. So the whole idea was developing very slowly. In the end, it has been just several months that Alexander lovrinovich managed to put it everything technically, you know, but the initial idea was by my husband George. About 20 years ago, he just registered the domain ThereminSchool.com and said, This is something that you have to do. But to develop what exactly this platform should be, it took many, many years, yes. And and I have to say that the activities of Theremin school have been realized already through at least since pandemic, yeah, at least since 2020. Everyone went online, and the community grew and got these communications from from all the countries, yeah, and now I just put it on the website.

Rick Reid  24:24  

Well, congratulations on the new website, and I hope it's just a huge success for you. And thank you so much for all the time and effort and energy you put into helping people around the world learn about and learn to play the theremin.

Lydia Kavina  24:36  

Thank you Rick for having me.

Rick Reid  24:39  

ThereminSchool.com is up and running right now, so check it out. There's a link in this episode's show notes at Theremin 30.com. Now let's finish the show with music from Lydia Kavina, along with Olesya Rostovskaya and Agnes Paz from their new improvisational music album, Triple Reflection: Three Theremins. Here is an excerpt from the first track, Movement 1 - Whispers's Reflections.

Rick Reid  28:49  

That was a portion of Movement 1 - Whispers' Reflections from the improvisational Theremin album Triple Reflection: Three Theremins featuring Lydia Kavina, Olesya Rostovskaya, and Agnes Paz. You can buy and download the stereo version of the album from Bandcamp. It's also available in several surround sound formats from NativeDSD. There are links for both sites in this episode's show notes. 

Rick Reid  29:14  

Thanks so much to Keri Latimer, Susanna Viljanmaa, Veronik, Lydia Kavina, Olesya Rostovskaya, and Agnes Paz for sharing their music. Also, thanks to Lydia for visiting with me about ThereminSchool.com. Finally, a big thank you goes to the listeners who support this show with small one time and monthly donations. If you'd like to help me cover my time and expenses, look for the tip jar on the website or click on the new button that says, "buy me a wave." Til next time, I'm your host, Rick Reid, and I'll see you somewhere in the ether.

David Brower  29:51  

You've been listening to the theremin 30 podcast. Visit Theremin 30 on the web at Theremin30.com.
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