It's an ordinary morning and we get into a phone conversation with a member of the Friends organisation Mrs Hansen í one end and Milena in the other:
”Oh, it's you, Mrs Hansen. Good morning!”
’Hi Milena - How about this - should I start with a full stop when writing the address?’
”No - as we talked about yesterday, Mrs Hansen, just write what we agree on.”
’Yes, but then nothing happens. - By the way, when will there be new rehearsal offers?’
”They've just been sent out. Have you checked the website?”
’No - it's so difficult - can't we just get it in writing...?’
”I'll tell you what - let's follow you to the website. Are you sitting at your computer...?”
...
Milena passes the test of kindness and patience every day when she speaks to members of the Friends' Association on the phone. Just as we know her from the breaks in the foyer of the Koncerthuset, where she stands at her little booth, filled with CDs and welcoming smiles. Here, she always gathers a crowd of members who want to have a chat with our fairy godmother before the bell rings for the other department.
But who is this fairy godmother? - We met her during a short break in her long and very busy working day in the DR City. We sit down in the furniture from the old ’King's Room’ in the Radio House on Rosenørns Allé, which has been moved to the new DR City. Milena in Kaare Klint's beautiful sofa, which suits her very well - board members Michael Adeler Bjarnø and Finn Gravesen in chairs opposite.
Milena is first tasked with explaining her starting point:
’I was born in Kiev, Ukraine, in 1975. In 1978, my parents emigrate with me via Vienna to Denmark, which becomes our new homeland. In 1980, my grandmother and grandfather were granted exit permits to Denmark, and my aunt (and her family, i.e. her husband and son) joined them. - My mother, Ludmila Spektor, and my father, Arkadi Servetnik, were born in Kiev. - But in connection with the great upheaval in the Eastern Bloc, we, like many others, moved to the West - more specifically Denmark.
Several of our family members died during World War II as a result of the Nazi persecution of Jews in the Soviet Union. As a Jew in the Soviet Union, you were not a Soviet citizen - you were Jewish and therefore second-class, and that appeared on the passport!
Today, there are no more of our family members left in Ukraine - everyone who survived emigrated to the West - Israel, the USA and in our family's case, Denmark.’
After arriving in Denmark, the family first lived in a refugee centre in Rantzausgade and later moved to an apartment in Valby. Both of Milena's parents are classically trained at conservatories in Kiev and Moscow, and after arriving in Denmark they were soon employed in Danish orchestras. Arkadi won a solo spot in the Zealand Symphony Orchestra and then joined Kapellet. Ludmilla in DR's Entertainment Orchestra and later the Radio Symphony Orchestra. Milena spends every day with her mother at the orchestra or with her father at the theatre - or she is looked after by her grandparents. (You can read about the family's tumultuous and exciting life in Ludmila's highly readable book Emigrant for life (ed.)
As a new Dane, Milena does what many others do - plays football and becomes good at Danish. She didn't grow up in an orthodox Jewish home, but at the Jewish ’Carolina School’ she learnt what it was all about.
Music is the common thread in Milena's upbringing, where everyone in the family - with the exception of her grandfather, who was a lawyer - plays an instrument. Milena started playing the cello. Well, it started with the smaller and more affordable violin, which Milena began playing at the age of five. That is, after the family had arrived in Denmark. She switched to cello in 1983-84, and her first teacher was Charlotte Lund Christiansen (who, by the way, became a member of Venneforeningen last year). Milena talks rapturously about that time and about her beloved ¾ Guarneri cello - one of those fantastic ’cremonesers’ that virtuosos all over the world are queuing up to own, and which she got after Gerd von Bülow became her teacher. However, she had to give it up, the cello and her dream of being a musician in general due to a joint disorder.
Of course, Milena goes to ’Sangskolen’/Sankt Annæ Gymnasium, where she can fulfil her musical abilities and desires.
In 1994, she married Mads and had daughter Rebecca, and four years later they had son Felix.
Milena's daily life has always been characterised by music. And even though she didn't pursue a career as a musician, music was always on her mind, and in 1998 she was employed in the cloakroom of the old radio centre on Rosenørns Allé. Of course, she attends all the Thursday concerts - and during the day she has a job in the kindergarten and after-school programme at Krebs’ School. Milena helps out in the Choir and Orchestra Department, including with the difficult move to DR-byen in Ørestaden. She meets Vibeke, the secretary and coordinator of the Friends' Association, and helps her with her work.
When Vibeke Strand is replaced, everything points to Milena as her replacement. She is now a single mum and finances are tight, but Milena's job is as close to music as you can get without playing yourself. And she is passionate about it. After a stint as the Symphony Orchestra's subscription coordinator, Milena took on her current job as the Friends’ ’octopus’, which involves organising auditions for the orchestras. As something special, Milena is also responsible for catering for musicians on the recently completed US tour, for example. She uses her degree as a ’professional bachelor in human nutrition' for this!
Milena's life is a lot of balls in the air - and she likes it.
’I like the freedom of my job. I'd rather be poor and free than tied down and rich. If things go wrong, I'll have to go out and sweep the streets!’ - Of course I have a private life - first and foremost with my children - but most of my life is here in the house!
I really enjoy working for the ’friends’. It's demanding and requires a lot of patience, partly because many of the members are not very IT-savvy. Fortunately, I feel that 90% of the members are satisfied with my work - the remaining 10% often resist because they don't like to be informed via the website. - My role requires ’squid skills’ and a desire to talk to people. - I have many interesting telephone conversations with members - with great entertainment value. And, of course, I'm particularly pleased with the positive feedback.’
Milena is our ’fairy godmother’ - efficient and deeply committed to the well-being of our members - and indispensable as secretary to the Friends’ Board. The role of ’coordinator’ (the term Milena is most comfortable with) requires - as she puts it herself - ’squid skills' - IT, phone calls, organising member events, meetings, board work etc etc - what would we do without Milena!
On behalf of the Board of Directors Michael Adeler Bjarnø and Finn Gravesen
