Message from Brad, today 3rd May (with a letter from a fan who attended one of the events in Russia)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
One week ago today we were in St. Petersburg, for the first of two days of amazing seminars with my Russian guests. We had guests come from almost 20 cities and 4 countries! St. Petersburg, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Novokuznetsk, Krasnoyarsk, Ekaterinburg, Ryazan, Voronezh, Saratov, Samara, Nizhny Novgorod, Pskov, Minsk, Mogilev, Krasnodar, Kislovodsk, Pyatigorsk, Kyiv, Khmelnitsky, Lugansk and Tallinn. I hope I didn't miss any - please forgive me if I did.
Now let's get something straight. They didn't make this journey to come meet Brad Sundberg. These are people who grew up listening the music of someone I worked with, knew and loved - Michael Jackson. My job is to give my guests a sense of what it was like working with Michael. Still, I am humbled and extremely grateful for the time, effort and cost these wonderful people (now friends) invested to spend a day together at the amazing Fish Fabrique!
We met so many wonderful people on this trip, I wish I could tell you many of the stories, but let me share a letter I received from my friend Natalya, from Krasnodar. She traveled more than 2000 km from near the Black Sea to attend my seminar. I don't even have words for someone making such a journey, other than "thank you" - Spasibo.
To make it even better, Natalya wrote me the kindest letter reflecting on the seminar - something I will keep forever. With her permission I would like to share this letter with you.
Michael did something that is so unexpected yet so obvious - he brought people together. Total strangers one day to dear friends the next. I am nothing but overwhelmed at the kindness, love and generosity we have been shown by each of my guests, guides, translators and organizers these past couple weeks. I never say good-bye, only see you soon!
Natalya, thank you for this beautiful letter.
A letter to Brad Sundberg!
April 30
Krasnodar
Russia
This letter is not the description of the seminar IN THE STUDIO WITH MJ, not a story for those who could not come telling about what I saw and heard. I don’t really know how to describe it... How to describe something that was happening during these two wonderful days (April 26 and 27) in the club Fish Fabrique in Saint Petersburg... Words seem too plain, they don’t tell everything that happened, everything I saw, heard and felt. You should see and hear it for yourself. Pass it through yourself, live it in person.
I find it hard to explain everything in words, so I will just say thank you! Yes! This short letter is just a way to say thank you to the person that gave us two wonderful days in Saint Petersburg, Mr. Brad Sundberg.
Dear Brad! Thank you!
Thank you for something you will never see anywhere. Not a single concert, show or tribute will be similar... Nowhere! Thank you for Brad-Santa, for choir rehearsals, for rare videos with Michael, for Smile, wonderful smiles of friends and the great moustache of Bruce Sweden... And thank you ever so much for Childhood, even though eyes hurt too much to look during these several minutes. Spasibo.
Thank you for something you will not hear anywhere else. For Michael’s voice when he talks or laughs. For his loud but very nice way of chewing the gum. For clicks and stamping you can hear in the record. For unusual demos of Streetwalker and Earth Song which I heard thanks to you only. For Bad and Blood On the Dancefloor. And, surely, for “giving birth to the song” Give In To Me. This touched so much that I still cannot come to senses. Let alone the fact that it has always been my favorite song. Spasibo.
Thank you for something you will not learn anywhere else. For the story about the falling curtain. For hot wings I will surely try. For the photo of a fearsome head that received only the most gentle comments
For your humor and for your narrator’s gift, for the kindness and generosity in sharing your memories and your time with us. And, surely, for the two hours of communication, autographs, hugs and good words after the seminar which lasted for longer than expected (we were politely asked to leave the club and told that our time was up a long time ago)). Everyone saw that you were very tired, but we just couldn’t let you go. Spasibo.
Thank you for all of our emotions. (Not a single show, not a single tribute give such emotions). Such emotions don’t come from your head or understanding the grandeur of events and records but from your heart and soul. A feeling was born every second. And so many of them passed through me in two days, and through anyone that was there, I think... The heart was just overfilled. Too many feelings... Too many emotions... And it is so good that there are tears. They help to pour out everything, otherwise your heart could just break.
Brad, I don’t know whether you felt our gratitude, all of our emotions and feelings... But I felt them in full when everybody in the hall gave a standing applause. But this is the least we could give you. And also... all of our hugs, smiles and kisses. Spasibo.
And there’s one more thing I’d like to tell you...
My dear CIRQUE DU SOLEIL. I love you!!! Your shows, Michael Jackson THE IMMORTAL and The ONE, are wonderful, grand and impressive!
Dear showmen, look-a-likes and just fans that arrange tributes and Michael Jackson commemoration meetings. Thank you all! I love you very much, too!
BUT if all these events and shows came to one city for one day and started at the same time... And I would have to choose where to go … just one meeting or concert! I would choose a seminar by Brad Sandberg, IN THE STUDIO WITH MJ!
Why so? Because this is not just a meeting, not just a heart-to-heart talk and listening to demos. This is like a curtain falling to pen another world, bright and real, full of emotions and love. A world where a smile is more than a smile, and music is more than music. And the heart is big, one heart for all!
Thank you, Brad! And see you again.
Please don’t make it last six, seven or eight hours.
It would be better to make it twelve hours long!
Though... It would not be enough even then!
Thank you. Spasibo.
Your friend from Russia, Natalia Glazunova.
P.S. I am immensely grateful to you for all the wonderful gifts I received. There were so many of them! And at the moment I thought this was the top, there could not be more, I received one more. Thank you.
Now I love Stranger in Moscow even more...
