In his address to graduates of the New Economic School in Moscow on July 7, 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama called for improved social relations between Russian and American people, “…I have called for a reset in relations between the United States and Russia…This must be more than a fresh start between the Kremlin and the White House…It must be a sustained effort among American and Russian people to identify mutual interests and expand dialog and cooperation that can pave the way to progress.”. President Obama went on to say “When new connections are forged among people, all of us are enriched.”.

July 4, 2009 marked the 233rd anniversary of The United State’s Declaration of Independence. By pure coincidence, on that same day, just three days prior to President Obama’s address, American composer Trabue Gentry and Russian composer Mikle Krizanovski uploaded their ground breaking musical collaboration, “Lost In The Wax”, to the popular Internet music venue, OurStage.com, in almost intuitive deference to President Obama’s plea.

Said Gentry, “The social climate between America and Russia has changed dramatically since the days of U.S. chess champion Bobby Fischer and Russian chess champion Boris Spassky in 1972. Then, it was a colder climate of competition and friendly rivalry. Today we live in a warmer climate of collaboration and mutual respect as individuals. Political climates always seems to be on the heels of and commensurate with social change.”.

Trabue Gentry Trabue Gentry, age 57, a once time protégé of famed music producer Pete Drake, began composing music in 1964 at the age of 12 and has since penned over 150 musical compositions. Gentry currently lives in Springfield, Illinois, capitol of President Obama’s senatorial state.

Mikle Krizanovski Mikle Krizanovski, age 43, began playing at the age of nine and has an academic background in classical music. Krizanovski won first place in OurStage’s January and May 2009 Guitar Solo competitions. He combines the science of music from his professional musical training with his vision and passion to innovate. Krizanovski currently lives in Krasnodar, Russia.

Written by Gentry in 1974, “Lost In The Wax” was originally recorded that same year with Gentry on rhythm guitar and vocals along with fellow Americans Kevin Sterner on bass guitar and vocals and Joe Hogan on drums. Unfortunately, the unfinished work was devoid of the style of lead guitar Gentry wanted which simply wasn’t available to him at the time. Being the very particular producer that he is, Gentry shelved the project indefinitely.

Several months ago, Gentry heard Krizanovski on OurStage and immediately knew that this unique stylist offered exactly what he had originally envisioned for “Lost In The Wax”. Gentry contacted Krizanovski and asked if he would be interested in collaborating with him to finish the song. Krizanovski enthusiastically agreed. Now, 35 years later, Krizanovski completed the piece with his award-winning guitar work.

Said Gentry, “Neither of us ever gave a thought as to our respective country’s political differences. The only things we ever discussed during this project were the song and our desire to learn more about our different cultures. Despite language barriers and never having met or spoken to each other, we have succeeded by using the Internet and digital technology throughout the entire collaboration process. And, we have since become very close friends and brothers. I now have family in Russia and Miki now has family in America. In fact, we jokingly put our residences on the internet’s OurStage and MySpace as between each other’s countries.”.

To hear Lost In The Wax: http://www.ourstage.com/play/track/OWUYGDDMKWQL-lost-in-the-wax

To Lean more about Trabue Gentry: http://www.ourstage.com/fanclub/trabue

To Lean more about Mikle Krizanovski: http://www.ourstage.com/fanclub/miklekrizanovski

Ourstage – boiling life! Anywhere there is no such quantity of battles! For this reason this site requires a lot of channels but not in reduction. Now we say goodbye to rock instrumental. Daniel Palmer has explained the reason for that is insufficient judging. I in mourning ;-) We have Rock, Alt. Rock, Soft Rock, Soul Rock, Indie Rock, Modern Rock, Blues Rock, Hard Rock and Hardcore Rock but there is no rock-instrumental with drive guitar… I invite all rock guitarists to support the offer on returning or creation of the new channel rock or hard rock guitar instrumental. It is a lot of us! Welcome!