This time we are visiting a family on the Saldus side. Uldis Kuncis and Júlija Bille Vecpuise are both musicians and music educators, having met when they were the conductor and member of the orchestra. Now they are the parents of two-year-old Viļas Dzintaras, Jūlija studies at the Music Academy, Uldis teaches trumpet and percussion in several educational institutions in Saldus region.
Julia’s younger sister Sara, who helps babysit her little relative and is also studying music, lives in their family and participates in the conversation. How was it for the two girls to grow up in a family of eight children, where all the children were homeschooled? Why did Julia know from the age of ten that she would be a teacher herself and what brought her and Uldi together?
Family studio meets with Julia and Uldis at one of their workplaces – Druva secondary school, where Uldis has set up a small music studio.
Julia and Sara come from a family of eight children, two of which are adopted children. The older sister is over 30 years old, the younger brother is seven years old.
“There have always been children in the family. I raised Sara, her mother gave birth when I was eight years old, I was a small mother, she now takes over and raises my child,” says Julia. She also reveals that she trusts Sara to babysit her little Will, because she raised Sara herself.
Speaking about the large family, Julia admits that sometimes she had to argue about attention, but it also made the children to raise themselves in some sense, not only mom and dad, but if they need help, they can also go to their brother or sister. It was never boring. Sometimes they are late, like brothers and sisters.
Julia also reveals that her parents have studied music and know how important it is to learn music, how to play an instrument, so most of the children in the family have also studied at a music school. Sometimes it happened that they even learned several instruments at the same time, but it could be combined, because the regular school course was studied by distance learning.
Sara is also currently learning two instruments – the organ and the trumpet.
The story of the beginning of a relationship between Julia and Ulda is unusual. It was already several years ago in Slovakia, where the troupe ensemble led by Ulda went, which was joined by Julia at that time. The unofficial part of the trip also included a simulation of the wedding ceremony, in which the only unmarried members of the team – Júlija and Uldis – were selected as the new couple. But this “ceremony” ended with the words “I declare you husband and wife. Amen!”.
Uldis admits that he was not happy about such words, which are not joking. After the trip, they jokingly addressed each other “hello, wife!, hello husband”, and that’s how a relationship was slowly formed from a joke. Seven years have passed since that fateful journey.
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