“Ladies and gentleman, let’s give a round of applause to the spoon orchestra from Russia!”

After the booming voice of Sergei Shapoval is heard, seventh- and eighth-grade Garden Valley Elementary School students filed onto the stage with their teachers, spoons in hand and remain standing in front of their seats.

Shapoval stood facing them with a smile, and gestured with his hands for them to sit. A few plopped down in their seats, and Shapoval asked them to try it again, without sitting so hard.

The students laughed as he demonstrated how not to sit down. Then he turned to face the stage as the music began.

“A long time ago, somewhere in Russia...” Shapoval opened the number with the story of a man who played spoons and another who wanted to learn from him. Shapoval then led the students in playing their spoons as they lifted their arms, circled their arms, crossed their legs and at the end yelled “Hey!” with one hand toward the floor and the other reaching for the sky, as if they were describing the length of airplane wings with their arms.

This week, third- through eighth-grade students in Williston’s New Public School District 8 are learning about Russian culture, as well as how to perform for an audience. The public has an opportunity to see the students perform what they’ve learned at an assembly at 1 p.m. on Friday at the Williston High School Auditorium.

Shapoval’s visit is courtesy of a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts and the school district, which matched the grant, said Marilyn Gutschmidt, district music teacher.

Shapoval is co-owner and creative director for The Cultural Kaleidoscope of Kansas City, Mo.

The Cultural Kaleidoscope presents programs on Russia, Ireland, Australia and Ukraine. For the Russian program, students learn about folk instruments, folk dances, how to count in Russian and Russian salutations.

But it’s more than learning about Russian culture. With the short amount of time students have to learn their routines before the concert, they learn various aspects of the process of preparation, Shapoval said.

“We stretch their abilities to the maximum. We need challenges in our lives,” he said. It’s also an encouraging program for the students. As the fifth-grade students from Stony Creek Elementary were learning Russian salutations, Shapoval continually encouraged the students with words of wisdom. He told them they are quite talented and each and every one of them has something to offer to the world.

Williston is near and dear to The Cultural Kaleidoscope staff because it is the first place the company did a residency in 2002, Shapoval said. He’s bumped into people here who remember him from that stay, he said.

Shapoval was born in Krivoi Rog, Ukraine, and has a master’s degree in music education from the Gnessin Pedagogical Institute in Moscow. He moved to Kansas City in 199,1 where he played accordion at Avila University in Kansas City.

He won third place in the entertainment division of the Accordion Teachers’ Guild International Competition in 1990.