Sometimes we wonder what happens to the children of famous people.
Most of the time we hear about them when they end up in drug rehabilitation clinics, or when they shoot each other on movie sets.
How refreshing, then, to hear about one such person (although in connection with his father) who has managed to live a more or less "normal" life.
As normal as possible for the son of a world-famous composer whose father was persecuted by Stalin at the end of his life, and whose mother spent eight years in a labor camp in Siberia; who grew up in a house full of (and perhaps in the shadow of) his father's music.
Oleg Prokofiev, son of the legendary Russian composer, conductor and pianist Sergei Prokofiev, was in town last week for the conductors' competition named in honor of his father.
While Prokofiev did not study music, a decision he says he sometimes regrets, he has proved himself in the artistic world as a painter, sculptor and poet.
His father did not insist upon his studying music, as his interest in sculpting became apparent at an early age.
While he became a sculptor abroad, working with wood in a realistic/abstract style that "you have to see to understand," he originally trained as a painter in a specialized grade school, and then in the studio of Robert Falque. The effect of his father's reputation on his artistic life has been a double-edged sword, he said.
"Most people don't look at the situation very objectively," he said.
"In the artistic world, I am first of all Prokofiev's son, and only after this fact is made known am I asked, `By the way, what do you do?' Sometimes people comment that my talent is not as brilliant as my father's was.
"On the other hand, there are some advantages: it made becoming an artist more simple as I did not have to prove to my parents, like many others of that generation, that working as an artist was a respectable occupation."
Oleg Prokofiev left the country "for personal reasons" and ended up staying in the West when he got a scholarship to a university, and thought he'd never return to Russia until after perestroika began.
His return made an "unforgettable impression" on him, he said, noting that not only outward appearances had changed, but something "deep within society" had as well.
Prokofiev will have his first Russian exhibition in Moscow next year. He has had shows in England, France, Germany, and the United States.
He has been published as a poet in "Chernovik," an emigrant magazine, and will be included in a Russian-published book dedicated to Russian poets living abroad.
"More than anything else which describes my character," he added, "is my devotion to art." In this he is the worthy continuer of an already great tradition.