The ensemble named after Alexandrov, which is based in an ancient building on Zemledelchesky Lane, is in mourning. On the Tu-154 plane, which belonged to the Ministry of Defense and was flying to Syria, the best artists of the group, 64 people, led by the leader of the ensemble, Valery Khalilov, crashed. Their friends and colleagues spoke about how the trip to the Khmeimim base was planned, and about the soloists, musicians, choir and ballet dancers who were on board.
The ensemble says that this was a planned trip. The team traditionally performs in front of military personnel who serve in distant garrisons, hot spots, fleets, and cosmodromes. And the days before New Year's are traditionally the busiest for the ensemble.
The artists went to Syria to congratulate Russian military personnel on the upcoming New Year on two sides. The first plane landed at the Khmeimim base at night. The second plane departed from the Chkalovsky airfield near Moscow a little later. Having made an intermediate landing at Adler airfield to refuel, he headed for Syria. The ensemble says that there are 186 artists in total. But it was decided not to take the orchestra with us on the trip to Syria. The stage at the Khmeimim base is small; it could not accommodate all the musicians. The artists had to perform songs with a backing track.
The soloists of the Alexandrov ensemble went to Syria, the choir in in full force, among the musicians - a group of accordion and balalaika players, a ballet group, costume designers. It was planned that the ensemble would give a concert and immediately fly to Moscow.
64-year-old Valery Khalilov only became director and artistic director of the ensemble in May, and before that he was the chief military conductor of the Russian army for many years. It was a miracle that the three leading soloists of the ensemble did not get on board the ill-fated plane.
Valery Gavva recently underwent surgery, they say in the ensemble. - Boris Dyakov was supposed to have an important performance on December 26th. And our “Mr. Kalinka,” lead singer Vadim Ananyev, recently became a dad for the fourth time. In his second marriage, he had a son, Yura. The baby is an infant, my wife has two more children in her arms, she couldn’t cope purely physically. The director of the ensemble simply met him halfway, and taking into account family circumstances, allowed him to stay in Moscow. Vadim definitely had to fly. He never refused to travel and perform. This is one of the most disciplined artists of the ensemble. It turns out that Yura’s son saved him.
The ensemble's soloist Evgeny Bulochnikov was an understudy for the famous Boris Dyakov. Evgeniy, the owner of a wonderful baritone, despite his youth, was a laureate of many international competitions. Fans will remember him for his performance of the song “Polite People” and his original interpretation of “Yellow Submarine” by Paul McCartney. Evgeny Bulochnikov often sang a duet with another wonderful soloist of the ensemble, Honored Artist of Russia Viktor Sanin.
Victor Sanin - kindest soul man, an excellent improviser. He was very talented and, like no one else, knew how to make friends, colleagues say about the artist. - But Konstantin Mayorov has already acted as a conductor; he used to be a soloist of the ensemble, gradually grew, and made a good career.
Many soloists worked part-time. For example, Vladislav Golikov is known as an excellent singer in the Children’s musical theater named after Sats.
Together with his colleagues, the wonderful accompanist Vladimir Brodsky died.
Volodya Brodsky is a decent person, a great erudite. He played superbly and could accompany anyone, his colleagues say. - Volodya could take leading positions on the world stage, but ambitions and any kind of PR were alien to him.
Almost the entire choir of the ensemble, where the best voices of the country were gathered, perished in the disaster.
The choir artist Alexey Mokrikov was originally from Tula. He served in the Alexandrov ensemble. And then how talented artist, remained in the ensemble under contract.
I saw Lesha only three days ago, he and I served together,” says Evgeniy. - He was a very talented, purposeful guy. He also sang in the choir at the monastery. When leaving on a business trip, he said that it wouldn’t last long and that he’d be back in a couple of days. We were all looking forward to the New Year... I also asked him to bring me a pebble as a souvenir...
Among the conscripts, Artem Tarasenko also joined the illustrious team. Friends say that he only recently got married.
Alina Nikolaevna Ivashko for many years worked in the ensemble as the head of the personnel department, was right hand directors and artistic director ensemble. And only recently, having retired, she moved to the position of costume designer and began traveling with the ensemble on business trips.
The artist Lyudmila Gurar was also on the ill-fated board. This is not the first time she has traveled to Syria. She conducted master classes at checkpoints and among Syrian children. Before the New Year, she went on a business trip to present prizes to Syrian children who won a competition for the best poster. 9 children's works were awarded. Lyudmila was bringing gifts for the children.
On the page of the ensemble artist Andrei Bazdyrev on the social network it is written: “Love, work and knowledge are the sources of our life. They should determine its course.”
He was the same - hardworking, persistent... And happy: just a little over a month ago, Andrei got married. In this photo he is with his wife Maria.
For 29-year-old Vladislav Popov, a ballet dancer (since 2003), this was already his second business trip to Syria. According to his wife Victoria, Vladislav had a bad feeling, which he could not explain in any way, but he really did not want to fly to Syria. Vladislav is a military man, he is not used to refusing, since he was asked to go, then he had to go.
Victoria did not tell her four-year-old son about the tragedy - she says that he is small and will not understand. The woman herself works as a teacher at school. The family's income was average; several loans remained unpaid, including for a car. On January 2, Vladislav would have turned 30 years old.
The list of those killed includes the ensemble's soloist Maria Klokotova (she was 34 years old). Maria’s husband Dmitry Papkin also flew to Khmeimim - he sings in the choir. Dmitry also supervised the loading of luggage. He took the first plane to Syria 2 hours earlier. And in the morning, when he found out that his wife was no more, he sent Maria’s father an SMS: “I’m shocked, don’t tell the children anything.”
The artists raised two children (they are 11 and 4 years old). Maria had a solid career in the ensemble - 18 years; in two years she could already have a pension. On the eve of the trip, the eldest child fell ill, the temperature rose to almost 40 degrees. Maria wanted to take a sick leave, but still flew. Oddly enough, the artist was also afraid of this business trip, although she visited all the hot spots. “The eldest already understood everything, the youngest and I are decorating the Christmas tree,” Maria’s father cries.
Double grief came to the Korzanov family - 34-year-old Ekaterina and her husband Oleg (they were ballet dancers) crashed. The four-year-old son was left an orphan. The boy will now be raised by his 62-year-old grandfather. The last time the pensioner kept in touch with his daughter was at 1.30 am - Katya sent an SMS that they had boarded the plane. In the morning, Catherine’s father learned about the disaster from the television news.
The choir soloist, 56-year-old Viktor Sanin (his birthday is December 28), is an artist with more than 20 years of experience in the ensemble. Every time before a business trip “to the front line” he said goodbye to his wife Victoria for a long time, saying that it is not known whether he will return alive. This time Victor called on the way to the plane, everything was as usual. The family learned about the tragedy from the Internet.
For her 30th birthday, Lyubov Khorosheva visited all the hot spots - Afghanistan, Libya, Chechnya. And she went to Syria calmly - she got used to the dangers. On Monday, her mother, a pensioner who works in kindergarten a physical education instructor and a seven-year-old son were waiting for Lyuba to come home.
The last SMS from my daughter was at 3.25 from Sochi, that the plane was leaving for refueling. And now how can I tell my grandson that my mother is no more?..
Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, artistic director of the Alexandrov Ensemble: “I don’t understand how you can not love the Church”
On board the crashed TU-154 was Valery Khalilov, the chief military conductor of Russia, head of the ensemble and artistic director. Academic ensemble songs and dances Russian Army named after A.V. Alexandrov, who was sent with the ensemble to organize congratulatory New Year's events at Khmeimim Air Base. In memory of him, we have collected fragments from several interviews with Valery Mikhailovich Khalilov - about childhood, military profession and faith in God:
About baptism and faith
“I was baptized at the age of four. I grew up in a village near Kirzhach, my grandmother was a believer, and not just a devout one, like all the old women in those days, but a deep, sincere believer. She often told me: “Granddaughter, it’s not ours, not we should be abolished,” because Orthodoxy and church life seemed to me something completely organic, unchanging and correct. The wooden chapel that stood in our village was destroyed, and on holidays all the grandmothers went to the monastery church in the neighboring village. them, and I remember everything, even though I was little: our fabulous forests, Vladimir... strawberry meadows, domed churches. Even Russian nature itself is fascinating, but I don’t understand how you can not love the Church, at least as a part of Russian spiritual culture. !
I was strong, I’ll be honest, but now I’m skinny. In general, I was so plump, plump, I was already, so to speak, a conscious person. Dad was a communist, and my mother, taking advantage of the opportunity that my father was working and I was in the village, she said to my grandmother: “Come on, while my father is away.” But dad wasn’t against it, but you know what it was like in those days? He was an army officer, he was a conductor, like my brother is a conductor, and my nephew in Sevastopol is now a conductor, by the way. Therefore, maybe because my mother was afraid that if they found out from my father, they might do something. In short, I was baptized. I remember this moment very well, when I was baptized for the first time. They put me in the courtyard, in the yard, we have a hut and a yard in front of the hut. They put him in a basin with cold water. How's that? Father leaned over me, and I was such a healthy boy, and I grabbed his beard. You know how it is... Butt by the beard.
I was baptized at the age of four, and when I slept in the hallway, there was a picture above my head. I don’t remember which one, there were a lot of holy people in this picture, but every “lights out”, as they now say in military parlance, I was accompanied by this picture. When I went to bed, the boy was completely in the village in this hut. Then she disappeared, because there were times when people went around collecting paintings and icons. And our village is unguarded, they just broke into many of the icons in many of our houses in the village, just... Then it was such a disgrace. This icon has disappeared. Besides, we have such a village, so picturesque, so stunning, small, so patriarchal, it’s simply impossible not to believe in something so heavenly there, despite all its beauty.
This is the environment in which I was brought up. This is all, as they say, from God. I have this Russianness, it is rooted in this village.
All this prompted me to believe in God. Well, besides this, there were just cases, very interesting... and why did I live, then, now it’s called Yakimanka. As before, by the way, there is this church there, Oktyabrskaya metro station. And then Easter, I remember. People walk around the church, this really stuck with me. We, young people, stand on the parapets around the church; the police do not let us in there. Grandmothers in headscarves with children and small children enter there - they let them through. We can’t go there, we are young people - they don’t let us in there, and I think this is what they are doing there, what they are doing there, why they are not letting us in.
Here's the question: why? What are they doing there that’s so bad, why aren’t they letting us in? I was always drawn there because singing was heard from there, some smells, you know, candles, all that, crosses, some kind of sacrament. It was still attractive. The more they banned it, the more I was drawn there in this sense. There are some little things that go unnoticed, and then you analyze: why did you do that? Yes, because this little thing influenced you, so suits God Everyone, of course, has their own path, and some, maybe even little things, lead to this road, I don’t know. Signs? Don't know. But it did, thank God!
About choosing a profession
My dad was a military conductor. I now have a younger brother who is a military conductor. And the current military conductor's nephew, a lieutenant, serves as a sailor in Sevastopol. That is, I have a dynastic family on the male side, military conductors. Thanks to my father, I entered the Moscow Military Music School. And, to be honest, when I got in, I didn’t understand why I went there. He was torn away from the comforts of home at the age of 11 and ended up in the walls of a closed educational institution. Moreover, everything was inherent in the military way of life: getting up, going out, exercises, physical activity. And, of course, general education and musical items. The duration of study is 7 years; I entered at 11 and graduated at 18. All my physical and biological growth occurred during this period. School instilled this in me vocational education, which I still use today. That's how I became a military conductor.
About sacred and military music
I often think about the internal similarity of seemingly opposite spheres - military and sacred music. After all, military music has amazing power, and, contrary to stereotypes, it is not at all aggressive. It pains me to hear when they say that the execution of marches is a step towards the militarization of the entire country. It seems to me that we must think in terms of artistic taste. A good march is as difficult to write as good song! Every great composer has its own face, national musical tradition Same: main feature our Russian military music - in its special melodicism, in its folklore, popular intonations.
Do they know how modern people perceive classical music? It is possible to determine whether a person perceives music well or poorly only after he learns to perceive it! And how does a person discover the beauty classical music, if he was not instilled with love for her from childhood? There is a zone in the soul of each of us that is open to everything high and good - open to the right music. And I call the right music that which, in its emotional impact, encourages a person to do the best deeds - creativity, creation. And if so-called “light” music can serve as an unobtrusive background, then classical music can never do so. Listening to classics is the work of the soul.
People are the same at all times, they are always open to good music. This means that we must educate to the best of our abilities. Without boasting, I can say that we have opened the doors of many concert halls for military bands: Great Hall Moscow Conservatory, Concert hall named after Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, International House of Music. And we give out free tickets, despite the fact that, according to all the laws of commerce, people are supposedly more willing to go to events when they bought a ticket with their own money. Believe me, I never flattered myself with the hope that all our concerts would be sold out, but we have people sitting on the steps just to listen to the music! And how can you then say that modern man not able to perceive the classics?
We dream of bringing brass music back to the parks and to the people. After all, people today especially lack something real... at work, in everyday life, and we try to fill this urgent need with live music and beautiful melodies. Here a typical city person comes to a concert: merged with the city, unable to imagine his life without hot water and TV, as if stuck, dried up to this comfortable life. And suddenly he hears the sounds of a military brass band, plunges into another world and... thaws. Ask him at this moment what he is thinking about now, and he will definitely say: about love, about children, about his homeland, about God.
You know, I noticed an amazing thing: a brass band simply cannot play bad music! Even if the musicians play poorly, this music still enchants, even if some sounds are conveyed incorrectly. It’s like in nature: one person likes autumn, another doesn’t: everything withers, it’s slushy, your feet get wet. But still, every time of year is wonderful! The same is true for wind music: its very nature, its very breath is pure, bright. It is probably on this plane that music - whether military or simply classical - intersects with spiritual life. And I really want my work to instill only moral values in people.
I have a joke like this. I tell religious people: “You know, I have a friend who wrote a Ph.D. dissertation on the topic “The influence of brass music on the spiritual life of the clergy.” This is a joke, but of course, in reality, and again I always say this: technology is developing, but where do people tend to go with urbanization? Where are they heading? To nature. I always compare, look what’s happening on Friday, what’s going on on the roads - where is everyone running? In the forest, in the clearings, in nature.
The brass band is nature, it is a living sound emanating from there, from within. And even if he plays primitively, even the boys play, an amateur orchestra - these simple melodies, this primitivism even, in a sense, but the presentation of these sounds, these natural, and again I say, at the genetic level makes people hear . There are people all around, I don’t want to say, all sorts of people, maybe even strange ones, but they gather because apparently this music of ours somehow affects the cerebral cortex. They're getting ready. Even if they play poorly, the crowd gathers around the brass band.
On prayer in a military march
Let’s say, the march “General Miloradovich”. The idea was suggested by Colonel Babanko Gennady Ivanovich, who during my service in Pushkino was the head of the political department of the school and, already in retirement, wrote the book “General Miloradovich”, knowing that I was writing music, called me and said: Valer, write music about General Miloradovich , I’ll give you a book to read, and you, inspired by this book, write a march. And after reading the book, I realized that the fate of this general is completely extraordinary and not only forgotten, but in a conceptual sense it is simply perverted.
General Miloradovich, commanding the rearguard, did not allow the enemy to collide with our troops at the time he desired. Hero of the War of 1812. In 1824, the December uprising. Senate Square. As you know, the Decembrists withdrew their troops. Miloradovich was the Governor-General of St. Petersburg. When he entered Senate. square, the troops, recognizing him, began to fall on their faces. And one of the Decembrists, former lieutenant Kakhovsky, seeing that a turning point in the uprising was about to happen, he used a ladies’ pistol from behind to inflict a mortal wound on Miloradovich, from which he died.
So there is Kakhovsky Street in St. Petersburg, but there is no Miloradovich Street. And in general, the surname Miloradovich arose after the tsar summoned Khrabrenovich, his ancestor, and said: you are very dear to me with your courage, you will become Miloradovich. And in this march for the first time I used prayer, and I wrote the music for this prayer myself. There is no such analogue. And if you listen to the march carefully, you can imagine the social life of St. Petersburg, and the prayer service before the battle, and the return of these Russian soldiers. All this with a choir.
By the way, in the march, in our Russian and Soviet marches, this is the first time that prayer has been introduced into the march. I did this based on the image that General Miloradovich himself promised me, because he was certainly an Orthodox, believer, and since the troops were leaving for the battlefield, there was always a prayer service. So I made this prayer service - in the Gospel, with the help of a believer, I found words dedicated to “our howls”, and put music on these words, as is usually done. You will hear this prayer in the middle of the march. And then you will hear the victorious procession, the return of our troops from the battlefield to the salute, and again you will hear the first part, again the return to social life. In the space of, I don’t know, I think five or four and a half minutes, the life of this glorious general Miloradovich will flash before you. This is a march, this is a Russian march, I wrote it. There is nothing so reprehensible in it, regarding, as they say, excuse the expression, a boot - there is no such thing. This is a very secular, very beautiful, I think, march. By the way, many conductors love it and often perform it, although it is difficult to perform.
About Russian military musicians
Our country is the only one where there is a well-functioning system for training military conductors. Abroad, they become people who already have a higher education music education and have passed certification in physical training. But our army trains its own musicians. First, secondary education - the Moscow Military Music School accepts ninth-graders, after graduation they can enter the Institute of Military Conductors on the basis of the Military University of the Ministry of Defense. This system of training and education produces a specialist who is familiar with army life from the inside. Coming to the orchestra as a lieutenant, he already knows what and how to do. This has a positive effect on the skill of our orchestras. For example, during the parade on Red Square, 1000 military musicians play about 40 compositions by heart. Foreigners are amazed at the synchronicity and beauty of the performance.
Khalilov Valery Mikhailovich - head of the ensemble - artistic director of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after A.V. Alexandrov, People's Artist Russian Federation, Lieutenant General
Born into the family of a military conductor. He started studying music at the age of four. He graduated from the Moscow Military Music School (now the Moscow Military Music School) and the Military Conducting Faculty at the Moscow State Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky. Upon completion of his studies, he was appointed military conductor of the orchestra of the Pushkin Higher Military Command School of Air Defense Radio Electronics.
After the orchestra under the direction of Valery Khalilov took first place in the competition of military orchestras of the Leningrad Military District (1980), he became a teacher at the conducting department of the Military Conducting Faculty at the Moscow State Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky.
In 1984, Valery Khalilov was transferred to the management body of the military band service of the USSR Ministry of Defense, where he served as an officer of the military band service, senior officer and deputy head of the military band service.
From 2002 to 2016 Valery Khalilov – head of the military band service Armed Forces The Russian Federation is the main military conductor.
In April 2016, by order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Valery Khalilov was appointed to the position of Head of the Ensemble - Artistic Director of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after A.V. Alexandrova.
Valery Khalilov – musical director such international military music festivals as “Spasskaya Tower” (Moscow), “Amur Waves” (Khabarovsk), “March of the Century” (Tambov) and the International Military Music Festival in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.
Valery Khalilov is a member of the Union of Composers of Russia. His work as a composer is mainly associated with the genres of brass orchestral, choral, vocal and chamber instrumental music.
He toured with leading orchestras of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Germany, North Korea, Lebanon, Mongolia, Poland, USA, Finland, France, Switzerland, Sweden.
Tragically died on December 25, 2016 as a result of a plane crash of a Tu-154 RA-85572 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense, en route from Adler airport to Syria.
Valery Mikhailovich Khalilov- head of the ensemble - artistic director of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after A.V. Alexandrov, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General
Born into the family of a military conductor. He started studying music at the age of four. He graduated from the Moscow Military Music School (now the Moscow Military Music School) and the Military Conducting Faculty at the Moscow State Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky. Upon completion of his studies, he was appointed military conductor of the orchestra of the Pushkin Higher Military Command School of Air Defense Radio Electronics.
After the orchestra under the direction of Valery Khalilov took 1st place in the competition of military orchestras of the Leningrad Military District (1980), he became a teacher at the conducting department of the Military Conducting Faculty at the Moscow State Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky.
In 1984, Valery Khalilov was transferred to the management body of the military band service of the USSR Ministry of Defense, where he served as an officer of the military band service, senior officer and deputy head of the military band service.
From 2002 to 2016, Valery Khalilov - head of the military orchestra service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation - chief military conductor.
In April 2016, by order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Valery Khalilov was appointed to the position of Head of the Ensemble - Artistic Director of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after A.V. Alexandrova.
Valery Khalilov is the musical director of such international military music festivals as “Spasskaya Tower” (Moscow), “Amur Waves” (Khabarovsk), “March of the Century” (Tambov) and the International Military Music Festival in South Sakhalinsk.
Valery Khalilov is a member of the Union of Composers of Russia. His work as a composer is mainly associated with the genres of brass orchestral, choral, vocal and chamber instrumental music.
He toured with leading orchestras of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Germany, North Korea, Lebanon, Mongolia, Poland, USA, Finland, France, Switzerland, Sweden.
Tragically died on December 25, 2016 as a result of a plane crash of a Tu-154 RA-85572 Russian Ministry of Defense aircraft en route from Adler airport to Syria.
....About prayer in a military march
Let's say the march “General Miloradovich”. The idea was suggested by Colonel Babanko Gennady Ivanovich, who during my service in Pushkino was the head of the political department of the school and, already in retirement, wrote the book “General Miloradovich”, knowing that I was writing music, called me and said: Valer, write music about General Miloradovich , I’ll give you a book to read, and you, inspired by this book, write a march.
And after reading the book, I realized that the fate of this general is completely extraordinary and not only forgotten, but in a conceptual sense it is simply perverted.
General Miloradovich, commanding the rearguard, did not allow the enemy to collide with our troops at the time he desired. Hero of the War of 1812.
In 1824, the December uprising. Senate Square. As you know, the Decembrists withdrew their troops. Miloradovich was the Governor-General of St. Petersburg. When he entered Senate. square, the troops, recognizing him, began to fall on their faces. And one of the Decembrists, former lieutenant Kakhovsky, seeing that a turning point in the uprising was about to happen, he used a ladies’ pistol from behind to inflict a mortal wound on Miloradovich, from which he died.
So there is Kakhovsky Street in St. Petersburg, but there is no Miloradovich Street. And in general, the surname Miloradovich arose after the tsar summoned Khrabrenovich, his ancestor, and said: you are very dear to me with your courage, you will become Miloradovich.
And in this march for the first time I used prayer, and I wrote the music for this prayer myself. There is no such analogue. And if you listen to the march carefully, you can imagine the social life of St. Petersburg, and the prayer service before the battle, and the return of these Russian soldiers. All this with a choir.
By the way, in the march, in our Russian and Soviet marches, this is the first time that prayer has been introduced into the march. I did this based on the image that General Miloradovich himself promised me, because he was certainly an Orthodox, believer, and since the troops were leaving for the battlefield, there was always a prayer service.
So I made this prayer service - in the Gospel, with the help of a believer, I found words dedicated to “our howls”, and put music on these words, as is usually done. You will hear this prayer in the middle of the march. And then you will hear the victorious procession, the return of our troops from the battlefield to the salute, and again you will hear the first part, again the return to secular life. In the space of, I don’t know, I think five or four and a half minutes, the life of this glorious general Miloradovich will flash before you.
This is a march, this is a Russian march, I wrote it. There is nothing so reprehensible in it, regarding, as they say, excuse the expression, a boot - there is no such thing. This is a very secular, very beautiful, I think, march. By the way, many conductors love it and often perform it, although it is difficult to perform.
On board the TU-154 that crashed today was Valery Khalilov, the chief military conductor of Russia, the head of the ensemble - the artistic director of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after A.V. Alexandrov, who was sent with the ensemble to organize New Year’s greeting events at the Khmeimim airbase. We have collected fragments from several interviews with Valery Mikhailovich - about childhood, profession and faith in God.
About baptism and faith
I was baptized at four years old. I grew up in a village near Kirzhach, my grandmother was a believer, and not just devout, like all the old women in those days, but a deep, sincere believer. She often told me: “Granddaughter, it wasn’t us who started it, it’s not ours to abolish,” because Orthodoxy and church life seemed to me something completely organic, unchanging and correct. The wooden chapel that stood in our village was destroyed, and on holidays all the grandmothers went to the monastery church in the neighboring village. I walked with them, and I remember everything, even though I was small: our fairy-tale forests, Vladimir... strawberry meadows, domed churches. Even Russian nature itself is fascinating, but I don’t even understand how you can not love the Church at least as a part of Russian spiritual culture!
I was strong, I’ll be honest, but now I’m skinny. In general, I was so plump, plump, I was already, so to speak, a conscious person. Dad was a communist, and my mother, taking advantage of the opportunity that my father was working and I was in the village, she said to my grandmother: “Come on, while my father is away.” But dad wasn’t against it, but you know what it was like in those days? He was an army officer, he was a conductor, like my brother is a conductor, and my nephew in Sevastopol is now a conductor, by the way. Therefore, maybe because my mother was afraid that if they found out from my father, they might do something. In short, I was baptized. I remember this moment very well, when I was baptized for the first time. They put me in the courtyard, in the yard, we have a hut and a yard in front of the hut. They put him in a basin with cold water. How's that? Father leaned over me, and I was such a healthy boy, and I grabbed his beard. You know how it is... Butt by the beard.
I was baptized at the age of four, and when I slept in the hallway, there was a picture above my head. I don’t remember which one, there were a lot of holy people in this picture, but every “lights out”, as they now say in military parlance, I was accompanied by this picture. When I went to bed, the boy was completely in the village in this hut. Then she disappeared, because there were times when people went around collecting paintings and icons. And our village is unguarded, they just broke into many of the icons in many of our houses in the village, just... Then it was such a disgrace. This icon has disappeared. Besides, we have such a village, so picturesque, so stunning, small, so patriarchal, it’s simply impossible not to believe in something so heavenly there, despite all its beauty.
This is the environment in which I was brought up. This is all, as they say, from God. I have this Russianness, it is rooted in this village.
All this prompted me to believe in God. Well, besides this, there were just cases, very interesting... and why did I live, then, now it’s called Yakimanka. As before, by the way, there is this church there, Oktyabrskaya metro station. And then Easter, I remember. People walk around the church, this really stuck with me. We, young people, stand on the parapets around the church, the police do not let us in there. Grandmothers in headscarves with children and small ones sneak in there - they let them through. We can’t go there, we are young people - they don’t let us in there, and I think this is what they are doing there, what they are doing there, why they are not letting us in.
Here's the question: why? What are they doing there that’s so bad, why aren’t they letting us in? I was always drawn there because singing was heard from there, some smells, you know, candles, all that, crosses, some kind of sacrament. It was still attractive. The more they banned it, the more I was drawn there in this sense. There are some little things that go unnoticed, and then you analyze: why did you do that? Yes, because this little thing influenced you, so everyone goes to God on their own path, of course, and some, maybe even some little things, lead to this road, I don’t know. Signs? Don't know. But it did, thank God!
About choosing a profession
My dad was a military conductor. I now have a younger brother who is a military conductor. And the current military conductor's nephew, a lieutenant, serves as a sailor in Sevastopol. That is, I have a dynastic family on the male side, military conductors. Thanks to my father, I entered the Moscow Military Music School. And, to be honest, when I got in, I didn’t understand why I went there. At the age of 11, he was torn away from the comforts of home and ended up within the walls of a closed educational institution. Moreover, everything was inherent in the military way of life: getting up, going out, exercises, physical activity. And, of course, general education and music subjects. The duration of study is 7 years; I entered at 11 and graduated at 18. All my physical and biological growth occurred during this period. The school gave me the professional education that I still use today. That's how I became a military conductor.
About sacred and military music
I often think about the internal similarities between seemingly opposite spheres - military and sacred music. After all, military music has amazing power, and, contrary to stereotypes, it is not at all aggressive. It pains me to hear when they say that the execution of marches is a step towards the militarization of the entire country. It seems to me that we must think in terms of artistic taste. A good march is as difficult to write as a good song! Every great composer has his own personality, and a national musical tradition too: the main feature of our, Russian, military music is its special melodicism, its folklore, popular intonations.
Do modern people know how to perceive classical music? It is possible to determine whether a person perceives music well or poorly only after he learns to perceive it! How can a person discover the charm of classical music if he has not been instilled with a love for it since childhood? There is a zone in the soul of each of us that is open to everything high and good - open to the right music. And I call the right music that which, in its emotional impact, encourages a person to do the best deeds - creativity, creation. And if so-called “light” music can serve as an unobtrusive background, then classical music can never do so. Listening to classics is a work of the soul.
People are the same at all times, they are always open to good music. This means that we must educate to the best of our ability. Without boasting, I can say that we have opened the doors of many concert halls to military bands: the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the International House of Music. And we give out free tickets, despite the fact that, according to all the laws of commerce, people are supposedly more willing to go to events when they bought a ticket with their own money. Believe me, I never flattered myself with the hope that all our concerts would be sold out, but we have people sitting on the steps just to listen to the music! And how can we then say that modern people are not able to perceive the classics?
We dream of bringing brass music back to the parks and to the people. After all, people today especially lack something real... at work, in everyday life, and we try to fill this urgent need with live music and beautiful melodies. Here a typical city person comes to a concert: merged with the city, unable to imagine his life without hot water and TV, as if stuck, dried up to this comfortable life. And suddenly he hears the sounds of a military brass band, plunges into another world and... thaws. Ask him at this moment what he is thinking about now, and he will definitely say: about love, about children, about his homeland, about God.
You know, I noticed an amazing thing: a brass band simply cannot play bad music! Even if the musicians play poorly, this music still enchants, even if some sounds are conveyed incorrectly. It’s like in nature: one person likes autumn, another doesn’t: everything withers, it’s slushy, your feet get wet. But still, every time of year is wonderful! Brass music is the same: its very nature, its very breath is pure, bright. It is probably on this plane that music—whether military or simply classical—intersects with spiritual life. And I really want my work to instill only moral values in people.
I have a joke like this. I tell religious people: “You know, I have a friend who wrote a Ph.D. dissertation on the topic “The influence of brass music on the spiritual life of the clergy.” This is a joke, but of course, in reality, and again I always say this: technology is developing, but where do people tend to go with urbanization? Where are they heading? To nature. I always compare, look what’s happening on Friday, what’s going on on the roads - where is everyone running? In the forest, in the clearings, in nature.
The brass band is nature, it is a living sound emanating from there, from within. And even if he plays primitively, even the boys play, an amateur orchestra - these simple melodies, this primitivism even, in a sense, but the presentation of these sounds, these natural, and again I say, at the genetic level makes people hear . There are people all around, I don’t want to say, all sorts of people, maybe even strange, but they gather because apparently this music of ours somehow affects the cerebral cortex. They're getting ready. Even if they play poorly, the crowd gathers around the brass band.
On prayer in a military march
Let's say the march “General Miloradovich”. The idea was suggested by Colonel Babanko Gennady Ivanovich, who during my service in Pushkino was the head of the political department of the school and, already in retirement, wrote the book “General Miloradovich”, knowing that I was writing music, called me and said: Valer, write music about General Miloradovich , I’ll give you a book to read, and you, inspired by this book, write a march. And after reading the book, I realized that the fate of this general is completely extraordinary and not only forgotten, but in a conceptual sense it is simply perverted.
General Miloradovich, commanding the rearguard, did not allow the enemy to collide with our troops at the time he desired. Hero of the War of 1812. In 1824, the December uprising. Senate Square. As you know, the Decembrists withdrew their troops. Miloradovich was the Governor-General of St. Petersburg. When he entered Senate. square, the troops, recognizing him, began to fall on their faces. And one of the Decembrists, former lieutenant Kakhovsky, seeing that a turning point in the uprising was about to happen, he used a ladies’ pistol from behind to inflict a mortal wound on Miloradovich, from which he died.
So there is Kakhovsky Street in St. Petersburg, but there is no Miloradovich Street. And in general, the surname Miloradovich arose after the tsar summoned Khrabrenovich, his ancestor, and said: you are very dear to me with your courage, you will become Miloradovich. And in this march for the first time I used prayer, and I wrote the music for this prayer myself. There is no such analogue. And if you listen to the march carefully, you can imagine the social life of St. Petersburg, and the prayer service before the battle, and the return of these Russian soldiers. All this with a choir.
By the way, in the march, in our Russian and Soviet marches, this is the first time that prayer has been introduced into the march. I did this based on the image that General Miloradovich himself promised me, because he was certainly an Orthodox, believer, and since the troops were leaving for the battlefield, there was always a prayer service. So I made this prayer service - in the Gospel, with the help of a believer, I found words dedicated to “our howls”, and put music on these words, as is usually done. You will hear this prayer in the middle of the march. And then you will hear the victorious procession, the return of our troops from the battlefield to the salute, and again you will hear the first part, again the return to secular life. In the space of, I don’t know, I think five or four and a half minutes, the life of this glorious general Miloradovich will flash before you. This is a march, this is a Russian march, I wrote it. There is nothing so reprehensible in it, regarding, as they say, excuse the expression, a boot - there is no such thing. This is a very secular, very beautiful, I think, march. By the way, many conductors love it and often perform it, although it is difficult to perform.
About Russian military musicians
Our country is the only one where there is a well-functioning system for training military conductors. Abroad, they become people who already have a higher musical education and have passed certification in physical training. But our army trains its own musicians. First, secondary education - the Moscow Military Music School accepts ninth-graders; after graduation, they can enter the Institute of Military Conductors on the basis of the Military University of the Ministry of Defense. This system of training and education produces a specialist who is familiar with army life from the inside. Coming to the orchestra as a lieutenant, he already knows what and how to do. This has a positive effect on the skill of our orchestras. For example, during the parade on Red Square, 1000 military musicians play about 40 compositions by heart. Foreigners are amazed at the synchronicity and beauty of the performance.
Interview with Valery Khalilov on the Spas TV channel
Khalilov Valery Mikhailovich- head of the ensemble - artistic director of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after A.V. Alexandrov, People's Artist of the Russian Federation, Lieutenant General
Born into the family of a military conductor. He started studying music at the age of four. He graduated from the Moscow Military Music School (now the Moscow Military Music School) and the Military Conducting Faculty at the Moscow State Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky. Upon completion of his studies, he was appointed military conductor of the orchestra of the Pushkin Higher Military Command School of Air Defense Radio Electronics.
After the orchestra under the direction of Valery Khalilov took 1st place in the competition of military orchestras of the Leningrad Military District (1980), he became a teacher at the conducting department of the Military Conducting Faculty at the Moscow State Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky.
In 1984, Valery Khalilov was transferred to the management body of the military band service of the USSR Ministry of Defense, where he served as an officer of the military band service, senior officer and deputy head of the military band service.
From 2002 to 2016, Valery Khalilov - head of the military orchestra service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation - chief military conductor.
In April 2016, by order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Valery Khalilov was appointed to the position of Head of the Ensemble - Artistic Director of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after A.V. Alexandrova.
Valery Khalilov is the musical director of such international military music festivals as “Spasskaya Tower” (Moscow), “Amur Waves” (Khabarovsk), “March of the Century” (Tambov) and the International Military Music Festival in South Sakhalinsk.
Valery Khalilov is a member of the Union of Composers of Russia. His work as a composer is mainly associated with the genres of brass orchestral, choral, vocal and chamber instrumental music.
He toured with leading orchestras of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Germany, North Korea, Lebanon, Mongolia, Poland, USA, Finland, France, Switzerland, Sweden.
Tragically died on December 25, 2016 as a result of a plane crash of a Tu-154 RA-85572 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense, heading from Adler airport to Syria.
I was baptized at four years old. I grew up in a village near Kirzhach, my grandmother was a believer, and not just devout, like all the old women in those days, but a deep, sincere believer. She often told me: “Granddaughter, it wasn’t us who started it, it’s not ours to abolish,” because Orthodoxy and church life seemed to me something completely organic, unchanging and correct. The wooden chapel that stood in our village was destroyed, and on holidays all the grandmothers went to the monastery church in the neighboring village. I walked with them, and I remember everything, even though I was small: our fairytale forests, Vladimir... strawberry meadows, domed churches. Even Russian nature itself is fascinating, but I don’t understand how anyone can not love the Church at least as a part of Russian spiritual culture!
I was strong, I’ll be honest, but now I’m skinny. In general, I was so plump, plump, I was already, so to speak, a conscious person. Dad was a communist, and my mother, taking advantage of the opportunity that my father was working and I was in the village, she said to my grandmother: “Come on, while my father is away.” But dad wasn’t against it, but you know what it was like in those days? He was an army officer, he was a conductor, like my brother is a conductor, and my nephew in Sevastopol is now a conductor, by the way. Therefore, maybe because my mother was afraid that if they found out from my father, they might do something. In short, I was baptized. I remember this moment very well, when I was baptized for the first time. They put me in the courtyard, in the yard, we have a hut and a yard in front of the hut. They put him in a basin with cold water. How's that? Father leaned over me, and I was such a healthy boy, and I grabbed his beard. You know how it is... Butt by the beard.
I was baptized at the age of four, and when I slept in the hallway, there was a picture above my head. I don’t remember which one, there were a lot of holy people in this picture, but every “lights out”, as they now say in military parlance, I was accompanied by this picture. When I went to bed, the boy was completely in the village in this hut. Then she disappeared, because there were times when people went around collecting paintings and icons. And our village is unguarded, they just broke into many of the icons in many of our houses in the village, just... Then it was such a disgrace. This icon has disappeared. Besides, we have such a village, so picturesque, so stunning, small, so patriarchal, it’s simply impossible not to believe in something so heavenly there, despite all its beauty.
This is the environment in which I was brought up. This is all, as they say, from God. I have this Russianness, it is rooted in this village.
All this prompted me to believe in God. Well, besides this, there were just cases, very interesting... and why did I live, then, now it’s called Yakimanka. As before, by the way, there is this church there, Oktyabrskaya metro station. And then Easter, I remember. People walk around the church, this really stuck with me. We, young people, stand on the parapets around the church; the police do not let us in there. Grandmothers in headscarves with children and small children enter there - they let them through. We can’t go there, we are young people - they don’t let us in there, and I think this is what they are doing there, what they are doing there, why they are not letting us in.
Here's the question: why? What are they doing there that’s so bad, why aren’t they letting us in? I was always drawn there because singing was heard from there, some smells, you know, candles, all that, crosses, some kind of sacrament. It was still attractive. The more they banned it, the more I was drawn there in this sense. There are some little things that go unnoticed, and then you analyze: why did you do that? Yes, because this little thing influenced you, so everyone goes to God on their own path, of course, and some, maybe even some little things, lead to this road, I don’t know. Signs? Don't know. But it did, thank God!
About choosing a profession
My dad was a military conductor. I now have a younger brother who is a military conductor. And the current military conductor's nephew, a lieutenant, serves as a sailor in Sevastopol. That is, I have a dynastic family on the male side, military conductors. Thanks to my father, I entered the Moscow Military Music School. And, to be honest, when I got in, I didn’t understand why I went there. At the age of 11, he was torn away from the comforts of home and ended up within the walls of a closed educational institution. Moreover, everything was inherent in the military way of life: getting up, going out, exercises, physical activity. And, of course, general education and music subjects. The duration of study is 7 years; I entered at 11 and graduated at 18. All my physical and biological growth occurred during this period. The school gave me the professional education that I still use today. That's how I became a military conductor.
About sacred and military music
I often think about the internal similarity of seemingly opposite spheres - military and sacred music. After all, military music has amazing power, and, contrary to stereotypes, it is not at all aggressive. It pains me to hear when they say that the execution of marches is a step towards the militarization of the entire country. It seems to me that we must think in terms of artistic taste. A good march is as difficult to write as a good song! Every great composer has his own personality, a national musical tradition too: the main feature of our Russian military music is its special melodicism, its folklore, folk intonations.
Do modern people know how to perceive classical music? It is possible to determine whether a person perceives music well or poorly only after he learns to perceive it! How can a person discover the charm of classical music if he has not been instilled with a love for it since childhood? There is a zone in the soul of each of us that is open to everything high and good - open to the right music. And I call the right music that which, in its emotional impact, encourages a person to do the best deeds - creation, creation. And if so-called “light” music can serve as an unobtrusive background, then classical music can never do so. Listening to classics is the work of the soul.
People are the same at all times, they are always open to good music. This means that we must educate to the best of our ability. Without boasting, I can say that we have opened the doors of many concert halls to military bands: the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the International House of Music. And we give out free tickets, despite the fact that, according to all the laws of commerce, people are supposedly more willing to go to events when they bought a ticket with their own money. Believe me, I never flattered myself with the hope that all our concerts would be sold out, but we have people sitting on the steps just to listen to the music! And how can we then say that modern people are not able to perceive the classics?
We dream of bringing brass music back to the parks and to the people. After all, people today especially lack something real... at work, in everyday life, and we try to fill this urgent need with live music and beautiful melodies. Here a typical city person comes to a concert: merged with the city, unable to imagine his life without hot water and TV, as if stuck, dried up to this comfortable life. And suddenly he hears the sounds of a military brass band, plunges into another world and... thaws. Ask him at this moment what he is thinking about now, and he will definitely say: about love, about children, about his homeland, about God.
You know, I noticed an amazing thing: a brass band simply cannot play bad music! Even if the musicians play poorly, this music still enchants, even if some sounds are conveyed incorrectly. It’s like in nature: one person likes autumn, another doesn’t: everything withers, it’s slushy, your feet get wet. But still, every time of year is wonderful! The same is true for wind music: its very nature, its very breath is pure, bright. It is probably on this plane that music - whether military or simply classical - intersects with spiritual life. And I really want my work to instill only moral values in people.
I have a joke like this. I tell religious people: “You know, I have a friend who wrote a Ph.D. dissertation on the topic “The influence of brass music on the spiritual life of the clergy.” This is a joke, but of course, in reality, and again I always say this: technology is developing, but where do people tend to go with urbanization? Where are they heading? To nature. I always compare, look what’s happening on Friday, what’s going on on the roads - where is everyone running? In the forest, in the clearings, in nature.
The brass band is nature, it is a living sound emanating from there, from within. And even if he plays primitively, even the boys play, an amateur orchestra - these simple melodies, this primitivism even, in a sense, but the presentation of these sounds, these natural, and again I say, at the genetic level makes people hear . There are people all around, I don’t want to say, all sorts of people, maybe even strange ones, but they gather because apparently this music of ours somehow affects the cerebral cortex. They're getting ready. Even if they play poorly, the crowd gathers around the brass band.
On prayer in a military march
Let's say the march “General Miloradovich”. The idea was suggested by Colonel Babanko Gennady Ivanovich, who during my service in Pushkino was the head of the political department of the school and, already in retirement, wrote the book “General Miloradovich”, knowing that I was writing music, called me and said: Valer, write music about General Miloradovich , I’ll give you a book to read, and you, inspired by this book, write a march. And after reading the book, I realized that the fate of this general is completely extraordinary and not only forgotten, but in a conceptual sense it is simply perverted.
General Miloradovich, commanding the rearguard, did not allow the enemy to collide with our troops at the time he desired. Hero of the War of 1812. In 1824, the December uprising. Senate Square. As you know, the Decembrists withdrew their troops. Miloradovich was the Governor-General of St. Petersburg. When he entered Senate Square, the troops, recognizing him, began to fall on their faces. And one of the Decembrists, former lieutenant Kakhovsky, seeing that a turning point in the uprising was about to happen, he used a ladies’ pistol from behind to inflict a mortal wound on Miloradovich, from which he died.
So there is Kakhovsky Street in St. Petersburg, but there is no Miloradovich Street. And in general, the surname Miloradovich arose after the tsar summoned Khrabrenovich, his ancestor, and said: you are very dear to me with your courage, you will become Miloradovich. And in this march for the first time I used prayer, and I wrote the music for this prayer myself. There is no such analogue. And if you listen to the march carefully, you can imagine the social life of St. Petersburg, and the prayer service before the battle, and the return of these Russian soldiers. All this with a choir.
By the way, in the march, in our Russian and Soviet marches, this is the first time that prayer has been introduced into the march. I did this based on the image that General Miloradovich himself promised me, because he was certainly an Orthodox, believer, and since the troops were leaving for the battlefield, there was always a prayer service. So I made this prayer service - in the Gospel, with the help of a believer, I found words dedicated to “our howls”, and put music on these words, as is usually done. You will hear this prayer in the middle of the march. And then you will hear the victorious procession, the return of our troops from the battlefield to the salute, and again you will hear the first part, again the return to secular life. In the space of, I don’t know, I think, five or four and a half minutes, the life of this glorious general Miloradovich will flash before you. This is a march, this is a Russian march, I wrote it. There is nothing so reprehensible in it, regarding, as they say, excuse the expression, a boot - there is no such thing. This is a very secular, very beautiful, I think, march. By the way, many conductors love it and often perform it, although it is difficult to perform.
About Russian military musicians
Our country is the only one where there is a well-functioning system for training military conductors. Abroad, they become people who already have a higher musical education and have passed certification in physical training. But our army trains its own musicians. First, secondary education - the Moscow Military Music School accepts ninth-graders, after graduation they can enter the Institute of Military Conductors on the basis of the Military University of the Ministry of Defense. This system of training and education produces a specialist who is familiar with army life from the inside. Coming to the orchestra as a lieutenant, he already knows what and how to do. This has a positive effect on the skill of our orchestras. For example, during the parade on Red Square, 1000 military musicians play about 40 compositions by heart. Foreigners are amazed at the synchronicity and beauty of the performance.
Born into the family of a military conductor. He started studying music at the age of four. He graduated from the Moscow Military Music School (now the Moscow Military Music School) and the Military Conducting Faculty at the Moscow State Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky. Upon completion of his studies, he was appointed military conductor of the orchestra of the Pushkin Higher Military Command School of Air Defense Radio Electronics.
After the orchestra under the direction of Valery Khalilov took first place in the competition of military orchestras of the Leningrad Military District (1980), he became a teacher at the conducting department of the Military Conducting Faculty at the Moscow State Conservatory named after P.I. Tchaikovsky.
In 1984, Valery Khalilov was transferred to the management body of the military band service of the USSR Ministry of Defense, where he served as an officer of the military band service, senior officer and deputy head of the military band service.
From 2002 to 2016, Valery Khalilov - head of the military orchestra service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation - chief military conductor.
In April 2016, by order of the Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Valery Khalilov was appointed to the position of Head of the Ensemble - Artistic Director of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after A.V. Alexandrova.
Valery Khalilov is the musical director of such international military music festivals as “Spasskaya Tower” (Moscow), “Amur Waves” (Khabarovsk), “March of the Century” (Tambov) and the International Military Music Festival in South Sakhalinsk.
Valery Khalilov is a member of the Union of Composers of Russia. His work as a composer is mainly associated with the genres of brass orchestral, choral, vocal and chamber instrumental music.
He toured with leading orchestras of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Germany, North Korea, Lebanon, Mongolia, Poland, USA, Finland, France, Switzerland, Sweden.
Tragically died on December 25, 2016 as a result of a plane crash of a Tu-154 RA-85572 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense, en route from Adler airport to Syria.
