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Narrative account of the career or Alexander Zhurbin
Alexander Zhurbin is one of the most important Russian composers of his generation. His music is widely performed all over the former Soviet Union, East and West Europe, Canada and the United States. He composes in a wide range of forms and styles: from symphonies to pop music, from chamber music to "new wave," from operas and ballets to movie scores and music for the theater. The list of his works is very long (more than 150 titles).
Before 1990 the composer lived in the former Soviet Union, where he was one of the biggest stars in the Arts. His tunes were hummed practically by everyone, and his face was familiar to everybody, because he was a frequent participant in various TV-programs. Meanwhile his symphony and chamber music was performed in many major concert halls throughout the country.
He was born in Tashkent, where he graduated Special Music School in 1963. Later he graduated Tashkent Conservatory as a cellist, and Moscow Gnesin Institute as a composer (1969). His teachers there were professors Nikolai Peiko and Aram Khachaturian. After that, he did his postgraduate studies as a musicologist in Leningrad, where completed his Ph.D. dissertation (1973) on Gustav Mahler's Symphonies. His teachers there were Profs. Sergej Slonimskij, Yuzef Kon, and he also had frequent consultations with Dmitri Shostakovich.
His first big success came in 1975 with his rock-opera "Orpheus and Eurydice". This work was the first of its kind in the Soviet Union and was a big sensation . It was more than two thousand performances in a row, and more than two millions copies of the record were sold. For this opera, Mr. Zhurbin won many international awards, including "Star of the Year" in Great Britain.
(Composer website) |