Biography and filmography of Alexander Kolker

Music is one of the most beautiful inventions of mankind. It has an amazing ability to awaken the most secret feelings, to change the mood of the listener in the blink of an eye. In the past centuries, composers who wrote beautiful melodies, enjoyed great respect and love of listeners. However, today people who write music are less likely to remember, and success is more often attained by performers.

Composer Alexander Kolker, who gave the world a lot of beautiful tunes, fortunately does not belong to the number of underestimated composers. In addition to the extraordinary talent of Alexander Naumovich, this is the merit of his wife - Maria Parkhomenko, who was the performer of most of his beautiful songs.

Alexander Kolker: biography of early years

About his childhood the famous composer was not very fond of spreading. It is known that he was born in Leningrad in 1933. Musical abilities of young Alexander appeared early enough, and his parents gave him to a specialized school to learn how to play the violin. When the boy turned 17 years old, he successfully completed his studies. However, to connect his future with music did not dare, so he went to study the profession of an engineer at the Electrotechnical Institute.

The beginning of the creative path

Despite the quite successful study in one of the most prestigious universities in Leningrad, Alexander Kolker did not leave a desire to study music. Therefore, in his spare time, he attended the composer courses of Iosif Pustylnik under the Leningrad Union of Composers. The talented young man had to use his knowledge in practice quite soon. He began writing music for student theater productions at his home university. In addition, the guy was one of the initiators of the creation of the Youth Variety Ensemble in Leningrad. In 1956 Kolker Alexander Naumovich completed his studies at the institute and was sent to work as an engineer in a laboratory at one of the factories in Leningrad. However, he stayed there for long. Soon the man became a professional composer.

Alexander Kolker and his muse and wife Maria Pakhomenko

By the early sixties, Alexander Naumovich was already quite a famous composer, popular among the Leningrad intelligentsia. But only the all-Union, and later world-wide fame came to him thanks to his wife - Maria Leonidovna Pakhomenko. Having become acquainted with this modest girl with an amazing voice and absolute hearing, the composer fell in love with her at first sight. Despite the fact that the beginning singer had a lot of boyfriends, she answered the feelings of Alexander Kolker, who, incidentally, had a not very expressive appearance. Soon the young people got married. So there was a musical union, which gave birth to many beautiful and soulful songs.

Although Kolker's creations were later also performed by such stars of the musical firmament as Lydia Clement ("Day and Night"), Joseph Kobzon ("Is there no envy-white") and Muslim Magomayev ("Please do not cry"), Most of the hits of Alexander Naumovich were sung by Maria Pakhomenko. In 1964, the first songs of Kolker, performed by his wife, were recorded on the plate of the magazine Krugozor. Among them, such a famous hit as "Shakes, shakes ...". He immediately glorified his spouses for the whole of the USSR.

Two years later the first solo album of Maria Pakhomenko was released, entitled "A. Kolker's Songs". Here the singer performed the most favorite songs of her husband, including the adored by millions of song "Stand girls, stand on the sidelines." The most famous songs of Alexander Kolker, which his wife sang: "If there were no lovers in the world", "Beautiful words", "Rowan", "The power of love", "Soothe my sorrows".

Cooperation with Kim Ryzhov

In addition to Maria Pakhomenko, there was another important person in the creative destiny of Alexander Naumovich. It is the author of texts for the majority of songs of the composer - Kim Ivanovich Ryzhov. Cooperation began in the late fifties and lasted a lifetime. In addition, these men had a strong friendship that did not fade with age. It was Ryzhov who wrote the lyrics to most of the hits of Colker. The most popular joint works of the creative tandem - songs "Crane in the sky", "Beautiful words", "I fell happy", "Stand girls, stand on the sidelines", "Do not hurry", "Do not make mistakes", "Night tram" Farewell to the sea "and of course hit" Hey, uhnem ". In addition, Kim Ivanovich wrote words to many of his friend's musicals.

Musicals of Colker

In addition to writing melodies to individual songs, Alexander Naumovich always gravitated toward the creation of more large-scale works - operettas, which today are fashionable to call musicals. Many of these works, the music of which this composer wrote, are still being successfully placed not only in Russia, but also in Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Poland, Bulgaria and other countries. The most popular are "Truffaldino from Bergamo", "Three in a boat, not counting a dog", "Gadfly", "Viper". And also the actual trilogy: "Krechinsky's Wedding", "Delo" and "Tarelkin's Death".

The most popular films, music by Alexander Kolker

On motives of some musicals of the composer the films of the same name were shot. This "Truffaldino from Bergamo" with Konstantin Raikin (voiced by Mikhail Boyarsky); "Three in a boat, not counting a dog" with Andrei Mironov, Alexander Shirvindt and Mikhail Derzhavin; "Wedding of Krechinsky" and "Death of Tarelkin". In addition to the above films, Alexander Kolker wrote songs for other popular films. His music was used in more than thirty feature films.

The first film project, in which Alexander Naumovich participated, is a film-performance "Let's get acquainted: the month of May". Two years later, the composer wrote music for the painting of Ilya Averbakh and Igor Maslennikov "The Personal Life of Kuzyaev Valentine." Later, Alexander Kolker worked with Maslennikov on another project - "Tomorrow, April 3rd ...". Among the most famous films, to which the composer wrote music, is the "Dive Bomber Chronicle", "The Last Days of Pompeii", "Melody for Two Voices" and "Idealist". Also, Kolker is the author of the music for the documentary about his wife.

Alexander Kolker: family

Alexander Naumovich and Maria Leonidovna were able to maintain their union for many years. On the spouses often went unpleasant gossip, which they soon got used to, nothing and denying and not proving their rightness. By the way, the couple was born only one child - daughter Natalia. Unfortunately, in the last years of Maria Pakhomenko's life (died in 2013), everything was not all right with the Colker family. The singer suffered from a severe form of Alzheimer's disease. In this regard, the press published many articles in which Alexander Kolker was accused of beating his wife. In this case, none of the people who know this pair close, did not confirm this fact.

As for Natalia's daughter, she had a very cool relationship with her father. She even took the name of her mother. After the death of Maria Pakhomenko Natasha actively watered his father with mud in the press and tried to seize some property from him. Although the same publications are simultaneously trumpeting the whole world, Natalia herself took the sick mother to the poorhouse. Who in this situation is right, and who is not - is unknown. And fans of the creativity of Kolker and Pakhomenko can simply enjoy their works and try to read less about the personal life of the stars.

Interesting facts

On the life of the composer there is also very interesting information that you may never have heard of:

• For a long time in the USSR, Alexander Naumovich was not allowed on tour with his wife, as they were afraid that they would flee the country. But later this ban was lifted.
• His composer called his spiritual teacher Vasily Solovyov-Sedoy.
• Kolker is the author of the autobiographical book "The elevator does not lift up!".
• One of the first songs of the composer, the words of Ryzhov, sung by Maria Pakhomenko, were "Karelia". For it, he was awarded the title of "Honorary Citizen" by the Republic of Karelia.
• Despite the apparent ease of sounding the melodies of the composer, it is not as easy to play them as it seems, which can be judged only by looking at the notes.

Alexander Kolker, by the way, recently celebrated his 83rd anniversary. And despite all his health problems and rumors that go about him, he is trying to maintain a positive attitude.