Valery Khalilov: “A brass band simply cannot play bad music!”. Chief military conductor

Music journalist Edda Zabavskikh, in an interview with Valery Khalilov, asked him in detail about his biography, attitude to music and career. Forbes Life publishes excerpts from this interview. Read the full text in the next issues of Gala Biography magazine.

– It seems simply incredible to lead more than a thousand musicians, and even in such a huge space! Can you really hear every orchestra member?

Of course not, it's impossible. I have highly professional assistants, fellow conductors, who ensure the purity and harmony of each group and accurately transmit my signals.

- Probably, colossal tension?

Rather, excitement, concentration and great composure, responsibility. Each such event is preceded by a huge preparation. You prepare for a long time, rehearse, and the event itself passes quickly. There is a sense of accomplishment. Or unfulfilled - something did not work out, I would like it better ...

- And what distinguishes a military conductor from his civilian counterparts?

The profession of a conductor requires, in addition to musical talent, bright leadership qualities and communication skills. Not every talented musician can become a military musician. This requires a whole range of special qualities. Our main work is not in warm and comfortable concert halls, but on the parade ground, in camps, in the ranks on the streets and squares, in the wind and under the scorching sun, in the rain and in frost. And therefore, it also requires excellent health, physical fitness (which is given considerable attention during the study period). In addition, a military conductor needs an outstanding gift of an educator - he is also a commander for his military unit.

– But what attracts gifted musicians to military bands?

In addition to the love of music - the romance of the military profession. Here, with such a peaceful occupation as music, you feel like a real man. After all, we are brought up according to the laws of the army - according to the charter, in drill training. Since the time of Suvorov, we, musicians, have been opening parades. I don’t remember that I was taught shooting, but as for combat training, secular etiquette and military courtesy, and most importantly, a sense of responsibility - this has always been in the foreground. A military conductor is first and foremost a combatant, he stands in front of the orchestra, three steps ahead of everyone else.

- Is it difficult with musicians?

Today, young musicians are driven away from wind instruments. New, lighter and more fashionable technocratic, electronic instruments have appeared. Our work is hard and the payoff is low. In addition, the windmaker is a dangerous profession: lips and breathing are very vulnerable.

Not everyone can do serious music. This is hard work that requires constant development. And yet, many people go to listen to Tchaikovsky's symphony or Rachmaninoff's concerto. Our concerts are of a philharmonic nature, we perform popular, but academic, classical music. And we have a huge audience.

- Are your concerts in demand?

When I was appointed to the position, at first I did not know what to do with the team outside the ranks. And a few years later, I don’t know how to fight off constant offers to speak. The brass music genre is an environmentally friendly genre, and more and more people are drawn to it.

- Tell us about your family, childhood.

I was born in Termez in a military family - our family moved from place to place. The founder of our military musical dynasty, my father Mikhail Nikolaevich Khalilov, received his first professional training at the Tashkent School of Military Musicians.

Dad played the trumpet as a child, and as a very capable boy he was advised to go there, and he immediately entered. It was a rare and very good school, many famous military musicians started their professional education there. Then he studied at the faculty of military conducting in Moscow, after graduation, dad was offered an orchestra in Germany, but he did not want to go to an unfamiliar country and asked himself to go to Central Asia, which he already knew well.

I was taken away from Termez when I was very young, and another city remained in my memory - Dzhambul in Kazakhstan. In the summer there was an unusual heat, and we boys ran around the city barefoot. Around were ditches - channels for irrigating fields. The water in them was so clear that there were fish there. We caught minnows with our bare hands and roasted them right on the hot roofs. Not because they were hungry - it was simply interesting to take such prey almost in the center of the city. In Dzhambul, my father led an orchestra, whose concerts in the city were very popular. I think my craving for military music appeared even then.

And when the father was demobilized due to illness, the family returned to Moscow, to the mother's homeland. Here I entered the music school No. 7 named after Glier on Yakimanka. When I entered the fifth grade, I entered the Moscow Military Music School in Troitse-Lykovo (now it is the Suvorov School in Teply Stan). A wonderful place: a river, a high steep bank, two temples. However, due to the dilapidation of the buildings, the school was later transferred to Teply Stan. I think this is a big loss: Troitse-Lykovo is a unique place. This not only fosters patriotism, the environment itself contributes to the special formation of personality. I'm glad I got to study there. It is especially disappointing that when our school left there, nothing was built there.

Unfortunately, the schools of musical pupils themselves have also been lost: in my father's time there were eighteen of them in the country, and only one remained - which I graduated from. They taught us well, but with strict discipline. We lived in the barracks. For minor offenses and deuces, they did not give a leave, and for a lot of days off, instead of walking and relaxing, I worked hard to correct my grades and my own shortcomings.

- And there were a lot of twos?

Happened, and often. There were excellent teachers and very high requirements - in fact, individual training, especially in musical subjects.

We were taught not only the profession, they took care of our horizons, of a broad education. We knew the German language very well, which was taught to us at the highest level - I spoke completely fluently. We were taught general culture, rules of behavior in society, good manners, ballroom dancing. They also taught us everyday culture, in general, they trained real officers. After all, an officer is not only a defender of the Motherland - this is the face of the army, he must have authority, be an example. The conductor of a military orchestra educates not only his orchestra members, but through them all the personnel and all the listeners.

- What about love, girls? Really no romance novels?

Imagine, we began to look at girls only in high school. After all, we were in the barracks: seven years in the barracks at school, then three of the five years of study at the military conducting faculty at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory - also, in fact, in the barracks.

Something changed only when I met my future wife as a conservatory fourth-year student.

- How did you meet, love at first sight?

Met her sister on vacation. Then I was invited to the house of new acquaintances, there was a piano. Naturally, I sat down with him. The piano is a sensual instrument, so I immediately conquered everyone. Still: not just a cadet - how he plays! However, as a cadet, I made an impression. Everyone asked about shooting, military life. Well, of course, I boasted: yes, I say, I shot and threw grenades ... Military science is interesting, and I think every young man should go through something like this: smell gunpowder, feel like a real defender. And on these topics, I started talking, opened up about my own feelings - the girls' eyes became round, their mouths opened ... Then everyone went to study, but a correspondence began with memories. And when the sisters came to Moscow for student winter holidays, we went to museums, theaters, and concerts together. This is where the interest in each other began. In 1974 they played a wedding in Kyiv.

How did your career develop after graduation?

After graduating from the conservatory, already in lieutenant's shoulder straps, I was assigned to the city of Pushkin, Leningrad Region, to direct the orchestra of the Pushkin Higher Command School of Air Defense Radio Electronics. The most beautiful historical places, wonderful cultural traditions, interesting theatrical performances with the participation of our orchestra - everything encouraged creativity. There I began to actively compose music.

- And to this day Natasha is your only beloved wife?

Well, yes, the only one - but do you really need two or more? I was lucky right away: for so many years a woman has been living with me, she has not left me either because of my irregular service or because of my difficult character. I'm capricious, demanding. You bring home all the problems from work. And your wife listens patiently and takes care of all your emotions. And the whole house, children, grandchildren - everything is on it, and we are on everything ready. Natasha also worked in her specialty. Even in my first service in Pushkin, she found a place in the department at the local civil engineering institute.

- Are you involved in the upbringing of grandchildren?

Literally from the cradle I take them to my concerts, from the age of three or four they listen attentively to the symphony orchestra. They like it. Even if they fidget and get distracted, latently this music penetrates into them, harmonizes, builds a personality.

- And what about the continuation of the military-conductor dynasty?

While it is being successfully continued by my brother Alexander, a colonel, also a composer, he teaches conducting at the Department of the Military Orchestra Service of the Moscow Military Conservatory. His son, my nephew, is also a graduate of the Military Conservatory. And I have girls. However, young grandchildren and even granddaughters almost from the cradle love to walk in formation and conduct - “like a grandfather” ...

Valery Khalilov Chief Military Conductor of the Russian Federation: biography, achievements, photos. On December 25, 2016, after taking off from Sochi, the artistic director of the Alexandrov Ensemble Valery Khalilov tragically died. The tragedy happened at 5:40 am when an airliner flying to Syria crashed into the Black Sea. There were 92 people on board, including 64 members of the ensemble. Also on board the crashed ship were military personnel and Dr. Lisa, who flew to congratulate the inhabitants of Syria and Russian military personnel on the New Year.

Valery Khalilov was born in Uzbekistan, in the family of a military conductor on January 30, 1952. He started composing music at the age of 4. And at the age of 11, the parents sent the boy to the military music school in Moscow. After graduation, he became a conductor of the Pushkin Higher School of Radio Electronics of the Air Defense of Russia. In 1980, his orchestra took first place in the competition of military orchestras of the Leningrad District. He was transferred as a teacher to the military conducting department of the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, then to the eagles of the military band service of the USSR Armed Forces.

From 2002 to the present day he has been the Chief Military Conductor.

Valery Khalilov Chief Military Conductor of the Russian Federation: biography, achievements, photos. In April 2016, Khalilov was appointed to the position of Head of the Ensemble. Valery Mikhailovich was the organizer of many theatrical, festive events. He has many awards and medals. He was a deeply religious person.

The commandant of the Moscow Kremlin, Lieutenant-General Sergei Khlebnikov, told RG about his friendship with the artistic director of the Alexandrov Ensemble Valery Khalilov, who died in the Black Sea.

Sergei Khlebnikov: We have known Valery Mikhailovich Khalilov for almost 13 years. It so happened that at one time he was appointed head of the military orchestra service of the Ministry of Defense, and I was appointed commandant of the Moscow Kremlin. And since then we have cooperated very closely: in preparation for military parades on Red Square, we held music festivals. Moscow International Festival "Ode to Peace", in particular.

And then they decided that the country needed a major military music festival. And Valery Mikhailovich stood at the origins of this festival, which today is called the Spasskaya Tower.

We can recall your recent meetings and contacts with Valery Mikhailovich. What did you plan, what did you argue about?

Sergei Khlebnikov: In January, after the New Year holidays, we wanted to get together. On the Old New Year, they planned to congratulate him, as well as the director of the festival with a government prize. The other day Valery Mikhailovich received it. They wanted to discuss plans for August, approve the idea of the anniversary festival, this is his favorite brainchild.

Our condolences to his wife and the whole family - he has a big friendly family.

I want to say that everyone who knew him, when the news of the tragedy came, at first hoped for something. Then there was shock, sorrow ... My phone literally bursts: many knew that we were not only working with him, but also friends. People close to us died on this plane, including Anton Nikolaevich Gubankov, head of the culture department of the Ministry of Defense. No one will be left out of this grief, of course. And the festival "Spasskaya Tower" will not remain, we will help relatives and friends to somehow withstand this blow. We sympathize with all the dead.

Despite the fact that the loss is irreparable, but life goes on. In March, a concert by Valery Mikhailovich Khalilov was planned in Berlin. We will do our best to make this concert happen. He wrote a lot of musical works: marches, symphonies, romances. These works will live forever.

Sergei Dmitrievich, now there is operational information on the tapes and on the air, there are a lot of inaccuracies. Valery Khalilov, out of habit, is called the chief conductor of the Ministry of Defense. But since the spring of this year, he has led the legendary Alexandrov Ensemble. Probably, not everyone remembers that Mireille Mathieu opened this particular team for our country. It was during his tour in Paris in 1961: the French impresario came out to our musicians and said that he had a very good girl with a beautiful voice. Persuaded to perform together. It was Mireille Mathieu.

Sergei Khlebnikov: Recently I was in France on business of the festival. They recalled this story with the Alexandrov Ensemble. And they even wanted to repeat it. Because this ensemble was assigned a role as one of the prominent participants in the next anniversary Spasskaya Tower.

Mireille Mathieu has repeatedly said that she cannot help but worry before performances on Red Square, but she is calmed when conductor Valery Khalilov is between her and hundreds of musicians. As she said: "Thanks to him, there is a symbiosis between me and the musicians." Have you contacted Mireille Mathieu? Does she already know about the tragedy?

Sergei Khlebnikov: Condolences have already come from close people who are in contact with her.

There is a website of the Spasskaya Tower. In fact, there is a virtual museum of the festival on it. Is there any idea to dedicate a separate section to Khalilov? Of course, he often hit the lenses, but photographs prevail when Valery Mikhailovich is in full dress, with a conductor's baton. It would be great to see pictures of this amazing person in an informal setting.

Sergei Khlebnikov: I'll pass it on to management. Now let's recover a bit from the shock and do it. Good, correct suggestion. I'm also sorting through his photos in my archive. He smiles at many...

Direct speech

Valery Khalilov, two days before the disaster, gave an interview to RG about the New Year's holiday of his childhood.

By the end of the year, a special issue of "RG-Week" was being prepared, in which famous people talk about the Christmas trees of their childhood. One of our interlocutors was a lieutenant general, a Russian military conductor. He, as always, in conversation was friendly, correct, never complained about the lack of time - and this despite his great employment. Open to communication: at any moment, whenever we called him, he was always like that. And today these words - alas - can be considered his last congratulations on the New Year:

As a child, gifts were not placed under the Christmas tree, but under the pillow. But every evening on December 31, I went to bed impatiently, and every morning on January 1, I put my hand under the pillow and took out a gray paper bag with cookies, sweets and tangerines. We were not particularly spoiled then, our parents had no choice, but the tangerine smell in me since then has been closely associated with the New Year tree.

Prepared by Susanna Alperina, Andrey Vasyanin

On board the TU-154 that crashed today was Valery Khalilov, chief military conductor of Russia, head of the ensemble - artistic director of the Academic Song and Dance Ensemble of the Russian Army named after A.V. Alexandrov, who was sent with the composition of the ensemble to organize New Year's congratulatory events at the Khmeimim airbase. We have collected fragments from several interviews with Valery Mikhailovich - about childhood, profession and faith in God.

On 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 pious, like all old women in those days, but a deeply, sincerely believer. She often said to me: “Granddaughter, it’s not our institution, it’s not for us to cancel,” because Orthodoxy and church life seemed to me something completely organic, unchanged 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, although I was small: our forests are fabulous, Vladimir ... strawberry glades, domes of churches. Even Russian nature itself is fascinating, but how can one not love the Church at least as part of Russian spiritual culture - I don’t understand at all!

I was a strong man, to be honest, now I'm so thin. In general, I was so plump, plump, I was already, so to speak, a conscious little man. Dad was a communist, and mom, using the opportunity that my father worked, and I was in the village, she told my grandmother: “Come on, while my father is gone.” But dad is not that he was against it, but you know how in those days? He was an army officer, he was a conductor, like my brother is a conductor, and his nephew is now a conductor in Sevastopol, by the way. Therefore, maybe because my mother was afraid that if they find out from my father, they can do something. In short, I was baptized. I remember this moment very well, the first time I was baptized. 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 bowl of cold water. Well, how is it? Batiushka leaned over me, and I was such a healthy boy, and I grabbed his beard. You know how it is... Ass by the beard.

I was baptized at the age of four, and when I slept in the hallway, I had 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 say in military language now, 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 such times when they went, collected paintings, icons. And our village is unguarded, they just broke into many icons in many of our houses in the village, just ... Then there was such a disgrace. This icon is gone. In addition, we have such a village, so picturesque, so amazing, small, so patriarchal, it is simply impossible not to believe in something so heavenly there, with all its beauty.

This is the environment I grew up in. It's all, as they say, from God. I have this Russianness, it is laid down by this village.

This is what inspired me to believe in God. Well, besides this, there were just cases, very interesting ... and why did I live, then already, now it's called Yakimanka. As before, by the way, there is this church, Oktyabrskaya metro station. And Easter, I remember. People walk around the church, I remember it very much. We, young people, stand on the parapets around the church, the police do not let us go there. Grandmothers in kerchiefs with children with small ones penetrate there - they let them through. We can't go there, we are young people - they don't let us in, and I think that's what they do there, what they do there, why they don't let us in.

Here's the question: why? What are they doing so bad there, why are they not letting us in? I was always drawn to it, because singing was heard from there, some smells, you know, candles, that's all, crosses, some kind of sacrament. It was still attractive. The more they forbade me, the more I was drawn there in this sense, too. There are some unnoticed little things, and then you analyze: why did you do that? Yes, because this little thing influenced you, therefore everyone goes to God on their own, certainly, road, and some, maybe even some little things, lead to this road, I don’t know. Signs? Don't know. But it did, thank God!

On choosing a profession
My dad was a military conductor. My younger brother is now a military conductor. And the acting military conductor's nephew, lieutenant, serves as a sailor in Sevastopol. That is, I have a dynastic family in the male line, military conductors. Thanks to my father, I entered the Moscow military music school. And, to be honest, when I entered, I did not understand why I entered there. At the age of 11 he was torn away from home comfort, got into the walls of a closed educational institution. Moreover, everything was inherent in the military warehouse of being: rise, lights out, exercises, physical activity. And, of course, general education and musical subjects. The term of study is 7 years, having entered at 11, I graduated at 18. All my physical, biological growth fell on this period. The school gave me the professional education that I still use today. That's how I became a military conductor.

About spiritual and military music
I often think about the internal similarities of seemingly opposite spheres - military and sacred music. After all, military music has tremendous power, and, contrary to stereotypes, it is by no means aggressive. It pains me to hear people say that marches are a step towards the militarization of the whole country. It seems to me that one must think in terms of artistic taste. A good march is as difficult to write as a good song! Each great composer has his own personality, as well as the national musical tradition: the main feature of our Russian military music is in its special melody, in its folklore, folk intonations.

Can modern people perceive classical music? It is possible to determine whether a person perceives music badly or well only after he learns to perceive! And 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, open to everything high and good - open to the right music. And I call the right music the one that, in its emotional impact, induces a person to the best deeds - creation, creation. And if the so-called "light" music can serve as an unobtrusive background, then the classics - never. Listening to the classics is the work of the soul.

People at all times are the same, they are always open to good music. So, we must enlighten by virtue of our skills. Without boasting, I can say that we have opened the doors of many concert halls for military bands: the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the International House of Music. And we give away free tickets, despite the fact that by all the laws of commerce people seem to be more willing to go to events when they bought a ticket for their hard-earned money. Believe me, I never flattered myself with the hope that all our concerts will be sold out, but we have people sitting on the steps just to listen to the music! And after that, how can one say that a modern person is not able to perceive the classics?

We dream of bringing brass music back to the parks, to the people. After all, people today especially lack something real ... at work, at home, and we try to fill this urgent need with live music, beautiful melodies. Here a typical urban person comes to the 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 the 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 likes autumn, the other does not: everything fades, slushy, feet get wet. But still, every season is beautiful! The same is true of brass music: its very nature, its very breath is pure, bright. Probably, it is in this plane that music, whether military or simply classical, intersects with spiritual life. And I really want my work to bring up only moral in people.

I have a joke. I say to religious people: “Do you know, I have a friend who wrote a Ph.D. thesis 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 develops, but people tend to go where with urbanization? Where are they aiming? On nature. I always compare, look what happens on Friday, what will happen on the roads - where is everyone running? To the forest, to the meadows, to nature.

Here is a brass band - this is nature, this is a living sound emitted from there, from the inside. And even if he plays primitively, even boys play, an amateur orchestra - these simple melodies, this primitivism, even, in a sense, but the presentation of these sounds, these natural ones, and again I say, at the gene level makes people hear . Around - once, they are going, I don’t want to say, some people are all sorts, maybe even strange, but they are going, because apparently, this is our music, it somehow affects the cerebral cortex. Are going. Even if they play poorly, the crowd gathers around the brass band.

On Prayer on a Military March
For example, 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 retired, wrote the book “General Miloradovich”, knowing that I write music, called me and said: Valer, write music about General Miloradovich , I will give you a book to read, and you, under the impression of this book, write a march. And after reading the book, I realized that the fate of this general is completely unusual and not just 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 Senatskaya. square, the troops, recognizing him, began to fall on their faces. And one of the Decembrists, the former lieutenant Kakhovsky, seeing that a turning point in the uprising was about to take place, he inflicted a mortal wound on Miloradovich from behind with a lady's pistol, from which he died.

So there is Kakhovskogo 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 a 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 secular 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, this is the first time - the introduction of prayer in the march. I did this based on the image that General Miloradovich himself promised me, because he was unconditionally Orthodox, a believer, and if the troops leave for the battlefield, there was always a prayer service. So I made this prayer service - with the help of a believer, I found the words in the Gospel 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 under the salute, and again you will hear the first part, again the return to secular life. Like this, in the course of, I don’t know, in my opinion, 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, concerning, as they say, sorry for the expression, there is no such thing as a boot. This is a very secular, very beautiful, it seems to me, march. By the way, many conductors have fallen in love with it and often perform it, although it is difficult to perform.

About military musicians of Russia
Our country is the only one where there is a well-functioning system for training military conductors. Abroad, they are people who already have a higher musical education and have passed certification in physical training. And our army itself grows musicians. First, secondary education - the Moscow Military Music School accepts ninth-graders, after graduation they can enter the Institute of Military Conductors at the Military University of the Ministry of Defense. Such a system of training and education provides 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 songs by heart. Foreigners are surprised at the synchronicity and beauty of the performance.

Interview with Valery Khalilov on 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 in the family of a military conductor. He began 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 graduation, 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 governing body of the military orchestra service of the USSR Ministry of Defense, where he served as an officer of the military orchestra service, senior officer and deputy head of the military orchestra service.

From 2002 to 2016 Valery Khalilov - Head of the Military Band 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 Sakhalin.

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 band, choral, vocal and chamber-instrumental music.

Has toured with the 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.

He tragically died on December 25, 2016 as a result of an air crash of a Tu-154 RA-85572 aircraft of the Russian Ministry of Defense, en route from Adler Airport to Syria.

On Saturday, on the bright holiday of the old New Year, the military conductor Valery Khalilov, who led the Ensemble to them. Alexandrova. Hundreds of people came to say goodbye to the musician - classmates at the school, students and fans.

Valery Khalilov was a very talented composer. "He was a man of the highest dignity,- quietly told the assistant professor of the academy. Gnesinykh Sergei Reshetov. “After all, the music of a person always shows what he is. And in the music of Valera his nobility, his honor, his sublimity were visible. He was a real military conductor - always smart, slender, until his last days he went in for sports. “They say that there are no irreplaceable people,” Sergei Reshetov added after a pause. - But in the case of Valera, this is too big a loss. I still can't believe that he doesn't exist. Every day it gets worse and worse."

The Pravmir portal has collected fragments from several interviews with Valery Mikhailovich - about childhood, profession and faith in God.

ON 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 pious, like all old women in those days, but a deeply, sincerely believer. She often said to me: “Granddaughter, it’s not our institution, it’s not for us to cancel,” because Orthodoxy and church life seemed to me something completely organic, unchanged 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, although I was small: our forests are fabulous, Vladimir ... strawberry glades, domes of churches. Even Russian nature itself is fascinating, but how can one not love the Church at least as part of Russian spiritual culture - I don’t understand at all!

I was baptized at the age of four, and when I slept in the hallway, I had 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 say in military language now, 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 such times when they went, collected paintings, icons. And our village is unguarded, they just broke into many icons in many of our houses in the village, just ... Then there was such a disgrace. This icon is gone. In addition, we have such a village, so picturesque, so amazing, small, so patriarchal, it is simply impossible not to believe in something so heavenly there, with all its beauty.

This is the environment I grew up in. It's all, as they say, from God. I have this Russianness, it is laid down by this village.

ABOUT CHOOSING A PROFESSION

My dad was a military conductor. My younger brother is now a military conductor. And the acting military conductor's nephew, lieutenant, serves as a sailor in Sevastopol. That is, I have a dynastic family in the male line, military conductors. Thanks to my father, I entered the Moscow military music school. And, to be honest, when I entered, I did not understand why I entered there. At the age of 11 he was torn away from home comfort, got into the walls of a closed educational institution. Moreover, everything was inherent in the military warehouse of being: rise, lights out, exercises, physical activity. And, of course, general education and musical subjects. The term of study is 7 years, having entered at 11, I graduated at 18. All my physical, biological growth fell on this period. The school gave me the professional education that I still use today. That's how I became a military conductor.

ABOUT SPIRITUAL AND MILITARY MUSIC

I often think about the internal similarity of seemingly opposite spheres - military and sacred music. After all, military music has tremendous power, and, contrary to stereotypes, it is by no means 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 one must think in terms of artistic taste. A good march is as difficult to write as a good song! Each great composer has his own personality, as well as the national musical tradition: the main feature of our Russian military music is in its special melody, in its folklore, folk intonations.

Can modern people perceive classical music? It is possible to determine whether a person perceives music badly or well only after he learns to perceive! And 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, open to everything high and good - open to the right music. And I call the right music the one that, in its emotional impact, induces a person to the best deeds - creation, creation. And if the so-called "light" music can serve as an unobtrusive background, then the classics - never. Listening to the classics is the work of the soul.

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 likes autumn, the other does not: everything fades, slushy, feet get wet. But still, every season is beautiful! The same is true of wind music: its very nature, its very breath is pure, bright.

Probably, it is in this plane that music - military or simply classical - intersects with spiritual life. And I really want my work to bring up only moral in people.

Here is a brass band - this is nature, this is a living sound emitted from there, from the inside. And even if he plays primitively, even boys play, an amateur orchestra - these simple melodies, this primitivism, even, in a sense, but the presentation of these sounds, these natural ones, and again I say, at the gene level makes people hear . Around - once, they are going, I don’t want to say, some people are all sorts, maybe even strange, but they are going, because apparently, this is our music, it somehow affects the cerebral cortex. Are going. Even if they play poorly, the crowd gathers around the brass band.

ABOUT PRAYER IN A MILITARY MARCH

For example, 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 write music, called me and said: Valer, write music about General Miloradovich , I will give you a book to read, and you, under the impression of this book, write a march. And after reading the book, I realized that the fate of this general is completely unusual and not just 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 wanted. 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 the Senate Square, the troops, recognizing him, began to fall on their faces. And one of the Decembrists, the former lieutenant Kakhovsky, seeing that a turning point in the uprising was about to take place, he inflicted a mortal wound on Miloradovich from behind with a lady's pistol, from which he died.

By the way, in the march, in our Russian and Soviet, this is the first time - the introduction of prayer in the march. I did this based on the image that General Miloradovich himself promised me, because he was unconditionally Orthodox, a believer, and if the troops leave for the battlefield, there was always a prayer service. So I made this prayer service - with the help of a believer, I found the words in the Gospel 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 under the salute, and again you will hear the first part, again the return to secular life. Like this, in the course of, I don’t know, in my opinion, 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, concerning, as they say, pardon the expression, there is no such thing as a boot. This is a very secular, very beautiful, it seems to me, march. By the way, many conductors have fallen in love with it and often perform it, although it is difficult to perform.

ABOUT MILITARY MUSICIANS OF RUSSIA

Our country is the only one where there is a well-functioning system of training military conductors. Abroad, they are people who already have a higher musical education and have passed certification in physical training. And our army itself grows musicians. First, secondary education - the Moscow Military Music School accepts ninth-graders, after graduation they can enter the Institute of Military Conductors at the Military University of the Ministry of Defense. Such a system of training and education provides 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 songs by heart. Foreigners are surprised at the synchronicity and beauty of the performance.

VIDEO BROADCASTS WITH VALERY KHALILOV