Igor Kornelyuk- Russian composer, musician, singer, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation. He is best known as the author of the composition “The City That Doesn’t Exist”, heard in the series “Gangster Petersburg”, and other film hits.
Biography of Igor Kornelyuk
Igor Kornelyuk was born into a family that had nothing to do with music. Only his grandmother Maria Demyanovna, sang romances, accompanying herself on the guitar, and also all her relatives, gathering at the table, sang during the holidays. As he says Kornelyuk, this family singing became for him primary school vocals: since the boy had a sonorous voice, he was constantly asked to sing, and little Igor performed everything he knew all evening to the accordion.
“I remember one day discovering that if you press C, E and G at the same time, it produces a wonderfully harmonious chord. This was a discovery for me no less than the theory of relativity.”
Parents of Igor Kornelyuk - Nina Afanasyevna and Evgeny Kasyanovich- were engineers, and at first they did not welcome their son’s desire to study music professionally. However, a professor at the Belarusian State Conservatory was able to convince them that the boy definitely needed to study music, and at the age of six, Igor was sent to a music school to study piano. However, in music school Igor studied, in his own words, disgustingly, he had a “stake” in solfeggio. That, however, did not stop Igor from playing in the ensemble at dances. He came home from school, took off his pioneer tie and went to perform.
At the age of 9, Igor had already written his first song “Russia, dear Russia, slender trunks of birch trees...”.
In 5th grade Igor started working: on weekends he played the ionic in an ensemble at dances in the city Palace of Culture, receiving a little more than 29 rubles a month. And then the first love came, but the girl left Igor. For him, this became a great tragedy and the need to pour out in sounds what was overwhelming him.
“I am forever grateful to anyone, she made me a composer! Naive songs about love appeared. I took words from everyone - Yesenin, Tsvetaeva, Akhmatova, I even got to Pasternak, hardly understanding then what he was writing about.”
Igor played at the music school at VIA “Smile”, and also fulfilled requests to record the notes of the melody and the elementary accompaniment of his favorite song.
In 1977, after the 8th grade, he entered the Brest Music College in the theoretical and composition department. At the same time, he played in rock ensembles. It was this year that the teacher told Igor that he needed to go to study in Leningrad, since the school of composition was the strongest there.
Since the trip to St. Petersburg was spontaneous, Kornelyuk arrived without documents for admission to the music school. There was no talk of transferring from the Brest Music College - Igor had to re-enroll as a first-year student. There was only a week before the entrance exams - during this time Igor composed a series of pieces for piano, which he brought to the exam. Was invited to take an exam at the school Vladlen Pavlovich Chistyakov, teaching instrumentation and composition at the Leningrad Conservatory. Having passed the exam, Igor went out into the corridor, completely confident of failure. But after some time the door opened, Vladlen Pavlovich appeared, approached Igor and said: “Congratulations, young man! I will have the honor to teach you." They spent all four years together and their relationship was very warm.
According to Igor, his years of study at the Music School at the Leningrad State Conservatory named after N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov were the most fruitful for him from an educational point of view. It was at the school that Igor took up composition in earnest and for the first time seriously approached the study of the orchestra.
There, in music school, in 1979 Igor met Regina Lisits, in the future - his constant co-author. Their first joint song, “Who Said: It Will Pass?” they wrote to the student skit.
At the end of the 4th year of music school, Igor received his first order in his life to write music. At that time in Academic Theater drama named after Pushkin, the premiere performance was being prepared “ Trumpeter in the square", in which main role played by the then young debutant actor Nikolai Fomenko. Igor was commissioned to write music for this performance. He took the order very seriously. Having written the score, he invited musicians from the V.P. Orchestra to record the phonogram. Solovyov-Sedov Leningrad Radio and Television.
The next step in education for Igor Kornelyuk became a conservatory. While studying at the conservatory (composition class), Igor wrote music for a popular science film about the needs of collective farms, and music for the play “ Tic Tac Toe"(Comedy Theater named after N.P. Akimov, 1985), a symphony, four pieces for piano, several piano cycles, a cycle of romances (8) with verses Pasternak, a cycle of romances based on poetry Akhmatova, a cycle of romances based on poetry Mustaya Karima, choral cycle based on poetry Pushkin, string quartet. All his works were performed by students of the conservatory.
The development of Igor Kornelyuk as a composer, according to him, was influenced by a variety of music: in his youth - QUEEN, in a music school - jazz, in the conservatory - the work of musicians " Mighty bunch"(N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov, M.P. Mussorgsky, A.P. Borodin). Igor even wrote a rock suite using the intonations and musical structure of great composers.
Hitmaker Igor Kornelyuk started arguing. According to Igor, Alexander Morozov, a classmate and by that time already a venerable composer, once told him in a confidential conversation: “Old man, do you know what the difference is between me and you? You are a well-trained person, and I am talented. Here you write complex music for a trained listener, and I write simple songs, and he sings them Soviet people. You can’t do that.” Igor was touched by a nerve, and they bet two bottles of cognac that Igor would write a song that the entire Soviet people would sing.
Kornelyuk wrote several songs at once. Song " Cute"came to almost every home in our country... The artists of the Leningrad theater were the first to perform this song" Buff» Lena Spiridonova and Zhenya Alexandrov(later Igor performed this song with Elena Spiridonova for the album " Ballet ticket"(1989), and subsequently also recorded in a duet with Alena Ivantsova. Another song - the composer's first phonographic debut - was released by Melodiya: minion " Boy and girl were friends» performed Alberta Asadullina. A wave of success swept across the country.
According to a survey conducted in 1985 by the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda", "A boy and a girl were friends" entered the top ten songs.
In 1985, Igor wrote his first professional songs based on the poems of Regina Lisits, his main poet and co-author, which were performed by famous Soviet pop stars. With the song " Find out"Anna Veski performs in Sopot and becomes a laureate of the festival. Svetlana Medyanik, performing the song " Not with me", takes second place in the television competition " Jurmala-86».
Subsequently Anne Vesky appeared whole program composed of songs Igor Kornelyuk, among which: “Monkey”, “I don’t understand what’s wrong with me”, “Horoscope”, “Not with me” and others.
When Igor defended his diploma in 1987, he presented the first computer symphony in the history of the conservatory “ Symphonic fantasy for computer" After graduating from the conservatory, Igor no longer worked on symphonies, although the dream of creating a work that was serious in form and academic in content remains.
Professional career of Igor Kornelyuk
From 1985 to 1988, Igor Kornelyuk worked musical director Leningrad Theater " Buff", wrote music for his productions, accompanied and sang.
At the same time, he wrote songs, offering them to performers. Among them was Edita Piekha. Igor wrote two songs for her - “ White evening" And " Listen" Popularity came unexpectedly: after leaving the theater in 1988, the composer Victor Reznikov invites Igor to participate with him in the program of Leningrad Television “ Musical ring ».
August 1, 1988. At the “Ring” Reznikov has a huge team of chanting fans and famous performers, Igor only has an old friend who came from Brest. Unexpectedly for himself, Igor wins the “Ring” and the next day wakes up famous.
In 1988, Kornelyuk’s song “Ticket to the Ballet” became a laureate of the “Song of the Year” television festival.
Thus began the fruitful solo career of pop composer-performer Igor Kornelyuk.
Its first art director was Sergey Danilov, to whose poems Igor later wrote the songs “ If I knew the purchase, I would live in Sochi”, “Walking around Paris”, “Lunatics”, “Well, let it be”, “Listen", sung together with Edita Piekha, " Mother", performed Ilona Bronevitskaya.
In 1988, Igor Kornelyuk presented his first solo program at the Druzhba hall in Luzhniki in Moscow and at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall in St. Petersburg. In the same year - solo concert at the Dynamo stadium.
1989 - concert at the Olimpiysky. 1991 - Moscow again, Luzhniki Sports Palace. A year later - a new solo program “ Let them talk", the premiere of which takes place in the St. Petersburg Concert Hall "Oktyabrsky".
In 1995, Igor Kornelyuk opened his own studio.
In 1996, he performed in Moscow at the Rossiya State Central Concert Hall with his old and new hits.
In 1997, Igor turned 35 years old. He celebrated his anniversary while working on the music for the play “ Passion by Moliere", directed by a young talented director Victor Kramer at the Akimov Comedy Theater. The premiere was successful on December 12, 1997.
On March 4, 1998, the second in Kornelyuk’s life took place. Musical ring" Exactly 10 years passed between the rings. This time Igor competed with the composer-performer Viktor Chaika. And again Igor Kornelyuk won.
Over the years creative work Igor Kornelyuk has written over 100 songs and is the author of several musical performances, children's opera Pull-push, or Aibolit from Zverinskaya street", which has been running at the Music Hall since 1989 until now.
Igor Kornelyuk's work in film and TV
Igor made his first film work back in 1990, writing excellent music for a television film Akima Salbiev « Short game ", however, he returned to cinema only 10 years later, in 2000, in order to create his brilliant " The city that doesn't exist" to the series " Gangster Petersburg» Vladimir Bortko. After such success, Igor becomes one of the most sought-after film composers in Russian cinema.
"Idiot", " I have the honor», « Russian translation", "The Master and Margarita", "Justice of Wolves" and "Taras Bulba" - this is not the entire list of musical film novels created by Igor Kornelyuk.
Igor was the host of the TV show " Mom, dad and I are a sports family"(RTR), wrote the motto song " About family", starred in episodes, playing himself in the TV series "Cops" and "Secrets of the Investigation", took part in various show programs (" Bluff club», « White parrot», « SV-Show"), was a member of the jury music competitions(young performers " Jurmala», « Yalta», « Slavic Bazaar ") and the host of beauty contests (" Miss Ekaterinburg", "Mrs. Lesnichanka»).
By Presidential Decree No. 648 of May 21, 2007, Igor Evgenievich Kornelyuk was awarded the title “Honored Artist Russian Federation" On March 30, 2007, at the Grand Hotel Europe in St. Petersburg, the Couple of the City Ceremony was held with the support of the Committee for Culture of the Government of St. Petersburg, among the nominees of which were Igor and Marina Kornelyuk.
Igor Kornelyuk, in addition to his solo and group concerts, performs a lot in charity events and concerts, and since the 90s of the twentieth century he has been the founder of the St. Petersburg public charitable foundation support for education and creativity.
Igor repeatedly took part in the “Golden Pelican” OBD and “Soul of a Child” CTR programs, and donated some of the equipment from his studio to a recording studio for blind and visually impaired people. And for several years now she has been patronizing the social hotel “Dream”, providing children with material and humanitarian assistance.
October 22, 2010 at concert hall“Giant Hall” in St. Petersburg hosted a large concert-presentation dedicated to the opening of Igor’s new official website, as well as the release of three CDs with music: “Songs from the cinema”, “Music for the film “The Master and Margarita””, “Music for the film “Taras Bulba”.
In 2012, Igor celebrated three anniversaries at once: the 25th anniversary of stage activity, the 30th wedding anniversary and his 50th anniversary.
“As for the stage, I can say the following: now, when everyone writes songs - who can and who can’t - it’s becoming uninteresting to me. That’s why I do symphonic music.”
Personal life of Igor Kornelyuk
Igor Kornelyuk and his chosen one Marina signed when the young composer took his final exams at the school and the entrance exams to the conservatory. The newlyweds celebrated their wedding with the proceeds of 600 rubles for writing for the play “The Trumpeter on the Square,” although the groom did not need a celebration at all, but he knew that his beloved wanted it.
Early years life together were the most difficult - for Igor, his wife and little son I had to live in a one-room apartment with my wife’s mother. And the mother-in-law, according to tradition, did not immediately accept her son-in-law.
Igor and Marina have been married for more than 30 years.
When asked how they managed to save their family, since everyone knows the fickleness of creative people, Igor Kornelyuk answers that only thanks to the wisdom and understanding of his wife Marina, who had the intelligence and tact “to behave correctly at certain moments.”
IT'S A RAINY DAY IN OUR COMPANY - Igor Kornelyuk is no more. Our colleague did not return from the battle - Igor was killed under shelling of the once peaceful city of Lugansk. None of us can comprehend this death. Igor, you're alive, aren't you?
Liliya Khakimova, correspondent of State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Yamal: “By GOD, I don’t even know what to say... Let someone else say it for now.”
Marina Kovaleva, correspondent of State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Yamal: “He hired me 4 years ago. There was no one here. She came all green, I was afraid. He taught everything so patiently. Probably the most responsive journalist I know. Like a big brother to all of us here. Always with any problem - immediately with Kornelyuk ... "
Rinat Dzhumalin, correspondent of State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Yamal: “We need to stop this. True, I don’t know in what ways. This is not possible."
It’s very difficult for us now, we have lost the person with whom we are used to sharing a cup of coffee, a subtle anecdote, any life and professional topics and problems. By the way, about life - Igor has a wife and a little daughter. They were immediately orphaned, but I won’t talk to you, our TV viewers, about them - it hurts them more than the rest of us. Such pain knocks, sounds and screams.
Anna Sokolova, correspondent for the Yamal branch of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company: “It’s hard to talk about this person in the past tense, it’s painful, scary, somehow offensive for everyone... I immediately got the feeling that war was nearby. It can affect absolutely anyone, absolutely everyone. This man does his duty, does his job and dies. I still can’t believe that this affected someone close to us...”
Evgenia Lyubimskaya, correspondent of the Yamal branch of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company: “Still, we need to say more kind, warm, sympathetic words during our lifetime. And in fact, for each of us it is a loss. Everyone knows, everyone, everyone felt it themselves, I want more people like this and I don’t want to lose them.”
Sergei Zavalny, deputy director for radio broadcasting of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Yamal: “The only thing I can say and what is difficult to agree with is the presence of death, because you will always protest... Because you will still say that there is no death. And it cannot exist. That’s why tears come to my eyes and my voice trembles.”
It took me a little time to write this text, but a lot of personal pain. And that IGOR really doesn’t exist, I probably don’t fully understand.
Marina Vershinina, deputy director of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Yamal: “Yes, all of us are unlikely to realize the reality of what is happening. Katya, his wife, among others. She, of course, is talking on the phone, trying to resolve some issues, but this is from above, and inside - I think that the realization that THIS happened has probably not yet come. That this happened, that this is already a reality. This is some new, different reality, unknown to any of us yet..."
Alexander Dobrynin, director of the All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Yamal: “He was such a kind, sympathetic person. That’s how I reacted to... We are such thick-skinned people in the profession... But he reacted, he was alive, he was alive, real... I can’t even realize it yet... I can’t even imagine that this happened...”
War is always murder, it is always betrayal and grief. It's scary and pointless. Igor, you are alive for us!
Forever with you State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company Yamal
// Photo: Belyakov Sergey/PhotoXPress.ru
The next episode of the “Tonight” program with Andrei Malakhov was dedicated to creativity famous composer and performer Igor Kornelyuk, who is the author of more than a hundred songs.
Close people of the maestro and his colleagues were present in the studio. It was about personal life and creative biography hit maker. At some point, guests in the studio were invited to be transported to the composer’s house near St. Petersburg. Igor Kornelyuk and his wife Marina gave all TV viewers a tour of their home, furnished with great love.
“Marina built the house almost with her own hands,” says Igor Kornelyuk. – We just bought a box. Construction was underway. We come here, workers are pouring something out of concrete. Marina saw and ran up to them: “Where? The fittings should be 16, I told you so! And the coupling should be done like this!” And she showed how. I think: “Wow, the choir conductor understands such things.”
According to Igor Kornelyuk, the center of attraction in their house is the dining room. “No matter what room we are in, we are always drawn here,” the maestro smiles.
The kingdom of Marina Kornelyuk is spacious and very stylish kitchen, which, according to the woman, is very convenient to cook on. The star family prefers fish, lean meat and vegetables. Igor Kornelyuk has been following the protein diet of French nutritionist Pierre Dukan for several years now. Thanks to her, the composer lost twenty-four kilograms.
Kornelyuki guests are received in the living room, where everything is decorated in white tones. Main character here is a snow-white piano. “When guests arrive, it ends with us all lining up around this piano and playing music,” says Igor Kornelyuk.
In one of the rooms of the house the entire wall is hung with icons. The composer is a believer, even in Soviet times I went to the temple secretly. In the maestro’s house there is also his office - a mini-recording studio, equipped with last word technology. Here he creates arrangements.
Another lovely detail of the mansion is the panoramic sliding windows on the ground floor that open directly onto the garden.
There is even a swimming pool in the house, where Igor Kornelyuk loves to swim not only in summer, but also in winter. “I love swimming here on winter mornings. I feel bliss when snow falls on my head. It’s so romantic!” says the composer.
It is worth noting that Igor Kornelyuk has been happily married to his wife Marina for almost 35 years. The couple has an adult son, Anton, he is 33 years old.
Igor Evgenievich Kornelyuk born November 16, 1962 in Brest.His grandfather, Kasyan Grigorievich, owned land in the Brest region. In 1939, when Soviet power came, he gave up his lands and went to work in the depot, thereby avoiding dispossession. Father Evgeny Kasyanovich Kornelyuk worked for railway from 1959 to 1988 as a shunting dispatcher in the western park of the central area of the Brest-Vostochny station. He sang well.
Education
At six years old Igor Kornelyuk started studying at a music school. He studied in Brest in High school No. 4, and on weekends from the age of 12 he played in an ensemble on ionics at dances at the Brest Palace of Culture. After eight classes in September 1977, he entered the Brest Music College in the class of the composer and musician Mark Rusin, who wrote music for the Brest drama theater. In 1978 he moved from Brest to Leningrad to live with relatives.1978-1982 - music school at the Leningrad Conservatory named after N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov graduated with honors and effortlessly entered the conservatory.
1982-1987 - Leningrad Conservatory, composition class.
He got married when he was a student. During his first year of study, his son Anton was born; after the birth of my son I. Kornelyuk earned money by performing songs at weddings.
Creation
As a composer, he was influenced by the work of Queen, jazz, and The Mighty Handful.From 1985 to 1988 Igor Kornelyuk worked as the musical director of the Leningrad Buff Theater and composed music for it.
In 1985, he recorded his first record: the Melodiya company released the EP “A Boy Was Friends with a Girl” performed by Albert Asadullin.
In 1988 Kornelyuk started solo career in the television program “Musical Ring”, for the first time reaches the finals of the “Song of the Year 1988” festival.
Wrote music for the plays: “Trumpeter on the Square” (Leningrad Pushkin Theater 1982), “Tic Tac Toe” (Comedy Theater 1985), an opera for children “Pull-Push, or Aibolit from Zverinskaya Street” (Music Hall 1988), music for the film “Musical Games” (Lenfilm 1988).
His songs were performed by Mikhail Boyarsky - “Walking in Paris”, Anne Veski - “Horoscope”, “Find out”, “I don’t understand what’s wrong with me”, “Monkey”, E. Alexandrov and E. Spiridonova - “Darling”, Edita Piekha - “White Evening”, cabaret duet “Academy” - “I was offended”, Philip Kirkorov - “Sign”, “Let’s make peace”.
In 1990 he starred in the film “Kud-kud-kuda, or Provincial stories with interludes and a divertissement in the finale,” and in 1992 the film “Let Them Talk” was made about his work.
Television[edit | edit wiki text]
In 1999-2001, he hosted the program “Dad, Mom, I am a Sports Family” on the RTR TV channel, and also performed a song from this program. In 2013, the song began to be performed in the “Our Way Out” program. On May 18, 2014, he was a member of the jury in the show “One to One.”
Family
- Kasyan Grigorievich Kornelyuk- grandfather
- Evgeniy Kasyanovich Kornelyuk- father, former shunting dispatcher at the railway (died in 2012)
- Nina Afanasyevna Kornelyuk- mother
- Marina Kornelyuk- wife, musician, director Igor Kornelyuk
- Anton Kornelyuk- (born 1983) - son
Songs
Igor- author of more than 200 popular songs. As a composer and performer, Igor wrote music and performed the following songs:- "Ticket to the Ballet"
- "Let's dance"
- "Come back"
- "The City That Doesn't Exist"
- "City outside the window"
- "Rains"
- "Smoke"
- "Cool"
- "Moon Road"
- “You never know...”
- "Month of May"
- "Cute"
- "It's time to go home"
- "Walking around Paris"
- "I believe"
Discography
CDs with songs Igor Kornelyuk:1988 - “Ticket to the Ballet”
1990 - “Wait”
1993 - “I can’t live like this”
1994 - “My favorite songs” (Collection)
1998 - “Hello, this is Kornelyuk!”
2003 - “Soundtrack for the series “Gangster Petersburg”” (OST)
2010 - “Songs from Cinema” (Collection)
2010 - “Taras Bulba” (OST)
2010 - “The Master and Margarita” (OST)
Composer's filmography
1988 - “Musical Games”1990 - “Kud-kud-kuda, or provincial stories with interludes and divertissement in the finale”
1992 - “Let them talk”
2000 - “Gangster Petersburg”
2003 - “Heaven and Earth”
2003 - “Idiot”
2003 - “Repetition of the past”
2004 - “The Legend of Tampuk”
2005 - “I have the honor”
2005 - “The Master and Margarita”
2006 - “Russian translation”
2007 - “Mika and Alfred”
2009 - “Taras Bulba”
2009 - “Justice of Wolves”
2010 - “If the sky is silent”
2010 - “No. 43”
2012 - “Fan”
Filmography
1998 - Streets of Broken Lanterns - cameo2001 - Secrets of investigation 1 - cameo
Music for theater
1982 - “Trumpeter on the Square” (Leningrad Pushkin Theater)1985 - “Tic Tac Toe” (Comedy Theatre)
1988 - “Pull-Push or Aibolit from Zverinskaya Street”, opera for children (Music Hall)
The composer drinks juice exotic fruit from Tahiti
Igor KORNELYUK has been struggling with overweight. Not a single diet helped the artist: he rapidly lost weight. extra pounds, but dialed them again with lightning speed. On the eve of his 50th anniversary, Igor Evgenievich still found perfect way weight loss. The artist eats meat and drinks it with the juice of an exotic fruit - noni. In this way, Kornelyuk has already lost 18 kilograms.
This year, Igor Kornelyuk celebrates not only his 50th birthday. 25 years ago he first appeared on the professional stage, and 30 years ago he took his beloved woman, Marina, to the registry office. But the meeting with the composer in his country house turned out to be sad. My father, Evgeny Kasyanovich, recently died, and the composer met us in a funeral suit.
“Now I’m probably going through the most difficult period in my life,” shared Igor Evgenievich. - Dad died. This really unsettled me. It seems that he didn’t give his father something, that he didn’t like him somehow. Although I tried to help all the time. Marina and I were not at all ready for this - that day we were touring Germany. Everything happened suddenly: the blood clot came off. We urgently flew to Belarus, where my parents lived, and all concerts were cancelled.
Gave me a car
- Your father didn’t want you to become a musician, did he?
- In Brest, where I was born, the Civil Engineering Institute was considered the best university. Dad often said: “Son, get an education and study music as much as you want.” But I decided to become a musician and left for Leningrad. Then my dad warned me for a long time: “Son, all musicians become drunkards.” When guests arrived, he poured vodka and said: “Drink, son, you’re a musician with us!”
-Have you proven to your father that you made the right choice?
- Dad stood in line for a car for many years. And then that happy day came when in the evening it was necessary to receive the long-awaited Zhiguli. In the morning, dad went to work: he was a dispatcher on the railway. The work is intense: you have to sit in the depot hall and monitor all the train lines. At the same time, our roads and European roads are different in track - it was necessary to change the wheels. All this had to be tracked. He was so worried that he had a stroke that day.
- When he left the hospital, the officials said: “Well, what kind of car do you need now?!” And dad dreamed about her so much. Before that, he drove a Zaporozhets. And I was just invited to Togliatti, where they were making the Zhiguli. I tell the concert organizers: “I beg you, I don’t need money, sell the car.” I brought the car to Brest. I drive up to the house: dad is sitting in the yard peeling potatoes. I say: “I stopped by for an hour. And this is for you." And then dad noticed the car. I never saw my father cry again. Then I remarked: “Agree, the profession of a musician is also not bad.”
-Who was the head of the family?
“Mom was the driving force in the family. I remember when color TV appeared in the house, it was a whole event. Mom insisted on buying. In this sense, dad was more conservative.
Miraculous icon
- There are many icons in the house, do you collect them?
- Our family was believers, and I was baptized in Soviet times. We have always observed fasting. Me too for many years fasted. But this year I went on a diet and came to the priest at the Smolensk Church in St. Petersburg to ask permission. I say: “I can’t eat bread, potatoes, fruits, because I have high sugar due to diabetes.” Father blessed me to go on a diet.
-Which icon is the most precious to you?
- This icon is not in the house, only a copy of it. In 1994, a friend called me and said that there was an icon of St. George the Victorious from the 19th century in excellent condition. I arrived at the store, looked, and on the way out I saw a large icon that said to me: “Take me away from here!” I ask: “How much does it cost?” It turned out that we had exactly this amount at home. On the icon was written: “Saint Anna Kashinskaya.” And the shrine thanked me. Two days later I bought a Mazda car.
- Yes. I was asked to hold a concert for rich people. He sang, sang, sang and made a lot of money. And a couple of days later they offered me this car at half price. I worked concerts in Omsk and gave everything. I had the icon for six years. In 2000, when I learned about Anna Kashinskaya’s monastery, I realized: it shouldn’t hang in my home. After all, in the 1920s she was taken out of the temple. I brought the icon into the monastery and placed it on a pedestal. The nun and the abbess were present, but no one else. And five minutes later there was a line of about a hundred people to venerate the icon. Now it hangs to the right of the altar. I often come to her and pray.
- There are clocks everywhere in the house...
- I love them. They create peace and comfort. A respectable man should have three things: a good watch, expensive shoes and a car.
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Wife is a wise woman
- How did you manage to save the marriage, because usually creative people fickle?
- Thanks to Marina’s wisdom and understanding of life. Families often collapse due to stupidity and ego. Much depends on the woman. Marina had the intelligence and tact to behave correctly at certain moments.
- Did you get married while you were still students?
- We were 20. Legendary chess player Mark Taimanov about Marina and me he said: “The young people loved each other so much that their child was born six months after the wedding.” We got married in June 1982, when I took my final exams at the music school and the entrance exams to the conservatory. In addition, there was the first premiere in my life - the play “Trumpeter on the Square” Kolya Fomenko, for which I wrote the music. With money from her, about 600 rubles, they celebrated the wedding. My parents had no money, and my mother raised Marina alone. I knew that she really wanted a celebration, but I definitely didn’t. One thought was spinning in my head: it would all be over faster.
- Did you sing serenades to your wife?
- Yes, when Anton was born in 1983. I had a concert, and the administrator said: “Who is Kornelyuk here? Your son was born." I went to the buffet, we celebrated, and then with a group of enthusiasts we went to the maternity hospital and staged demonstrations under the windows.
Got fat at 25
- When did you start writing music?
- The first time I composed it was on the basis of rejected love at school. There was such a girl, Lyuba, cute, defenseless. I saw Lyuba just now and didn’t recognize her. It would be better if I didn’t see her, because the image was destroyed.
- Why didn’t they go abroad, like many of our stars?
- Once I came to Los Angeles. There they made me an offer to work in Hollywood. Friends took me to a famous recording studio. They offered to work for $500 a week. But I refused: “In the Soviet Union I am a star, but in yours I am a nobody.”
- You said that when you were writing music for the film “The Idiot”, you dreamed of Dostoevsky. No one else suffers at night?
- Now I’m telling this as an anecdote, but at that moment I was scared: Dostoevsky I dreamed about it every day. I wanted to refuse: “Guys, sorry, it’s not working.” In a movie, you have to get there in seconds: the music has to be precise, and you have to find four notes. And it felt like I dug a subway.
- Do you no longer write music for Plushenko?
- I believe that one cannot step into the same river twice. I wrote the music for Zhenya. His coach Mishin He told me: “Igorechenka, I like everything. But it needs to be shorter by five seconds.” - “How can you cut it off without changing anything?!” - “You will somehow.” I tried to deceive him, it would be faster to make a file. Mishin immediately heard and said: “The crystallineness has disappeared.” And Zhenya shows me in the studio: “Here is a track, then a double axel, and here is a sheepskin coat.” I’m sitting, thinking: it’s going to blow my entire studio away.
- Once upon a time, this was a song competition, that is, the work of the composer and the author of poetry was evaluated first of all. And they sang in the national language. Over the years, this competition has become politicized. I don't like that this has become a real show. When the wind blows, the backup dancers turn out beautiful picture. However, this distracts from the point. I would hold this competition in a village club under Ilyich’s light bulb. And everyone has the same conditions - come out and sing.
- Do you feel your age?
“I am afraid of only one thing in life: that I will be old and helpless.” Because I don’t want to become a burden for my son. Leonid Bronevoy said an amazing phrase at his anniversary: “I don’t know, is longevity a reward or a punishment?” I can’t answer this question yet.
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- Until the age of 25, I was as skinny as a soup set. But dad warned: “Igor, after 25 years you will become large and fat.” And now I’m 25: performing at the Rossiya Concert Hall. Before the concert, I look at myself in the mirror and say to my colleague: “ Isaac Romanovich Shtokbant, am I fat? - “Well, yes, he’s not skinny...”
- I know you’ve tried a lot of diets.
- Whatever I did, whatever I drank to lose weight! I was starving - I ate one apple a week. I lost weight and quickly gained it back. Finally a diet Pierre Dukan suited me perfectly. It is completely protein, without fruit. Chicken, turkey, beef, fish. In the first week you should not eat vegetables. I also drink noni fruit juice. It grows in Tahiti. My blood pressure has stabilized, my stomach is in order... I feel great. My friends don’t believe me when they see me devouring a fatty piece of halibut and losing weight at the same time. I weighed 110, but became 92. I want to lose it so that the first number is not 9. I want it that way, that’s all!
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Igor KORNELYUK |