Valery Khalilov: “Everyone goes his own way to God... Valery Khalilov: “A brass band simply cannot play bad music!”

Born into the family of a military conductor on January 30, 1952 in the city of Termez. At the age of 4 he began composing music. From the age of 11 he was a student of the military music school in Moscow. 1970 - 1975 - military conducting department at the Moscow State Conservatory. P. I. Tchaikovsky (class of Professor G. P. Alyavdin).

First place of service - conductor of the Pushkinsky Orchestra higher school radio electronics of the country's air defense.

At the competition of military bands of the Leningrad Military District, the orchestra under the direction of Valery Khalilov took first place (1980).

In 1981 he was transferred as a teacher to the military conducting department (Moscow).

In 1984 he was transferred to the management body of the military band service of the USSR Armed Forces.

Since 2002 - head of the military band service Russian Federation.

Valery Khalilov is the organizer of many festive theatrical events held in Moscow and beyond, in which both Russian military brass bands and groups from many countries around the world take part. Among these spectacular event It should be noted that international military music festivals“Kremlin Zorya”, “Spasskaya Tower”.

He toured with the leading orchestras of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Austria, Sweden, the USA, Hungary, Germany, North Korea, Mongolia, Poland, Finland, France, Switzerland, Belgium.

Valery Khalilov - wonderful composer. He has written wonderful works for brass band: “Adagio”, “Elegy”, marches - “Cadet”, “Youth”, “Rynda”, “Ulan”, romances and songs.

Brother of Lieutenant General V.M. Khalilova - senior lecturer at the Military Institute (military conductors) of the Military University, Honored Artist of Russia (1997), Colonel Khalilov Alexander Mikhailovich (author of music for famous song“We are leaving the East” VIA “Cascade” and for some time the leader of this group), and his nephew is a graduate (2011) of the military institute (military conductors) of the Military University Khalilov Mikhail Aleksandrovich.

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. Full text read in the upcoming issues of the 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, that's impossible. I have highly professional assistants, fellow conductors, who ensure that each group is clean and orderly and accurately conveys my signals.

- Probably colossal tension?

Rather, excitement, concentration and great composure, responsibility. Each such event is preceded by enormous preparation. You prepare for a long time, rehearse, but the event itself passes quickly. There remains a feeling of accomplishment. Or unfulfilled - something didn’t work out, I would like to do better...

- What distinguishes a military conductor from his civilian colleagues?

The profession of a conductor requires, in addition to musical talent, strong leadership qualities and communication skills. Not every talented musician can become a military musician. This requires a whole complex special qualities. Our main work is not in warm and comfortable concert halls, but on the parade ground, in camps, in formations on the streets and squares, in the wind and under the scorching sun, in the rain and in the cold. And therefore, excellent health and physical training are also required (to which considerable attention is paid during the period of study). In addition, a military conductor needs an extraordinary gift as 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, there is the romance of the military profession. Here, with such a peaceful activity as music, you feel like a real man. After all, we are brought up according to the laws of the army - according to the regulations, in drill training. Since Suvorov's time, we musicians have been opening parades. I don’t remember being taught shooting, but as far as drill training, social etiquette and military politeness, and most importantly, a sense of responsibility are concerned, this was always 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 being 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, a brass player is a dangerous profession: lips and breath are very vulnerable.

Not everyone can make serious music. This is hard work that requires constant development. And yet, many people go to listen to Tchaikovsky’s symphony or Rachmaninov’s concerto. Our concerts are philharmonic in nature; we perform popular, but also academic and 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 formation. And a few years later I no longer know how to fight off constant offers to perform. The genre of brass music is environmentally friendly pure genre, and more and more people are drawn to him.

- 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, underwent his first professional training at the Tashkent School of Military Musicians.

Dad played the trumpet as a child, and he liked it very much. capable boy They advised him to go there, and he immediately enrolled. It was rare and very good school, many famous military musicians started their careers there professional education. Then he studied at the Faculty of Military Conducting in Moscow; upon graduation, dad was offered an orchestra in Germany, but he did not want to go to an unfamiliar country and asked to join Central Asia, whom he already knew well.

I was taken away from Termez very young, and another city remained in my memory - Dzhambul in Kazakhstan. In the summer it was incredibly hot there, and we boys ran around the city barefoot. There were ditches all around - canals for irrigating fields. The water in them was so clean that there were fish there. We with bare hands They caught minnows and fried them right on the hot roofs. Not because we were hungry - it was just interesting to take such prey ourselves practically 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 began already then.

And when the father was demobilized due to illness, the family returned to Moscow, to the mother’s homeland. Here I entered music school No. 7 named after Glier on Yakimanka. When I entered the fifth grade, I entered the Moscow Military Music School in Trinity-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 moved to Teply Stan. I think this is a big loss: Trinity-Lykovo - unique place. This not only fosters patriotism, but the environment itself contributes to the special formation of personality. I am lucky that I had the opportunity to study there. It’s especially sad that when our school left there, nothing was built there.

Unfortunately, the schools themselves for music students have been lost: in my father’s time there were eighteen of them in the country, but only one remains - which I graduated from. They taught us well, but with strict discipline. We lived in a barracks situation. For minor offenses and bad marks, they did not give a leave of absence, and on many days off I, instead of partying and relaxing, 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 - virtually individual training, especially in musical subjects.

We were taught not only professions, they cared about our horizons and a broad education. We knew perfectly well German which we were taught at top level– I spoke completely freely. We were trained general culture, rules of behavior in society, good manners, ballroom dancing. They taught us everyday culture, in general, they trained us to be real officers. After all, an officer is not only a defender of the Motherland - he is the face of the army, he must have authority and be an example. The conductor of a military orchestra educates not only his orchestra members, but through them the entire personnel and all listeners.

- Well, what about love, girls? Are there really no romance novels?

Imagine, we only started looking at girls in high school. After all, we were in a barracks situation: seven years of barracks at school, then three out of five years of studying at the military conducting department at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory - also actually in the barracks.

Something changed only when I, already a fourth-year student at the conservatory, met my future wife.

- How did you meet, love at first sight?

We met her sister on vacation. Then I was invited to the house of new acquaintances, and there was a piano there. Naturally, I sat down with him. The piano is a sensual instrument, so I immediately captivated everyone. Of course: not just a cadet - how he plays! However, I also made an impression as a cadet. Everyone was asking about the 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 similar: smell gunpowder, feel like a real defender. And I started talking about these topics, opened up about my own feelings - the girls’ eyes became round, their mouths opened... Then everyone left for school, but a correspondence with memories began. And when the sisters came to Moscow for the student winter holidays, we went to museums, theaters, and concerts together. This is where the interest in each other appeared. In 1974 they got married in Kyiv.

- How did your career develop after studying?

After graduating from the conservatory, I was already in lieutenant's uniform and assigned to the city of Pushkin, Leningrad Region, to lead 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 is it really necessary to have two or more? I was lucky right away: the woman has been living with me for so many years, she didn’t leave me either because of my long hours of service or because complex nature. I'm capricious and demanding. You bring all your problems home from work, but your wife listens patiently and takes on all your emotions. And the whole house, children, grandchildren - everyone is on it, and we are on everything ready. Natasha also worked in her specialty. Even during my first service in Pushkin, she found a place in the department at the local civil engineering institute.

-Are you involved in raising your grandchildren?

Literally from the cradle I take them to my concerts; from the age of three or four they listen attentively Symphony Orchestra. They like it. Even if they fidget and get distracted, this music secretly penetrates them, harmonizes them, and builds their personality.

- 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 military orchestral service of the Moscow Military Commission. His son, my nephew, is also a graduate of the Military Conservatory. But I have girls. However, young grandchildren and even granddaughters, almost from the cradle, love to walk in formation and conduct - “like a grandfather”...

On Saturday, the bright holiday of the old New Year, a funeral service was held in the Moscow Epiphany Church for military conductor Valery Khalilov, who led the ensemble named after. Alexandrova. Hundreds of people came to say goodbye to the musician - school classmates, students and fans.

Valery Khalilov was a very talented composer. “He was a man of the highest dignity,- The assistant professor at the Academy named after him spoke quietly. Gnesinykh Sergey Reshetov. “After all, it’s always clear from a person’s music what he is like. And in Valera’s music his nobility, his honor, his sublimity were visible. He was a real military conductor - always fit, slender, up to last days I did sports". “They say that there are no irreplaceable people,” added Sergei Reshetov after a pause. - But in the case of Valera, this is too great a loss. I still can’t believe that he’s gone. 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.

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 it 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 have right now younger brother military conductor. And the current military conductor's nephew, a lieutenant, serves as a sailor in Sevastopol. That is, I have male line dynastic family, 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 mentality: getting up, going out, exercising, physical exercise. 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. 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 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 the most 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 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 comes a typical city person to a concert: merged with the city, unable to imagine his life without hot water and the 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.

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? On 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.

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 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 MILITARY MUSICIANS OF RUSSIA

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 musical education and have passed certification in physical training. But our army trains its own musicians. First secondary education - 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.

VIDEO SHOWS WITH VALERY KHALILOV

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 band service of the Ministry of Defense, and I was appointed commandant of the Moscow Kremlin. And since then we have interacted very closely: during the preparation of 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 at the origins of this festival, which today is called “Spasskaya Tower”, stood Valery Mikhailovich.

Can you remember your last 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 Old New Year they planned to congratulate him, as well as the director of the festival, on the government award. 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 go out to his wife and his entire family - he has a big, friendly family.

I want to say that everyone who knew him, when the news of the tragedy came, first hoped for something. Then there was shock, grief... My phone was literally blowing up: many knew that we not only worked with him, but were also friends. People close to us died on this plane, including Anton Nikolaevich Gubankov, head of the cultural department of the Ministry of Defense. Of course, no one will remain aloof from this grief. And the Spasskaya Tower festival will not remain; we will help our family and friends to somehow withstand this blow. We sympathize with everyone, all those who died.

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

Sergey Dmitrievich, now on tapes and in the broadcast is on operational information, many inaccuracies. Valery Khalilov is usually called the chief conductor of the Ministry of Defense. But since the spring of this year, he has headed the legendary ensemble named after Alexandrov. Probably, not everyone remembers that Mireille Mathieu discovered precisely this group 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. He persuaded us to perform together. It was Mireille Mathieu.

Sergei Khlebnikov: Recently I was in France on festival business. There they remembered this story with Alexandrov’s 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 repeated more than once 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, a symbiosis occurs between me and the orchestra members.” Have you called Mireille Mathieu? Does she already know about the tragedy?

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

There is a website for the Spasskaya Tower. In fact, there is virtual museum festival Is there any idea to devote a separate section to Khalilov? He, of course, often got into the lenses, but photographs prevail when Valery Mikhailovich is in full parade, with a conductor’s baton. It would be great to see pictures of this amazing person in an informal setting.

Sergei Khlebnikov: I'll tell the management. Now let’s recover a little from the shock and do it. Good, correct proposal. I’m also going through his photographs in my archive. He smiles at many...

Direct speech

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

Getting ready for the end of the year special issue"RG-Weeks", in which famous people talk about the Christmas trees of their childhood. One of our interlocutors was a lieutenant general, a military conductor of Russia. He, as always, was friendly and correct in conversation, never complained about lack of time - and this despite his enormous busyness. Open to communication: whenever we called him, he was always like that. And today these words - alas - can be considered his last Happy New Year greetings:

As a child, gifts were placed not under the tree, but under the pillow. But every evening on December 31st I went to bed impatient, and every morning on January 1st, putting my hand under the pillow, I pulled out a gray paper bag with cookies, sweets and tangerines. We weren’t particularly spoiled then, my parents had no choice, but from then on the tangerine smell was closely associated with the New Year tree.

Prepared by Susanna Alperina, Andrey Vasyanin

On board the TU-154 that crashed today was Valery Khalilov, Russia's chief military conductor, head of the ensemble - 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. 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 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.

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! Each 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.

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.

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, National 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 1st place in the competition of military bands 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 of the Russian Federation - 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 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.