Alexey Lvovich Rybnikov (; born July 17, 1945) is a modern Russian

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

. He is the author of music for Soviet and Russian musicals (

rock opera A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...

s) '' The Star and Death of Joaquin Murieta'' (, 1976) and '' Juno and Avos'' (, 1981, shown more than 700 times), for numerous plays and operas, for more than 80 Russian movies. More than 10 million discs with his music have been sold to 1989.

Biography

Alexey Rybnikov was born in Moscow on July 17, 1945. In 1962 he graduated from the Central Music School at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1967 he graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow Conservatory in the composition class of

Aram Khachaturian Aram Ilyich Khachaturian (; 1 May 1978) was a Soviet Armenians, Armenian composer and conductor. He is considered one of the leading Music of the Soviet Union#Classical music of the Soviet Union, Soviet composers. Khachaturian was born and rai ...

. Alexey composed one of his first works, "The Thief of Baghdad", being influenced by a very popular at those times trophy film under the same name. In 1969 Rybnikov was admitted to the

Union of Soviet Composers The Union of Russian Composers (formerly the Union of Soviet Composers, Order of Lenin Union of Composers of USSR () (1932– ), and Union of Soviet Composers of the USSR) is a state-created organization for musicians and musicologists created in 1 ...

. In 1999, by decree of the Moscow Government, the Alexey Rybnikov Theater was established under the Moscow Committee for Culture. In 2005 Alexey Rybnikov celebrated his 60th Anniversary by a special concert conducted by Mark Gorenstein at Chaikovsky Concert Hall. Years 2005-2008 were marked by presentations of Children Musicals composed by Alexey Rybnikov. The entire life of Alexey Rybnikov is associated with music. But music is not the only field of activity — he has been contributing to some public projects. Rybnikov is a President of the National Festival “The Musical Heart of the Theatre” and Russian Family Festival “Our Buratino”. Rybnikov is a member of the

United Russia The All-Russian Political Party United Russia (, ) is the Ruling party, ruling List of political parties in Russia, political party of Russia. As the largest party in the Russian Federation, it holds 325 (or 72.22%) of the 450 seats in the St ...

party; in 2022, he supported the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

Movie soundtracks

Since 1965 Alexey has already started composing movie music. Since 1979 Rybnikov has been a member of the Union of Cinematographers. Working over the past four decades in cinematograph Rybnikov has written music for more than 100 films. Despite the huge total number of the movie works, some of them have become important milestones in Rybnikov's creative work. Among them there are soundtracks to such movies as: * ''The Treasure Island'' (1971) by director Eugene Fridman; * '' A Great Space Voyage'' (1975) by director Valentin Selivanov; * '' The Adventures of Buratino'' (1975) and “About the Little Red Riding Hood. The Continuation of the Old Fairy Tale” (1977) by director Leonid Nechaev. After showing of the movie about Buratino, a musical album was released. No sooner had the records gone on sale as they were bought in a moment. A million of vinyl discs were sold out for just a year. * '' Mustached Nanny'' (1977) by director Vladimir Grammatikov * '' Per Aspera Ad Astra (film)'' (1981) by director Richard Viktorov * '' You couldn’t dream of…'' (1981) by director Ilya Frez; * ''

The Very Same Munchhausen ''The Very Same Munchhausen'' (, alt. translation - ''That Very Münchhausen'') is a 1980 Soviet fantasy comedy-drama television film directed by Mark Zakharov, based on a script by Grigoriy Gorin. The film relays the story of the baron's li ...

'' (1981) by Mark Zakharov; * '' Chance'' (1984) by Aleksandr Mayorov; * ''Hello, can you hear us?'' (1990) — is a picture by a Latvian director-documentalist Yuri Podnieks. It produced an effect of an exploded bomb with its straightness and the truth about the modern world. The film won the Golden Lion at the festival in Venice in 1991; * ''Children from the Abyss'' (2000) by director Pavel Chukhray. * ''Star'' by director Nikolai Lebedev is the movie that brought to the composer all possible home awards for music in cinema and also the National Prize of the Russian Federation. * ''Andersen'' by Eldar Ryazanov * ''Rabbit Over the Abyss'' by Tigran Keosayan * TV series ''The Case of the Dead Souls'' by Pavel Loungin * ''Wolfhound'' (2006) by Lebedev * ''1612'' by Vladimir Khotinenko and others.

Rock-operas

Rock-opera “The Star and Death of Joaquin Murieta” with the libretto by Pavel Grushko, telling a story about life, struggle, and death of the legendary Chilean hero became the composition that opened a new — theatrical era in Rybnikov's life. “The Star” rose on Lenkom's stage in 1976. Its director was Mark Zakharov, who had offered this project to Rybnikov. On one hand, musical innovation, strength and conviction of the young composer, his subtle perception of alien melodic culture, and bringing the world of rock-music with its hard rhythms to the home drama (!) stage provoked a prolonged reject from censors (the performance had been banned 11 times for political reasons; finally it was released). Originally, the musical sphere was closely connected with the texts from the Orthodox Prayer Book and Psalms. Rybnikov's third musical-scenic composition — “The Liturgy of the Heathens” was created during almost ten years.

Orchestral works

* Fifth Symphony — “The Resurrection of the Dead”. It premiered in spring of 2005. * Concerto grosso for soloists and chamber orchestra — “L’Oiseau bleu” and “The Northern Sphinx”, both recorded and performed by famous musicians. The first piece was written under the impression of the plays by Maeterlinck — “L’Oiseau Bleu” and “Les Fiancailles”, and became a musical embodiment of images, turned the classic drama of the beginning of the 20th century. And the second — “The Northern Sphinx” is dedicated to the personality of the Russian Emperor — Alexander the First. The historical context of the period of his rein — the beginning of the 19th century defined the musical style of composer's work.

Theater performances and operas

The year 2013 is marked by the work on the stage version of the "Live Pictures of the time of Alexander I and Napoleon Bonapart" getting the new shorter name - modern opera "War and Peace".

Awards

* Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1989) *

People's Artist of Russia People's Artist of the Russian Federation (, ''Narodnyy artist Rossiyskoy Federatsii''), also sometimes translated as National Artist of the Russian Federation, is an honorary and the highest title awarded to citizens of the Russian Federation ...

(1999) *

State Prize of the Russian Federation The State Prize of the Russian Federation, officially translated in Russia as Russian Federation National Award, is a state honorary prize established in 1992 following the breakup of the Soviet Union. In 2004 the rules for selection of laureates ...

(2002) *

Order of Holy Prince Daniel of Moscow The Order of Holy Prince Daniel of Moscow () is an award of the Russian Orthodox Church, established in 1988. There are three classes. History The Order was created by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Pimen I, and the Holy Synod of 28 ...

(2005) *

Order of Friendship The Order of Friendship (, ') is a state decoration of the Russian Federation established by Boris Yeltsin by presidential decree 442 of 2 March 1994 to reward Russian and foreign nationals whose work, deeds and efforts have been aimed at ...

(2006) * Russian Prize "Triumph" for the Encouragement of the highest achievements of Literature and Art (2007) * Order of Honour (2010) * Honorary prize "For his Contribution to the Development of Science, Culture and Art" by the Russian Authors' Society (2010) *

Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" The Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" () is a state decoration of the Russian Federation. It was instituted on 2 March 1994 by Presidential Decree 442. Until the re-establishment of the Order of St. Andrew in 1998, it was the highest order of ...

, IV degree (2016) *

Order "For Merit in Culture and Art" The Order "For Merit in Culture and Art" () is a state award of the Russian Federation, established by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the e ...

(2022) Nika (2003), Golden Aries,

Golden Eagle The golden eagle (''Aquila chrysaetos'') is a bird of prey living in the Northern Hemisphere. It is the most widely distributed species of eagle. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family Accipitridae. They are one of the best-known bird of pr ...

(2003), and

Kinotavr Kinotavr (), also known as the Sochi Open Russian Film Festival was an open film festival held in the resort city of Sochi, Russia annually in June since 1991, until it was cancelled in the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

References

External links

Official website of Alexey Rybnikov

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rybnikov, Alexey 1945 births Living people Composers from Moscow Russian rock musicians Russian film score composers Soviet film score composers Academicians of the National Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences of Russia Recipients of the Order of Honour (Russia) Recipients of the Nika Award People's Artists of Russia Russian male film score composers 20th-century Russian male musicians Male musical theatre composers 21st-century Russian male musicians