Aleksandra ("Alya") Pakhmutova. Famous Russian-Women: Aleksandra Pakhmutova, a composer that makes stars. Aleksandra Pakhmutova, a Soviet and Russian composer, author of over 400 songs
Great Russian women
Russian singers and composers: |Alla Bayanova ||Nadezhda Obukhova || Anna Netrebko|| Pelageya|| Zemfira|| Lyudmila Zykina|| Galina Vishnevskaya|| Maiya Crystalinskaya|| Aida Vedishcheva|| Alla Pugacheva|| Nadezhda Plevitskaya||
Aleksandra "Alya" Nikolayevna Pakhmutova has remained one of the best known figures in Soviet and later Russian popular music since she first achieved fame in her homeland in the 1960s.
Aleksandra Pakhmutova was born on November 9, 1929 near Stalingrad (now Volgograd), the Soviet Union. The Great Patriotic War, started in June, 1941, interrupted her studying in Stalingrad music school. Despite all the difficulties of the war time, in 1943 Pakhmutova went to Moscow and entered central music school by Moscow state music conservatory. This world-famous school graduated many outstanding masters of music art.
Upon graduating from music school in 1948 Pakhmutova entered Moscow state music conservatory, where she studied by an outstanding composer and unique pedagogue Professor Shebalin Vissarion.
Alexandra Pakhmutova has devoted her professional career to different genres. She has composed pieces for the symphony orchestra (The Russian Suite, the concerto for the trumpet and the orchestra, the Youth Overture, the concerto for the orchestra); the ballet Illumination; music for children (cantatas, a series of choir pieces, and numerous songs); as well as music for different movies. The above list of Pakhmutova's works comprises only the repertoire compositions which are performed most often.
Songs hold a special place in Alexandra Pakhmutova's creative work. Their total number is more than four hundred, including such widely-popular songs as "The Melody"," Tenderness", "Hope", "The Old Maple Tree", "The Song of the Perturbed Youth", a series of the Gagarin Constellation, and "Good-Bye Moscow" (the farewell tune of the Games of the 22nd Olympiad in Moscow, 1980). Alexandra Pakhmutova's name is known to the broad public and deeply respected by the listeners. Her art became an imprescriptible part of the Soviet and Russian history.
Pakhmutova's creative work is of special, one can say unique, significance in song genre. The composer portrays high humanistic themes in her songs. Pakhmutova has her individual intonation, which has a great impact on her listeners. In her songs there is such melodic zest, which, like Evgeniy Svatlanov noted, "immediately affects your heart and stays in your mind for a long time".
A.N.Pakhmutova is People's Artist of USSR (1984), prize winner of Leninskiy Komsomol Prize (1967), Hero of Socialistic Labour (1990). Pakhmutova lives and works in Moscow.
