Aleksandra Pakhmutova

Composer Alexandra N. Pakhmutova was born on November 9, 1929 near Stalingrad (now Volgograd), the Soviet Union. She began playing the piano and composing music at an early age. Although WW2 interrupted her studies, Pakhmutova moved to Moscow, where she was admitted to the Moscow Conservatoire's central musical school - the educational establishment which gave the world such renowned musicians as Rostropovich, Kogan, Rozhdestvensky, and many others.

In 1953, Alexandra Pakhmutova graduated from the Moscow Conservatoire, and in 1956 she finished the post-graduate course led by the outstanding composer Vissarion Shebalin. 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. She has received several Government Awards and State Prizes and was the Secretary of the USSR and Russian Unions of Composers for a long time.