Alexander Gradsky

Alexander Borisovich was born on November 3, 1949 in Kopeisk (Chelyabinsk region) in the family of Boris Abramovich Fradkin (1926-2013) and Tamara Pavlovna Gradskaya (1928-1963). Since 1957, the family has lived in Moscow. His father worked as an engineer at a factory, his mother worked as a literary employee in the Theater Life magazine. After the death of his mother, the future singer took the name Gradsky in memory of her.

In 1967, Alexander Gradsky graduated from a music school with a degree in violin. In 1974 he received a diploma from the State Musical and Pedagogical Institute. Gnesins (now - the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music) with a degree in opera and concert-chamber singer. His teachers were Lyubov Kotelnikova and Nina Verbova. Singing voice - tenor. In 1975-1976 he studied at the Moscow State Conservatory. P. I. Tchaikovsky in the composition class (teacher - People's Artist of the USSR Tikhon Khrennikov).

In 1963, Alexander Gradsky first performed as a soloist, performing several songs as part of the vocal-instrumental ensemble (VIA) "Cockroaches". It consisted of Polish students of Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov.

In 1964, Alexander Gradsky, together with Mikhail Turkov, organized an amateur rock group "Slavs". It existed for two years, the repertoire mainly included English-language compositions.

In 1965-1968, as a soloist and guitarist, he participated in the performances of the VIA "Scythians" and "Los Panchos", in 1970-1971 - the VIA "Merry Fellows".

In 1966, Alexander Gradsky founded the amateur rock group "Skomorokhi", was its soloist and guitarist until 1976. Alexander Buinov (now a singer, People's Artist of the Russian Federation) played keyboards in the first team. The basis of the repertoire was Russian-language songs. In 1971, "Skomorokhi" received several prizes at the All-Union Music Festival "Silver Strings" in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod).

In 1972, Alexander Gradsky recorded the songs "La Gioconda" (lyrics by Tatyana Sashko) and "Once Upon a Time I Was" (lyrics by Semyon Kirsanov), which were included in the debut musical album of composer David Tukhmanov "How beautiful this world is."

In 1973 he released his first solo EP (small record) "Alexander Gradsky Sings". It included four songs - "Spain" (lyrics by Nikolai Aseev), "Buffoons" (lyrics by Valery Sautkin), "Coal Miner's Girlfriend" (lyrics by Robert Burns) and "Blue Forest". The author of the music for all the songs, as well as the text of the latter, was Alexander Gradsky himself.

In 1976, Alexander Gradsky became widely known for his performance of the song "How Young We Were" to the words of Nikolai Dobronravov and the music of Alexandra Pakhmutova.

In the late 1970s, the singer began performing solo concerts, accompanying himself on a 12-string guitar.

In 1988 he performed the role of the Astrologer in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's opera The Golden Cockerel on the stage of the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre.

In total, Alexander Gradsky is the author of more than 200 songs. Many of them were written on their own poems, among the most famous are "Song about a friend", "Song of freedom", "In memory of a poet", "Southern farewell", "Anti-perestroika blues".

Throughout his career, Alexander Gradsky has released several dozen music albums. Some of them are vocal suites (1980 - "Russian Songs"; 1987 - "Satires" to the verses of Sasha Cherny; 1988 - "Nostalgia" to the verses of Vladimir Nabokov).

Honored Artist of the Russian Federation (1997). People's Artist of Russia (1999).

He was awarded the State Prize of the Russian Federation in the field of literature and art in 1998 (for the concert program "Three Hours of Live Music").

Laureate of the international pop song festival "Bratislava Lira" (Czechoslovakia, 1976).