The
RF Honoured Arts Worker, the holder of the USSR State Prize, the prize-winner
of International Contests, “The Russian Performing Art” Foundation award
winner, Full Professor at the Gnesins Russian Academy of Music.
VITA
Alexey
Muravlev was born on May 4, 1924
in the city of Tbilisi (Georgia).
That same year saw his mother move to Leningrad
together with her son to join Alexey’s father who then worked and lived there.
At the age of 3 his mother and grandmother began teaching him to play the piano
and introduced the boy into Rudiments of Music. Aged 4, he met Alexander.Glazunov,
at that point in time Director of the Leningrad
conservatoire. The latter kindly approved of his study of music predicting
Alexey’s success which was to come in the musical field. In 1932 Alexey Muravlev
entered the Special Group for Gifted Children by the Leningrad conservatoire to be taught the
piano by Associate Professor P.Linde (a pupil of F.Bloomenfeld). 1936 brought
him to the ten-grade Musical
School by the
conservatoire to study with the same teacher. His first instructor in Theory of
Music (out of school) was G.Rimsky-Korsakov, a grandson of the renowned
composer. In 1938 he took up Composing under the guidance of A.Gladkovsky who
taught Harmony at the same school. In 1939 his supervision helped Alexey create
A Romance for a Trio (Pianoforte, Violin and Violoncello) sacred to the memory
of P.Chaykovsky that was accorded wide recognition and has enjoyed public
performance to this day. In 1941, the day before the Great Patriotic War broke
out, A.Muravlev had successfully passed the final exam in Piano Playing. Then,
a week before the Siege of Leningrad began, his family and he had been
evacuated to the Ural Region where he entered two departments of the Sverdlovsk conservatoire:
the Piano Department where he became a student of Professor N.Golubovskaya, and
the Composers Department to study under Professor M.Frolov. In 1942 he was
granted admission to the Composers Union and became the winner of the Second
Prize at the Great Patriotic War Songs Contest for his Guerilla Song for a
Chorus With Accordion. The First Prize was never awarded. In 1944 he was
transferred to the Moscow
conservatoire and entered the Composers Class under Professor V.Shebalin and
the Piano Class under Professor G.Neygauz. In 1947 Alexey Muravlev took part in
the International Youth Festival in Prague
and got the First Prize at the Young Composers Contest for his Pianoforte
Cyclus “Skazy” (“Legendry”). 1949 witnessed his graduating magna cum laude from
the Moscow
conservatoire under Professor Y.Shaporin with a degree in Composition. In 1950
he was awarded the State Prize for his symphonic poem “The Azov-Mountain”
(based on Bazhov’s legendry “That Special Name” from his book “Malachite
Casket”). This musical piece turned out appealing to many famous conductors
like E.Svetlanov, V.Fedoseev, C.Velekhov (Czechoslovakia), L.Stokovsky (USA),
and others. Starting from 1950 A. Muravlev had
actively worked in the field of film music and this activity lasted almost incessantly
till 1992. This period gave birth to the soundtracks for more than 150 films (feature
films, documentaries and popular-science). Here we could name “The White
Poodle”, “The House with the Mezzanine" [“Maison with Attic / An Artist's
Story], “Clouds over Borsk”, “A Wonderful Story, Akin to a
Fairy-Tale” (based on the fairy-tale “The Ugly Duckling” by Andersen), “The
Magic Lamp of Aladdin” (“Aladdin Aur Jadui Chirag”), “Wreck”, “The
Unforgettable” (based on the wartime stories by A.Dovzhenko), “Scorched Birch”,
“Semen Dezhnev”, “Off-Hour”, “The Story of a Merchant’s Daughter and the Mystic
Flower” (based on the fairy-tale “The Scarlet Floweret” by S.Aksakov), two episodes (N4 and N16) from the series
“The Unknown War” and many others. In 1961 Alexey Muravlev became one of the
Cinematographers Union members. Along with film music, he kept on composing
symphonic, chamber and instrumental, and vocal music, never ignoring new fields
like music for folk musical instruments, choral and organ music, expanding his
genre range.
He
began his teaching career in 1967. Till 1971 he worked at Moscow State
Institute of Culture, and starting from 1972 he has been employed at the State
Musical Institute of Education after the Gnesins (currently known as the Gnesins Russian Academy
of Music). Since 1974 he has been teaching a special course of study in
Composition. Over 30 students with a degree in Composition graduated from the
Academy under his guidance. Many of them have become members of the Composers
Union of Russia. Some of them are holders of honorary titles and prize-winners
of various contests. Among them we can name the RF Honoured Arts Worker
V.Pozhidaev, who used to head the folk instruments music workshop at the Moscow
Composers Union for many years; the Regional Prize winner, the holder of the
All-Union and All-Russian Contests awards V.Gruner; the International Contests
honoree N.Makhnovskaya; the All-Russian Contests Prize winner N.Saykovitch.
Some of these people currently live and work abroad: O.Sivova (Germany), Y.Pavolotsky (Israel), V.Serykh (Belarus).
In
2000 the Open International Contest of Creative Teams,
Soloists-Instrumentalists and Composition (Moscow) awarded Alexey Muravlev the
Certificate conferring the title of the First Class Laureate for his Concerto
for a Duetto of Psaltery (Russian gusli) with an Orchestra of Russian Folk
Musical Instruments transcribed for a folk instruments band.
In
2004 he became the winner of “The Russian Performing Art” Foundation award.
In
2005 Alexey Muravlev was decorated with the Order of Honour.
In
2008 at the 7th International Contest “Don Vincenzo Vitti” (Bari, Italy)
his Moon Diptych for a Violoncello and a Pianoforte won him the First Prize.
Currently
Alexey Muravlev still works as Full Professor of the Composition and
Orchestration Department at the Gnesins
Russian Academy
of Music. He also delivers a special course in Composition and teaches at the
Orchestration and Music Reading Class.
