Nomination “Young Soloist” (1st age category). Voice of Asia

From a soloist of one of the most famous theaters in Russia to a street performer. Andrey Shavel calls this creative destiny brilliant. He, having left the huge halls, moved to the square among passers-by and believes that he is now fully realized. Moreover, now he has a faithful friend - the cheerful and charming Petrushka.

Because of his tiny screen, he does not see those who laugh at his jokes and applaud his funny remarks. For a quarter of a century now, Andrei Shavel has seen only the sky above his head. Sunny, cloudy, with rain or snow. The weather is not always kind to a street performer. And casual viewers cannot even imagine that today’s Petrushka is a former soloist of the ballet of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Musical Theater. Dozens of leading parties, full halls, enthusiastic fans. However, the parsley grower Shavel does not envy the dancer Shavel at all.

“I don’t work, I serve, like a priest, so I am with him. We play a performance, we like it - they throw it into the jar, but if not, it means they don’t throw it, it means they played poorly!” - says the head of the Petrushka Theater Andrei Shavel.

Three wives ago, could I have imagined that I would become Petrushka - Andrei Shavel likes to joke. However, it was his fourth wife, theater artist Valentina Smirnova, who gave Andrey his first doll - Carlson, who today lives at home, modestly hiding behind the owner’s leg. Carlson does not argue with the impudent Petrushka - he has no right. After all, the famous hooligan with a red nose is already two thousand years old, and his brothers - Punch, Pulcinello, Kashpar, Karagez live all over the world. Having decided to create the Petrushka Theater, Andrei and Valentina literally rummaged through the storerooms of many museums. And finally, they found and made a copy of the real Petrushka of the 19th century and his constant companions - Katka’s friend, the Corporal and the gypsy.

“For example, I sculpt Katka. Then I get on the subway, I look - Katka has entered the carriage, I sculpt the Corporal, I look - some policeman has entered - well, it’s exactly a copy of the one I just sculpted!” - says theater artist Valentina Smirnova.

Having built a unique barrel organ, after perestroika they went out into the city park for the first time. And it turned out that the eternal characters of street booths, for whom one could go to prison in the Soviet Union, suddenly became the favorites of the modern public. Including four-legged ones. Dogs still respond to Parsley's squeaky voice. And here is the secret tool for transforming an actor’s voice into Petrushka’s speech - a peep. To squeak, Andrey had to roll out a silver spoon and make two records.

Not everyone can master a pika. Just like becoming a parsley plant. All over the world this is a special caste of puppeteers - wise men and pranksters.

Andrei Shavel admits that, at eighty, he can no longer understand where Petrushka’s personality ends and his own begins. It’s not surprising, say professionals, that this is the only doll that, once it binds you, binds you forever.

The family and children of the deceased first soloist of “Tender May” will receive assistance. Early this morning, Yuri Gurov, who had been performing in the legendary Soviet group since its founding, died in a traffic accident.

The producer of “Tender May” Andrei Razin reported about the tragedy. The car the ex-singer was in flew under a KamAZ truck as a result of a head-on collision. Gurov's friend was driving the car. on the highway in the Krasnogvardeysky district in the Stavropol region, not far from the singer’s home.

Andrey Razin: “Yuri Gurov fell to his death. He was the first main soloist of the group “Tender May”. The car flew under a KamAZ truck and a head-on collision occurred. Yura was not driving. It was not he who drove the car, but his friend, a resident of the village of Krasnogvardeyskoye.”

Razin said that the ex-star of “Tender May” Yuri Shatunov had already learned about the tragedy. During the heyday of the group, it was he who promoted Gurov and became the lead singer himself.

Andrey Razin: “Yura Shatunov called from Germany, he expresses his condolences to all of us and the family, he is shocked by what happened, like all of us. This is a terrible loss."

The group's producer told reporters about the evil fate that haunts the members of Tender May. Before Yuri Gurov, vocalist Yuri Barabash, bass guitarist Vyacheslav Ponomarev, and as many as three keyboard players Mikhail Sukhomlinov, Alexey Burda and Arvid Yurgaitis died under different circumstances.

It is worth noting that Yuri Gurov, having given way to Yuri Shatunov, also began working as a keyboard player in the group. In addition, the tragedy happened just on the eve of the anniversary of “Tender May”.

Andrey Razin: “On the eve of the group’s 25th anniversary, this tragedy occurred. This is already the fifth person who died in the team of nine members of the original group. This terrible grief has befallen us; we are all in deep shock. He was one of the best soloists and the most respected. The loss is irreparable."

Another coincidence is that Yuri Gurov has already had an accident. And the car he was in at the time was also run over by a KamAZ truck. Three people died, but Gurov miraculously remained unscathed. The truck driver was sentenced to 7 years, RIA Novosti reports.

The group “Tender May” literally made a musical revolution in the USSR in the late 80s and early 90s, the group gave thousands of concerts, attracting packed stadiums. In 1990, Tender May had 16 million fans. The team broke up in 1992. Yuri Gurov then almost immediately left Moscow for his native village.

Andrey Razin: “After the collapse of the group, he did not stay in Moscow; in 1993 he returned home and stayed with his mother in the village of Privolnoye, where he had two daughters. One is now two years old, the second is about 15 years old.”

Until today, the very first soloist of the “Tender May” group, Yuri Gurov, lived and did business in the village of Privolnoye. According to Andrei Razin, in the near future fans of the group will be able to find out the time of the funeral and the place of farewell to the artist.

AT THE VERY END OF THE 1980'S, IN "CHRISTMAS MEETINGS" ALLA PUGACHEVA SHOWED THE GROUP "A-STUDIO", WHICH LEADED TO THE GROWTH OF THE POPULARITY OF THE TEAM. IN THE PHOTO: SINGER ALLA PUGACHEVA (CENTER) AND SINGERS - PARTICIPANTS OF “CHRISTMAS MEETINGS” (LEFT TO RIGHT): BATYKHAN SHUKENOV, SERGEY CHELOBANOV (STANDING), KRISTINA ORBAKAYTE (SITTING IN THE CENTER), TATYANA BULANOVA, EKATERINA SEMENOVA ( SIT), VLADIMIR KUZMIN

IN THE 1990s, “A-STUDIO” WAS NEEDED BY EVERYONE - BOTH THE VIEWERS, TELEVISION, AND COLLEAGUES IN THE THEATER THE SONGS OF ALLA PUGACHEVA, WITH WHICH THEY OFTEN RECORDED. IN THE PHOTO (LEFT TO RIGHT): BATYRKHAN SHUKENOV, ALLA PUGACHEVA, VLADIMIR PRESNYAKOV

KAZAKH MUSICIAN BATYKHAN SHUKENOV DIED IN MOSCOW ON APRIL 28. “IT IS A REALLY GIANT LOSS. AS A CHILD, I WAS IN LOVE WITH THIS INCREDIBLE VOICE. I AM ENDLESSLY LUCKY TO PERFORM A SONG WITH BATYR. I CAN’T BELIEVE IT,” WRITTEN SINGER AND ACTRESS ANASTASIA ZADOROZHNAYA

AFTER LEAVING “A-STUDIO” IN 2000, BATYKHAN SHUKENOV FIRST RECORDED AN ALBUM OF KAZAKH SONGS. IN FACT, HE BECAME THE FACE OF MODERN KAZAKH MUSIC, AND BY 2007, HE HAS GROWED TO THE POST OF CULTURAL ADVISER TO THE PRESIDENT OF KAZAKHSTAN NURSULTAN NAZARBAYEV

BATYRKHAN SHUKENOV RELEASED ALBUMS IN RUSSIA AND KAZAKHSTAN, BUT IN HIS SOLO CAREER NEVER HAPPENED A BIG HIT THAT WOULD PROVE TO EVERYONE THAT HE IS NOT JUST “THAT GUY FROM “A-STUDIO.” BATYRKHAN SHUKENOV OFTEN JOINED WITH HIS COLLEAGUES AT ANNIVERSARY CONCERTS AND OTHER IMPORTANT EVENTS, BUT NEVER RETURNED TO THE GROUP ON A PERMANENT BASIS

THE ARTIST'S RELATIVES NOTED THAT BATYKHAN SHUKENOV HAS LATELY COMPLAINED ABOUT HEALTH. PROBLEMS COULD ARISE DUE TO A BUSY WORK SCHEDULE: THE MUSICIAN WAS A PARTICIPANT IN THE “ONE TO ONE” PROJECT, WHERE HE SUCCESSFULLY CAMERA INTO THE IMAGES OF YURI ANTONOV, LEONID AGUTIN, LIZ MITCHELL FROM BONEY M, VLADIMIR KUZMI ON, CESARIA EVORA

April 28 in his Moscow apartment Batyrkhan Shukenov. According to preliminary data, the cause of death of the singer and composer was a heart attack.

Batyrkhan Shukenov did not live three weeks before his 53rd birthday. He was born on May 18, 1962 in the Kazakh SSR, in the city of Kzyl-Orda, into a family of economists.

As Batyrkhan Shukenov ironically noted in one of his last interviews, the parents “knew mathematics and numbers very accurately, managed money correctly, but for some reason they didn’t really teach this to their children.”

Batyrkhan became interested in music very early, attended a club, and after graduating from school he entered the Leningrad State Institute of Culture named after Krupskaya. After two years of studying at this university, Shukenov transferred to the Alma-Ata Conservatory named after Kurmangazy Sagyrbaev, where he studied saxophone.

Jazz and accompaniment

Batyrkhan Shukenov began as a student, in 1982, as a saxophonist, joining the Arai group, which accompanied the famous Kazakh band singer Roza Rymbaeva.

In their free time from collaborating with Rymbaeva, the Arai group performed jazz compositions, becoming a laureate of the All-Union Festival in 1983. Experts during this period noted Shukenov as a brilliant master of alto and tenor saxophone.

By 1987, the Arai group decided to focus on their own creativity. The group changes its name to “Alma-Ata” and in 1988 releases its first album “The Path Without Stops” on the Melodiya company.

The musicians continue to search for their original style. The frontman of the group is Batyrkhan Shukenov, who has shown himself not only to be a brilliant saxophonist, but also a wonderful vocal performer.

A ticket to life from Pugacheva

The year 1989 became a turning point for the group, which is now called “Alma-Ata Studio”. The musicians release their first and still one of the most famous hits - “Julia”. The most important person in local show business draws attention to the young Kazakh group - Alla Pugacheva, which invites musicians to perform at “Christmas meetings.” At this moment, the final name of the group is determined - “A-Studio”.

The performance at the “Christmas Meetings” makes the group and its frontman famous throughout the Soviet Union. As for Kazakhstan and Central Asia, here “A-Studio” is becoming almost a cult group, whose work is closely followed, and its frontman is literally idolized.

Care for domestic reasons

After the rise of 1989, Batyrkhan Shukenov remained the frontman of A-Studio for another 11 years. His departure from the group in 2000 came as a surprise to fans. The musician himself explained that he was pushed to such a decision not by creative, but by everyday reasons. At the same time, Shukenov always emphasized that he maintained normal relations with A-Studio.

The musician’s solo career, which began with the release of the Kazakh-language album “Otan Ana” (“Motherland”) in 2002, was not easy. Shukenov continued to be perceived as the frontman of A-Studio, while he himself tried to prove that his creative potential was much broader. To do this, he was ready to undertake the most unexpected musical experiments.

“A great artist suffering from a weak repertoire”

Critics, however, perceived Batyrkhan Shukenov’s solo work rather coolly. The description given by one of them - “a great artist suffering from a weak repertoire” - hung over Shuken’s sword of Damocles.

In Kazakhstan, Batyrkhan Shukenov remained a popular and influential figure. In 2007 he was appointed advisor President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev in culture, in 2009 he became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in Kazakhstan.

There were also changes in the singer’s personal life - in 2008 he got married.

Shukenov did not give up trying to “reboot” his musical career. In 2013, he became a participant in the music show “Live Sound” on the Rossiya channel and won.

“Competitions are very stressful for me”

In 2015, Batyrkhan Shukenov decided on another creative experiment and became a participant in the TV show “One to One.” Here he shocked the audience and the jury with his fantastically successful transformations into Luciano Pavarotti, Leonid Agutin, Louis Armstrong, Cesaria Evora...

By some mystical coincidence, one of the last images demonstrated by Shukenov in the show was another native of KazakhstanMurat Nasyrov, who died tragically in 2007.

In one of his last interviews given to National Business, Batyrkhan Shukenov said: “I honestly admit that I don’t like competitions at all, for me they are associated with a lot of stress and nervous tension. On the other hand, they provide an opportunity to go beyond the usual state, and I like this, it attracts with its novelty.”

Perhaps the stress and tension of recent months have become fatal for the musician. But he simply did not know how to treat his favorite business differently, to work half-heartedly...