Alexander Zhurbin
Alexander Zhurbin (born Alexander Borisovich Gandelman; 7 August 1945) is a Soviet and Russian composer, film composer, pianist, theatre director, television presenter and radio presenter. Born in Tashkent, he has written extensively for musical theatre, concert music, film and popular song. Until 1972 he used his father's surname, Gandelman; he then adopted his mother's surname and became known as Alexander Zhurbin.
He grew up in a family of engineers in which music was a constant presence. His mother, Ada Litvak-Zhurbina, encouraged musical education for her sons. Zhurbin graduated in 1963 from the V. A. Uspensky Republican Secondary Special Music School and then studied cello at the Tashkent Conservatory. He continued with composition at the Gnesin Institute and undertook postgraduate study at the Leningrad Conservatory, where his dissertation concerned Gustav Mahler's late symphonies. His teachers included Nikolai Peyko, Genrikh Litinsky, Aram Khachaturian, Sergei Slonimsky and Yuri Kon.
After the 1966 Tashkent earthquake destroyed his family's home, the family moved to Moscow. From 1970 to 1977 he lived in Leningrad. There he wrote Orpheus and Eurydice (1975), described as the first Soviet rock opera. It was staged by the Singing Guitars ensemble at the opera studio of the Leningrad Conservatory, toured throughout the Soviet Union for more than 3,000 performances, and was entered in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-running musical performed by one cast.
Zhurbin's stage works include the ballets The Red Bird (1974) and The Trap (1978), as well as operas including Albert and Giselle, The Petty Demon, Metamorphoses of Love, Anna K. and A Happy Day. His many musicals include Shalom, America!, Wandering Stars, Doctor Zhivago, Vladimir Square, The Mousetrap, The Toy Seller, The Courtesan and Between Two Worlds. In 2022, The Mousetrap received a production at the Theatre of Musical Comedy, and Between Two Worlds was staged at the Variety Theatre in 2023.
In concert music, he has composed eight symphonies, including Sinfonia Concertante, Sinfonia Giocosa, Sinfonia Romantica, City of the Plague, Sinfonia Bizzara, Sinfonia con programma letterale, Sinfonia Semplice and Patchwork Symphony. His output also includes piano, viola, cello and violin concertos; three string quartets; a piano quintet; sonatas; chamber works; vocal cycles; oratorios; and cantatas. He has written about 200 popular songs, including “Plea,” “Song of Happiness,” “Life Is a Little Horse,” “Everything Is for the Best,” “Postwar Tango,” and “Clouds in Blue.” His music has been performed by artists including Iosif Kobzon, Kristina Orbakaite, Nikolai Baskov, Irina Ponarovskaya, Tamara Gverdtsiteli, Mikhail Boyarsky and Pavel Smeyan.
From 1990 to 2001, Zhurbin lived with his family in New York, where in 1992 he founded the first Russian-American theatre, Wandering Stars. Since 2001 he has divided his time between Moscow and New York. He presented the NTV programme Melodies to Remember from 2007 to 2015 and hosted Musical Crossroads and Sounds of the Musical on Radio Orpheus from 2008 to 2011. He also wrote music for films, television series and animated films, including Letters from a Dead Man, The Moscow Saga and Heavy Sand.
Zhurbin is the author of autobiographical books including My Musical Life (2011) and On Times, Music and Myself (2016), as well as the three-part audio work Sounds of the Musical (2007). He received the title Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation in 2003, the Order of Honour in 2010, and the Moscow City Prize in Literature and the Arts for musical art in 2017.