Victor Berkovsky
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Victor Berkovsky (Russian: Виктор Семенович Берковский, 13 July 1932, Zaporizhia - 24 July 2005 Moscow ) was a Russian bard.
Victor Berkovsky was born on July 13, 1932 in Zaporizhia, Ukraine. During the Great Patriotic War he evacuated with the family to Novokuznetsk, where his mother, Gertz Etel Viktorovna, a prominent cardiologist, led department in the hospital for the wounded soldiers. His father, Berkovsky Samuil Mikhailovich, was mobilized at the first day of war and joined the infantry.
After graduating from the high school in 1950, Berkovsky left for Moscow, where he received a degree from Moscow State Institute of Steel and Alloys. In 1955 Berkovsky came back to Zaporizhia to work in the "Dneprostal" factory. In order to better study his craft, Berkovsky voluntarily chose to start working as regular worker and by 1962 he became lead of the factory technological department.
In 1962 Berkovsky returned to Moscow for the PhD studies in Moscow State Institute of Steel and Alloys. He received PhD degree in 1967 and stayed in the institute first as an instructor and later as professor.
Practically all his life Berkovsky composed music. He wrote music for about 200 songs. Many of those became very popular in Soviet Union - "Grenada" (text by Mikhail Svetlov), "Песня шагом, шагом" (text by Novella Matveeva), "Ну что с того, что я там был" (text by Yuri Levitansky), "Сороковые роковые" (text by David Samoylov), "Лошади в океане" (text by Boris Slutsky), "Вспомните, ребята!", "Песенка про собачку Тябу", "Альма-матер" (text by Dmitry Sukharev), "Контрабандисты" (text by Eduard Bagritsky), "На далекой Амазонке" (text by Rudyard Kipling, in Samuil Marshak translation), "Черешневый кларнет" (text by Bulat Okudzhava), "Под музыку Вивальди" (music together with Sergei Nikitin, text by Velichansky), "Снегопад" (text by Yunna Morits) and many others.
Victor Berkovsky worked closely with Sergei Nikitin on composing music for theater and movies, such as "Мэри Поппинс", "Коньки", "Морские ворота" (text by Yuri Vizbor), "Большая докторская сказка", "Али-Баба и 40 песен персидского базара", songs for the children show "Будильник" (texts by Daniil Kharms).
Victor Semenovich Berkovsky died on July 23, 2005 in Moscow.
