Igor Ivanovich Blazhkov was born Sept. 23, 1936 in Kiev, Ukraine. He received his diploma summa cum laude from Kiev Conservatory, graduating from the conducting class of Professor Alexander Klimov (1959). He completed his post-graduate studies under the guidance of Evgeny Mravinsky at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, Leningrad (1967). In 1959, Blazhkov won the Conducting Competition of the Republic of Ukraine (Kiev). From 1958 to 1961, Blazhkov was conductor of the State Philharmonic Orchestra of Ukraine; thereafter he held the position of conductor for the Leningrad Philharmonic (1963-1968).
Excerpt from the interview of Gennady Rozhdestvensky to the weekly "Nedelia" ("The Week"), March 23, 1968:
“Nedelia“: Who do you consider to be the most promising among the new breed of young conductors?
Rozhdestvensky: I see among those recently emerging some quite interesting ones-- Zubin Mehta, Igor Blazhkov, Yuri Temirkanov, Seiji Ozawa, Claudio Abbado.
Beginning in 1958, Igor Blazhkov vigorously promoted the music of Igor Stravinsky on many a concert podium of the former Soviet Union while maintaining extensive correspondence with the composer.
From 1969 to 1976, Igor Blazhkov served as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Kiev Chamber Orchestra, molding it into one of the most prominent chamber music groups in the USSR. “Igor Blazhkov and the Kiev Chamber Orchestra are a phenomenon of genuine importance for our concert music scene”, Dmitri Shostakovich observed. The composer maintained a close friendship with Blazhkov, who championed many of his works over the years. It was during these years that Blazhkov premiered many works by Valentin Silvestrov and other Ukrainian composers who have now achieved prominence, such as Yevhen Stankovych and Oleh Kyva (see Upcoming TNC Classical Releases and News from Ukraine).
In 1977-1988, Blazhkov was affiliated with the concert agency Ukrconcert, and from 1988 to 1994 he was the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra of the Ukraine. At the same time he was leading and mentoring the Perpetuum Mobile Orchestra (1983-2002).
Igor Blazhkov conducted the premiere of the ballet, The Twelve, by renowned Leningrad composer Boris Tishchenko, choreographed by Leonid Yakobson, at the Leningrad Kirov Theatre in 1964. In 1970, he revived from obscurity and brought back into the spotlight Boris Lyatoshynsky’s opera, Schchors [The Commander], conducting it at the Taras Shevchenko Opera and Ballet Theatre in Kiev, Ukraine.
In 1990, Maestro Blazhkov was honored with the title of People’s Artist of the Ukraine “for outstanding achievements in launching and promoting the works of musical art and for the high professional level of his concert performances”.
In 1986, the patriarch of Soviet conductors, Evgheny Mravinsky, wrote about Blazhkov: “Being a musician of rare expertise and exceptional knowledge, Blazhkov truly deserves his reputation as a talented and profiled conductor. His innovative, sensationally original programming is realized with both the immaculate technical precision and artistic inspiration listeners cannot resist. A genuinely hard-working musician, his highly educated tastes and preferences manifest in both the selection of compositions performed and their original interpretations. These qualities are intensified by Blazhkov’s quest for new frontiers and goals that never vanish, and by his extensive practical experience in the realms of concert music, opera and ballet. All said, these are the reasons why he became known as one of the most interesting and conspicuous conductors of his generation.”
The list of Blazhkov’s recordings adds up to more than 70 titles. He collaborated with such renowned CD producing companies as Denon, EMI, Olympia, Claudio Records, Wergo, Melodiya, Russian Disk, SoLyd Records, TNC, ESS.A.Y Recordings, Analekta, Angel SR, Eurodisc, HMV ASD, Shinsekai, JVC VIC, Chant du Monde, and Toshiba. A December 1990 “Montreal Gazette“ review of his CD Tchaikovsky’s Pathetique (recorded for Canadian company Analekta with the State Symphony Orchestra of the Ukraine) states: “The performance is rock-solid and impressive… the orchestra sounds much more vivid than the Moscow Philharmonic”. The Canadian Association of Sound Recording, Performing Arts and Video Industry awarded the title “Best Classical Album of 1990” to another Analekta disk with Blazhkov and Canadian violinist Angele Dubeau featuring music by Prokofiev. Tchaikovsky, and Kabalevsky.
The touring itineraries of Blazhkov include performances in Poland, Germany, Spain, France, Switzerland, the United States, and Japan. The Polish newspaper “Sztandar Ludu reported: “Featured at our September Music Festival in the city of Lublin was one of the leading Soviet orchestras – the State Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine…under the artistic direction of Igor Blazhkov…. The Kievans played brilliantly, showing not only carefully polished technical mastery but also genuine emotional involvement. The Russian music fans which filled the concert hall to capacity were completely satisfied, for the concert stood out as a remarkable event of the month”. The Leipzig, Germany newspaper “Union“ observed: “…the State Symphony Orchestra of the Ukraine from Kiev under the baton of its Chief Conductor Igor Blazhkov affirmed its reputation as a perfect musical ensemble.… In compositions by Stravinsky and Prokofiev, it demonstrated all at once wonderful precision, togetherness, finesse of sound, robust energy and timbre sophistication. In sum, this evening’s concert shall be remembered as a memorable one”.
Since 2002, Igor Blazhkov has made his home in Potsdam, Germany.
<p>Virko Baley was born in Ukraine in 1938, but has spent his creative life in the United States and considers himself a citizen of the world. Multi-lingual and multi-disciplinary, he infuses his music with themes of contemporary and traditional motifs. Shirley Fleming, reviewing a concert of his music, given by CONTINUUM, in the New York Post called his music "vibrant, dramatic, communicative, much of it framed by extra-musical allusions that place it in a solid context." The New York premiere of Concerto No. 1, quasi una fantasia for violin and orchestra had "sonic images memorable enough to take home" according to Village Voice critic Kyle Gann. The release of his Symphony No. 1: "Sacred Monuments" was commented on in ClassicsToday by David Hurwitz as "Powerfully imagined, clearly articulated, and quite moving… It's a very serious ambitious statement by a gifted artist, and I wouldn't be a bit surprised if it turns out to have more staying power than many other contemporary works by today's trendier composers."</p><p>Virko Baley is the recipient of the 1996 Shevchenko Prize for Music, awarded by the Ukrainian government and he was also awarded the State of Nevada Regents' Creative Award for 1996. He was also awarded the Petro Jacyk Distinguished Research Fellowship at the Harvard University Ukrainian Research Institute for the academic year of 2006/2007 to continue work on his opera "Red Earth. Hunger". In 2007, he was awarded a GRAMMY as recording producer for TNC Recordings for Best Instrumental Performance with Orchestra. Most recently, he received in 2008 a Music Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The citation read: "A highly cultured, polyglot intellectual, brilliant pianist and a dynamic and accomplished conductor, the Ukrainian-born Virko Baley composes music which is dramatically expansive of gesture, elegant and refined of detail and profoundly lyrical. It is music which "sings" with passionate urgency whether it embraces (as in his more recent work) folkloric elements from his origins or finds expression in a more universal style of modernism typical of his earlier music. It is always a singular voice and a deeply felt and acutely heard music."</p><p>Virko Baley is currently Distinguished Professor of Music and Composer-in-Residence at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. For additional information on the music of Virko Baley, please go to <a href="http://www.virkobaley.com" target="_blank">www.virkobaley.com</a> and <a href="http://www.tncmusic.net" target="_blank">www.tncmusic.net</a>.</p>
<i>Born in Chicago Heights, Illinois December 5, 1923, Johnny Pate is a self-taught bassist and arranger.</i>
He learned these skills while serving in the 218th AGF Army Band during World War II. After his discharge in 1946, Pate played with Coleridge Davis’s big band and from 1947 to 1949 he worked with Red Allen and J. C. Higginbotham. Following those gigs, Johnny worked, in succession, with jazz violinists Stuff Smith and Eddie South. While performing with South, Pate furthered his musical training by studying at Chicago’s Midwestern Conservatory from 1951 to 1953. In ’53-’54 he was with Dorothy Donegan’s Trio and moved from there to the Ahmad Jamal Trio in 1956. During this same time period, Johnny worked for the Club De Lisa as the arranger of its shows’ production numbers which were modeled after the famous Cotton Club reviews in Harlem. The featured male singer in the show was a young man by the name of Joe Williams. Pate often says that he met Joe long before Basie even knew who he was, although he is reasonably certain that it was at the Club De Lisa that Basie first heard Williams sing.
Toward the end of the ‘50s, Pate led his own trio that served as the house band at Chicago’s Blue Note. There, he worked with such jazz stalwarts as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan and Duke Ellington. Pate’s stint as Ellington’s bass player at the Blue Note was the result of Jimmy Woode, the band’s bassist, having taken ill. Johnny ended up subbing for Woode throughout the entire Ellington Blue Note appearance. Unbeknownst to Pate and the Ellington Orchestra, a "bootleg" recording was made and eventually released in 1994 much to Johnny’s surprise. On that recording you can hear Ellington recognize Pate following his solo on Satin Doll.
Having recorded as a bassist with his own trio on the Federal, King, Gig, Salem and MGM labels, Johnny wrote the arrangements, played bass and conducted on James Moody’s 1958 Argo album, Last Train from Overbrook. That album was one of his last as a bassist as the demand for his services as an arranger, conductor and producer of jazz albums forced him to make these his main musical pursuits. Among the albums that Pate produced or arranged in the 1960s were Wes Montgomery’s Movin’ Wes on the Verve label and Shirley Horn’s Travelin’ Light on the ABC-Paramount label, the latter of which also featured two of Pate’s songs: Have You Tried to Forget? and Yes, I Know When I’ve Had It. Other Verve albums followed: Stan Getz’s Didn’t We?, Kenny Burrell’s Asphalt Canyon Suite, Phil Woods’ Round Trip, Monty Alexander’s This Is Monty Alexander and Jimmy Smith’s The Other Side of Jimmy Smith. In 1993 Johnny produced a second album for Smith, Sum Serious Blues, on the Milestone label that features the vocal work of Marlena Shaw.
Pate also successfully ventured into the rhythm and blues field at the request of record producer Carl Davis who wanted to add a new musical twist to his recordings of "doo-wop" groups. Johnny’s suggestion was to add some brass to the backup arrangements. The first recording was of a tune titled Monkey Time by Major Lance that became a big R&B hit. The composer of the song, Curtis Mayfield, was the leader of the R&B group the Impressions. Mayfield was so taken by Johnny’s arrangements that he asked him to do the arrangements for the next Impressions’ ABC-Paramount recording session. Pate accepted the offer and soon found himself working for ABC-Paramount full-time as a producer. In his own words: "…all of a sudden now, I’m doing rhythm and blues things that I’m picking checks up (for) that look like telephone numbers and I wasn’t getting these kind of checks doing jazz!" Johnny worked with Mayfield on a string of singles hits that included: It’s All Right, Amen, Keep on Pushin’ and People Get Ready. Pate would later arrange, orchestrate and conduct all of Mayfield’s original music for the highly successful movie Superfly.
B. B. King signed with ABC-Paramount right around the same time that Pate joined the company, and Johnny soon found himself regularly producing albums for B.B. One of those albums, B. B. King Live at the Regal, is considered one of the greatest live rhythm and blues albums of all time.
Johnny’s success in the R&B field was followed by film and television scoring projects in the ‘70s, the best known of which is the music for Shaft in Africa (1975). Pate also did the scores for the Shaft television series (1976) that, unfortunately, was rather short-lived. Other Pate movie scores include: Brother on the Run (1973), Bucktown USA (1976), Dr. Black and Mr. Hyde (1977), Satan’s Triangle (1978) and the original score for Bustin’ Loose (1980).
When Johnny finally decided to seek "retirement" in Las Vegas, he quickly found his good friend, Joe Williams, on his doorstep insisting that not only was he not retiring yet, but that he had several projects for which he needed Johnny’s services as both an arranger and conductor. Williams was getting more and more requests to perform with symphony orchestras and Joe was adamant about having Pate as his conductor. From Johnny’s arrival in Las Vegas until Joe’s passing in 1999, Johnny wrote arrangements and conducted for Williams on many occasions. He and his wife Carolyn also accompanied Joe and Jillean Williams to England for the recording of the CD Here’s to Life with Robert Farnon. Included in that album was the ballad that Shirley Horn had recorded in 1965, Have You Tried to Forget? under its new title Someone You’ve Loved.
Today, Johnny continues to produce music, but at his own tempo, and shares his great musical expertise with music students at UNLV where he now teaches. He is learning to like the game of golf that he plays faithfully every Wednesday and of greatest importance, he maintains close friendships with the artists with whom he worked through an illustrious career. The reciprocation of the love he has for these artists is evident in the presence of those artists on today’s program. They are here for one reason: they truly love Johnny Pate.
Hoft is an Associate Professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he teaches solo and collaborative piano. Hoft is currently exploring and performing solo piano repertoire of 20th and 21st century Ukrainian composers, including the Nocturnals of Virko Baley, the piano sonatas of Valentin
