Aleksandra Pakhmutova

Aleksandra Pakhmutova remained one of the best-known figures in Soviet and later Russian popular music since she first achieved fame in her homeland in the 1960s. She was born in 1929, and began playing the piano and composing music at an early age. She was admitted to the prestigious Moscow Conservatory and graduated in 1953. In 1956, she completed a post-graduate course led by composer Vissarion Shebalin. Alexandra Pakhmutova has devoted her professional career to different genres. She has composed pieces for orchestra as Russian Suite, Trumpet concerto, the Youth Overture, a Concerto for orchestra, the ballet Illumination, music for children, and music for over 30 movies. She is best known for some of her 400 songs, including such enduringly popular songs as The Melody, Russian Waltz, Tenderness, Hope, The Old Maple Tree, The Song of the Perturbed Youth, a series of the Gagarin Constellation, and others. Her husband, the eminent Soviet-era poet Nikolai Dobronravov, contributed lyrics to her music on occasion, including songs used in three films. She was awarded the People's Artist of the USSR in 1984.