Oriented on making people closer

This harmonious melody resonates in the soul of Ivanovo musicians with special warmth. Its author, the famous Turkmen composer Nury Halmamedov, repeatedly came to Ivanovo in the Soviet years, stayed at the House of Composers' Creativity. And a small composition, which opens the collection of children's piano pieces "Fleeting", he called "In Ivanovo".

– This music is so bright, in the folk spirit. It was the first time I heard it, but it's such great music, it's just impossible to convey. It is amazing that this music will now remain in Ivanovo and that it sounds, - Ulyana Polyakova, a graduate of the Ivanovo Music School, shared her impressions.

Up to this point in Ivanovo, they did not know about such a piece of music. Ayna Shirova, a teacher of the Turkmen National Conservatory, sent the sheet music to the city of Brides in gratitude for the participation of Ivanovo residents in the international action "Week of Turkmen Composers".

"A particularly pleasant moment was the fact that musicians and journalists from Ivanov joined the video flash mob. As you know, many Turkmen composers have visited this beautiful city, the House of Composers' Creativity," composer Ayna Shirova said.

The video for the flash mob was recorded at the Ivanovo Music School. Composer and teacher Natalia Shcherbinina has been teaching here for more than 45 years. She communicated with Nury Halmamedov personally.

"I interviewed him in the 1970s, he seemed to me a very kind, talented, gifted composer. We didn't just record his music, we broadcast it to the whole Ivanovo region," she recalls.

It was a landmark moment for Ivanovo musicians that the play "In Ivanovo" by Nury Halmamedov became known in the jubilee year for the House of Composers' Creativity.

"Thus, the play written by the composer in the late 1970s of the last century, like a note or a musical message enclosed in a bottle, half a century later, we can say it found its addressee and became a musical and cultural bridge connecting two cities, musicians from two countries and two eras," the composer, a teacher of the Turkmen National Conservatory named after Maya Kuliyeva Ayna Shirov.

The House of Composers' creativity appeared 80 years ago, not far from the village of Afanasovo, Ivanovo district, on the banks of the Kharinka River.

"The fact is that large-scale battles unfolded in the Moscow region (during the Great Patriotic War). Soviet composers had (there) their own house of rest and creativity. They rested there and worked in Staraya Ruza. But he was broken. But considering the great importance that was given to music at that time, it was decided that it was necessary to create such a hospitable place near Moscow, where great Soviet composers could come to rest at that time. In 1943, a decision was made in the spring, and in the summer the first names and some other names already appeared - Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Prokofiev, Kabalevsky, Mokrousov," said Alexander Semenenko, director of the State Archive of the Ivanovo region.

It was here, in this beautiful place, that Shostakovich's seventh symphony and Prokofiev's 8th Sonata for Piano and Orchestra were written. But, unfortunately, now this place is in disrepair.

"An owner has appeared here. Maybe some kind of memorial plaque or information board will appear that, in general, there were interesting people who during the war years created works that inspired Soviet people to defend themselves from the Nazi invaders," Semenenko said.

The play "In Ivanovo" inspired the staff of the music school so much that on the basis of this melody they decided to compose a song in honor of the anniversary of the House of Composers. The music was written by Natalia Shcherbinina, the lyrics by Anna Lomonosova.

Their music was gaining momentum here.
Sonatas, symphonies, plays for everyone.
In the nearest village they sounded for the first time
The Great Opuses of eternal Russia...

Natalia Borisovna says that for many years in a row she took part in seminars for young composers, which were held in the House of Creativity.

"We talked with all the musicians and exchanged music. There was such an interesting 5th dacha, to which we went every day to listen to new compositions by new composers, to learn the composition process itself. They talked about new performers. Such happiness, happiness of communication, some kind of nourishment that we received in the house of creativity will probably never happen again," said Natalia Shcherbinina, a teacher at the Ivanovo Music School, chairman of the Musical society of the Ivanovo region.

In memory of the House of Composers, the residents of the village of Afanasovo decided to create a mini-park. The project won the online voting "Comfortable urban environment". Almost three thousand residents voted for the landscaping design with benches, lighting and a round covered stage.

Lyubov Kiyashko, correspondent of the channel "Russia 24 - Ivanovo"

Photo: @gtrk.ivteleradio