Opening of the exhibition “V. A. Zolotarev – Founder of the Belarusian Composer School”
On 13 April 2022, the Belarusian State Archives-Museum of Literature and Art hosted the opening of the exhibition “V. A. Zolotarev – Founder of the Belarusian Composer School” dedicated to the 150th anniversary of the teacher and composer, People’s Artist of the BSSR Vasily Zolotarev. The opening of the exhibition was attended by archivists and students of the Belarusian State Academy of Music with a teacher, head of the Department of Music History and Musical Belarusian Studies Elena Lisova. Еlena Lisova told about the significance of the composer’s personality, his fruitful pedagogical activity at the Composition Department of the Belarusian State Conservatory in 1933-1941. The Director of the Archives-Museum A. V. Zapartyko drew attention to the rich heritage of Belarusian composers of the older generation, whose collections are stored in the archive repositories and are actively used by researchers.
The author of the exhibition, leading archivist T. V. Kekeleva acquainted the guests with the life and creative path of Vasily Zolotarev (1872-1964), the graduate of the St. Petersburg Conservatory who prepared two classes of students in Belarus – future prominent composers and cultural figures A. Bogatyrev, V. Olovnikov, L. Abeliovich, I. Zhinovich, M. Kroshner, P. Podkovyrov, D. Lukas, S. Nisnevich, V. Yefimov, etc. Throughout his pedagogical career, he taught his students realistic principles, typical for the aesthetics of the Russian academic school of composition. He paid much attention to the role of folklore in the author’s art, supported the collection, study and processing of folk songs and dances for different instruments.
The exhibition features the composer’s musical heritage: claviers and scores of separate parts of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd symphonies, the operas Decembrists (1924), Khvesko Andiber (1929) and Ak-Gul (1941), the prologue to the ballet Prince-Lake (1949) which was staged at the BSSR Opera and Ballet Theatre. On display are the personal papers of Vasily Zolotarev, a member of the BSSR Composers’ Union, a manuscript of his recollections about his famous teachers M. Balakirev and N. Rimsky-Korsakov, the layout of the 3rd edition of his book “Fugue” – a manual for students, the landscape sketches of the composer, rare sheet music publications, photographs with Belarusian composers, students and his family, etc.
