First Music Director

The first music director of the Festival – Valery Khalilov

People's Artist of the Russian Federation, general-lieutenant Valery Khalilov (30.01.1952 — 25.12.2016).

V. M. Khalilov was born in 1952 in a family of a military conductor, graduated from the Moscow Military Music School (now — the Moscow Military Music College) and the Military-conductor faculty of the Moscow State Conservatory named after P. Tchaikovsky.

After graduation he was appointed as the conductor of the Pushkin Higher Military School of Radio Electronics in Air Defense military orchestra.

In 1980 he was appointed as the head of conducting, and then chairman of the Military-Band Service of the Military-conducting faculty at the Moscow State Conservatory of P. Tchaikovsky.

In 1984, V. M. Khalilov was transferred to the governing body of the Military-Band Service of the Ministry of Defence of the USSR.

Head of the military-band service of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, chief military conductor from 2002 — 2016.

In April 2016 he was appointed as a Head of the ensemble — the artistic director of the Academic Song and Dance Alexandrov Ensemble.

Since 2007 he was the chief musical director of the International Military Music Festival «Spasskaya Tower», Honored Artist of Russia, member of the Union of Composers and associated professor. His work as a composer is oriented mainly to the genre of brass music.

He has toured with the Central Military Band of the Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces of the leading orchestras of the Russian Federation to the most distant military garrisons of the country and abroad: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Korea, Lebanon, Mongolia, Poland, the USA, Finland, France, Switzerland, Sweden.

Tragically died in the crash of Tu-154 on the night of December 25, 2016.