January 29, 2020 the Great Hall of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory will welcome a concert staged by the Central Military Band of the Russian Ministry of Defense to honor the memory of Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, great Russian artist, prominent military conductor and first music director of the Spasskaya Tower Festival.
Led by Colonel Sergey Durygin and Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Petrovich, Head and Conductor of the band (respectively), musicians will perform pieces composed by Maestro Khalilov himself as well as compositions by
The event is organized by the Military Band Music Service of the Russian Armed Forces.
Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov tragically died in a plane crash on December 25, 2016. This January he would have turned 68.
Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov, first Music Director of the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival
Valery Khalilov was born in 1952 to a family of a military conductor. On graduating from the Moscow Military Music School (today known as College) he was enrolled to the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory to became a military conductor.
After graduation he was appointed as the conductor of the Band of the Air Defense Pushkin Radio Electronics Higher Military School.
In 1980 he returned to his alma mater where he first was appointed as the instructor of the conducting faculty, and then reassigned to the military band music service section of the military conducting faculty.
In 1984 Valery Khalilov was transferred to the Military Band Music Service of the USSR where he continued his service as a senior member.
From 2002 till 2016 Valery Khalilov was the Head of the Military Band Music Service of the Russian Armed Forces.
In April 2016 he became the bandmaster and artistic director of the Alexandrov Academic Song and Dance Ensemble.
Accompanied by the best Russian military ensembles he toured all across Russia, reaching even the most distant and isolated military garrisons. His name was widely known and respected not only at home but abroad as well. Along his military artistic career, he visited Austria, Belgium, Germany, Hungary, Korea, Lebanon, Mongolia, Poland, US, Finland, France, Switzerland, Sweden.
As a composer he focused primarily on the wind music.
Honored Artist of Russia, member of the Composers’ Union and associated professor, Valery Khalilov since 2007 was the music director of the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival.
Valery Khalilov tragically died in the