Patriarch of Russian rock Alexander Gradsky is known for his brilliant talent, bright charisma, his own theater and stormy personal life. Despite his middle age, he continues to amaze fans with new projects, performances and a great voice.
Childhood
The future star was born in the small town of Kopeysk, near Chelyabinsk, in November 1949. From childhood, the boy felt a craving for creativity, and his parents gave him the opportunity to develop in this direction. Dad Boris Fradkin was an ordinary factory engineer, but mom Tamara Gradskaya graduated from GITIS and was a director and actress. To develop the boy's talents, after moving to Moscow, little Sasha was immediately sent to a music school.
In the capital, she and her parents and grandmother huddled in an 8-meter cellar on the Frunzenskaya Embankment with nine more families. But this only tempered the young talent and gave a goal - to arrange life so that loved ones do not need anything. And in 1964 he managed to move into a normal comfortable apartment.
Creation
He is a graduate of the Musical Pedagogical Institute. Gnesins. Then there was the Conservatory. And there were also performances in the ensemble of Poles "Cockroaches". After that, his own rock group "Slavyane" was born. In 1966 the ensemble "Skomorokhi" rang all over the country, it was he who received the Grand Prix of the All-Union Festival.
They talked about Gradsky and the group on Moscow Radio and the Voice of America. Glory thundered all over the world. Songs began to be included in radio charts, he began to travel with concerts in the cities of the Soviet Union.
An amazing feature: being the author of compositions and poems, the musician also recorded his performances by overlaying several voices. For example, the work "Only You Trust Me" from beginning to end was born by him alone in multiple persons - Alexander Borisovich performed all the parts, both vocal and instrumental.
Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky invited the singer to help in filming the film "A Romance of Lovers", and he wrote and performed several songs for him and created the entire arrangement for the movie.
Then a solo disc was recorded with melodies from the film - so Gradsky became the "Star of the Year", wrote the editorial staff of the "Billboard" edition, making a colossal contribution to global musical history.
The discography of the singer and musician includes over 40 albums with rock music, film scores and songs. In 2003, a unique disc "Reader" was released, on which there are melodies of popular instrumentalists.
Gradsky was invited to write music for dozens of films. Among them - the classics "Connoisseurs lead the investigation", animated films "Pass". For many films, he personally recorded songs. There was also a live musical film - the famous Anti-Perestroika Blues and Living in Russia.
Popular recognition
At the beginning of the third millennium, Gradsky received the People's Artist of Russia and was awarded the title of laureate of the State Prize of the Russian Federation.
He is so versatile and talented that he even staged his own opera The Master and Margarita, personally performing arias of four characters. Andrey Makarevich, Oleg Tabakov, Valery Zolotukhin, Gennady Khazanov, Alexander Rosenbaum and other very famous musicians and actors performed in his author's opera. The opera is published in the format of an old book, inside of which four discs with musical recordings are luxuriously decorated.
Alexander Gradsky boasts performances with Liza Minnelli, Cindy Peters, Charles Aznavour, Chris Christophersson, Dayana Warwick and others.
Now he runs his own theater in Moscow, Gradsky Hall, which is unofficially called the Gradsky Theater. Music evenings, award ceremonies and various concerts are held here.
Personal life
The musician does not like to talk publicly about his life. But from the biography it is known that he created a family three times. The second wife of Gradsky was the actress Vertinskaya Anastasia. In his third marriage, in 1981 and 1986, he had a son, Daniel, and a daughter, Maria.
Despite his age, he fell in love again. This time in the young attractive model Marina Kotashenko. The beloved master is 31 years younger than him. It was she who gave birth to his son Alexander in 2014.
This blue-eyed slender blonde immediately won the heart of the music guru. At the time of her acquaintance, she worked in one of the modeling agencies in the capital and fully supported herself. For 10 years of marriage, Marina graduated from VGIK, began to play in serials, and learned to be a lawyer.
Their marriage is not registered, but they tell journalists that they live in perfect harmony. Gradsky became a father for the third time at the age of 64.
