Valentina Nikolaevna Chemberdzhi is a woman with an unusual destiny. The daughter of two composers and the mother of two pianists, she herself is not a musician by profession, but a philologist, translator, teacher and writer. But music still permeates her entire life: both in everyday life and in creativity. She was familiar and even friendly with many outstanding musicians, people of art, science and politics. She was also the first wife of journalist Vladimir Pozner and the mother of his only natural daughter, Catherine.
Biography facts. Famous relatives
Valentina Nikolaevna Chemberdzhi was born on March 11, 1936 in Moscow, in an international family: her father is Armenian, her mother is Jewish. Valentina's parents were famous Soviet musicians. Her father Nikolai Karpovich Chemberdzhi came from the Chemberdzhyan family who lived in the Crimean city of Karasubazar (later Belogorsk); from the same place Chemberdzhi's uncle - Spendiarov (Spendiaryan) Alexander Afanasyevich, also a famous Soviet composer, a student of the famous N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov. It was Spendiarov (Valentina Chemberdzhi's great-uncle) who raised his nephew Nikolai after the early death of his mother. Nikolay Chemberdzhi is known as the author of the suites for the symphony orchestra - "Tajik", "Armenian", "Moldavian", the ballet "Dream Dremovich".
Valentina's mother, Zara Aleksandrovna Levina, was born in Crimea, graduated from the Moscow Conservatory as a pianist and composer, class of R. Glier. She has composed several piano concertos, sonatas and other works.
Valentina Chemberdzhi's parents met and got married in the early 1930s, and in 1938, when their daughter was two years old, the family received an apartment in the first cooperative house of the Union of Composers on 3rd Miusskaya Street in Moscow, where the families of Aram Khachaturian and Tikhon also settled. Khrennikov and other musical celebrities. Dmitry Shostakovich, Sergei Prokofiev, Samuel Feinberg, with whom Levina and Chemberdzhi were friends and often communicated, also visited here.
Music in the house on 3rd Miusskaya sounded continuously. Valentina's parents constantly played music, composed at the piano. Friends-musicians often gathered in the house and also performed various works. In addition, the collection of records was constantly growing in the family, and if the music did not sound live, then the gramophone was sure to play.
It was in such an atmosphere that Valentina Chemberdzhi grew up. But, despite such a musical atmosphere in the family, she did not choose the profession of a musician for herself.
Education and early teaching career
In 1953, after leaving school, Valentina Nikolaevna Chemberdzhi entered the Lomonosov Moscow State University at the Faculty of Philology, the Department of Classical Philology. 5 years later, in 1958, she received a diploma with the qualification of a classical philologist (with knowledge of Latin and Ancient Greek) and a teacher of the Russian language. A graduate of a prestigious university was invited to work at the Institute of Foreign Languages, where for almost thirty years Valentina Nikolaevna taught Latin, the history of Romance languages, and, as an option, taught the course of the Ancient Greek language. In addition to Inyaz, Chemberdzhi also taught at Moscow State University and RUDN University.
Creative activity
In parallel with teaching, Valentina Chemberdzhi was engaged in creative activities, which can be conditionally divided into two groups: translations and her own compositions.
As a translator, Valentina Nikolaevna made a significant contribution to the study of ancient history. For example, Chemberdzhi is the author of translations into Russian of ancient testimonies about the life of Menander and Sophocles, speeches of Cicero, the composition "Praise to the Motherland" by the ancient Greek writer Lucian of Samosatsky, the novel "Leucippus and Clitophon" by the Greek writer of the 2nd century AD Achilles Tatia. In addition, Valentina Chemberdzhi was engaged in translations from English of the literary heritage of Russian, Soviet and contemporary foreign artists. She published the memoirs, letters and autobiography of Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov, articles by Igor Stravinsky, the book Music to All, written by Leonard Bernstein, as well as the book by Hunter Davis, Authorized Biography of the Beatles, and Autobiography of the famous Agatha Christie, which made a splash in the Soviet Union.
Another area of Valentina Chemberjee's work is writing, mainly dedicated to music and musicians: this is where the family musical heritage manifested itself! Chambergie owes her books to her acquaintance with many famous musicians. They intertwine the author's personal impressions with memories, and sometimes with quotes and direct speech of those people about whom Valentina wrote, with whom she communicated and was friends. Thus, the book “Music Lived in the House” is a collection of biographies of such outstanding musicians as composers Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitry Shostakovich, pianist Svyatoslav Richter. Separate books are also devoted to the latter: "On a journey with Svyatoslav Richter" (1993, the book was also published in German, French and Finnish) and "About Richter in his words" (2004, there is an edition in Italian).
Chemberdzhi has always had a special attitude towards the life and work of Sergei Prokofiev. About his first wife, Lina Kodina-Prokofieva, Valentina Nikolaevna wrote the book "XX century Lina Prokofieva" (2008). The book reflects the hard fate of a woman, fortitude and nobility, which allowed Lina Ivanovna to survive all the hardships. When writing, archival materials and personal impressions of the author were used.
The book “A Dog's Life. Ustar”(2012) - essentially a cycle of autobiographical memoirs of Valentina Nikolaevna herself, where purely everyday stories about school, student life, Moscow life are intertwined with memories of all the same famous musicians - Prokofiev, Richter, Khachaturian and others. The author's original find is that in some chapters the story is told from the perspective of a dog, which also witnessed all the events described and has its own view of them.
Since 1982, Valentina Chemberdzhi has become a member of the Union of Soviet Writers (since 1992 - the Union of Writers of Moscow). Valentina Nikolaevna also worked on the radio - broadcasts.
Personal life
Valentina Nikolaevna Chemberdzhi met her first husband, the famous journalist Vladimir Vladimirovich Pozner, in her student years: they were both students of Moscow State University, only Posner studied at the biology department, and Chemberdzhi at the philological department. A romance broke out, and in the year of graduation from the university - 1958 - the young people decided to get married.
Two years later, on May 6, 1960, a daughter, Ekaterina (bears the mother's surname), was born. The Posner and Chamberjee family existed for almost 10 years, but in 1967 the marriage ended in divorce, and the reason was the spouse's betrayal. Valentina could not forgive her husband, and he also did not want to live "in self-deception." Soon Pozner created a second family with Ekaterina Orlova, with whom he lived for 30 years, and then a third - with show producer Nadezhda Solovyova.
Valentina Chemberdzhi was very upset by the divorce from Posner, although her ex-husband never offended her with a word and always spoke of her very tenderly. But time heals, Valentina met a new love: her second husband was Mark Samuilovich Melnikov, a world-renowned mathematician. In 1973, they had a replenishment in the family - a son, Alexander, was born. And in 1991, Mark Melnikov was invited to work in Spain, in Barcelona. Valentina went abroad with her husband, where she lives to this day. However, she claims that her soul is in Russia, where she regularly visits.
The children of Valentina Chemberdzhi became musicians: Ekaterina Vladimirovna Chemberdzhi is a pianist, lives with her husband, daughter Maria and son Nikolai in France.
Son Alexander Markovich Melnikov - pianist, Honored Artist of Russia, lives and works in different countries.
All children and grandchildren, as well as wives and husbands, maintain good relations. So, for example, Ekaterina Chemberdzhi is friends with Nadezhda Solovyova.
