According to music critics, Viktor Berkovsky still remains a whole era in the history of Russian author's song. By his main specialty, he was a metallurgist. In the last years of his life he taught. He was a professor at the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys.
Starting conditions
The future professor and singer-songwriter was born on July 13, 1932 in an ordinary Soviet family. Parents at that time lived in the famous city of Zaporozhye, which is located on the banks of the Dnieper. My father worked at a metallurgical enterprise. The mother worked as a therapist in a city hospital. Victor grew and developed, not particularly standing out among his peers. When the war began, the father went to the front, and the mother and son were evacuated to the Siberian city of Novokuznetsk. The head of the family soon arrived here, having received a serious injury in the battles - his arm was torn off.
After the victory, the Berkovskys returned to their homeland, and Victor continued his studies at school. In 1950, with a certificate of maturity in his hands, he went to Moscow to receive higher education at the Institute of Steel and Alloys. Five years later, he returned home as a graduate and began working at a metallurgical enterprise. It was during this period that he began to master the technique of playing the seven-string guitar and compose songs based on the verses of famous and not very famous poets. In 1962 he moved to the capital and entered graduate school. He defended his Ph. D. thesis and stayed at the department to give lectures to students.
Creative activity
Viktor Semenovich did not have a special musical education, but he was considered one of the outstanding melodists of the twentieth century. He managed to harmoniously combine teaching and research activities with musical creativity. His songs, once flying from the stage to the hall, were immediately remembered, picked up and very quickly became popular. Examples of this are "On the Distant Amazon", "Night Road" or "Alma Mater". Mikhail Svetlov's wonderful poems "Grenada" have been set to music many times, but only Berkovsky's melody has become popular. He had an ear for music from God and was generally talented in everything he did.
It is important to note Berkovsky's desire to perform songs together. In the company of friends at a table or in a duet on stage. Later, this feature led to the creation of the bardic project "Songs of Our Century". It is quite natural that Viktor Semyonovich became its artistic director. This project lives on today. And he will live as long as at least one Russian bard is alive.
Recognition and privacy
Victor Berkovsky has no official titles and titles. All his life he was engaged in writing songs, which he himself presented to the audience. These songs are known and loved. And they still sing them.
The personal life of the composer and professor was not formed the first time. The second wife Margarita worked as a translator. Together they went abroad on vacation and on business trips. She helped her husband maintain order in business and creativity. Viktor Berkovsky died in July 2005 after a serious illness.
