Ukrainian musician, choirmaster, teacher. Professor (1977). Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1951). For almost 40 years, he was a teacher at the Kyiv Conservatory (1946-1964; 1969-1990), a mentor to more than 30 honored and people's artists of Ukraine, and artists.
Chief Choirmaster of the Kyiv Opera and Ballet Theater (1949-1951). He worked in various musical institutions throughout the USSR: from Kazan to Donetsk. A student of Professor Hryhoriy Kompaniyets. Member of the Artistic Council of the House of Organ and Chamber Music.
Biography.
He was born on October 30, 1919 in Arkhangelsk, RSFSR, in the family of an employee. In 1930, the family moved to Kazan, where Mikhail Berdennikov graduated from the Kazan Music School in 1941, where he worked as an accompanist and teacher of compulsory (general) piano from 1937.
After graduation, he entered the historical and theoretical faculty of the Sverdlovsk Conservatory. From 1942 to 1944, he worked as the second choirmaster of the Sverdlovsk State Philharmonic Chapel.
In 1944, he moved to the conducting and choral faculty of the Kyiv Conservatory, which at that time was evacuated to Sverdlovsk. He graduated from the conservatory with honors after the war, in Kyiv, in 1946, in the class of Professor Hryhoriy Kompaniyets.
Since 1944, the 25-year-old student Mykhailo Berdennikov has been a choirmaster at the Kyiv Opera and Ballet Theater, with his first opera being The Hireling by Mykhailo Verikivskyi.
After graduating from the Conservatory, he began his work within its walls - first as an assistant at the Department of Choral Conducting, then as a graduate student in the class of Nathan Rachlin, and later as a graduate student symphonist in the class of Alexander Klimov.
Due to his work at the conservatory, he was temporarily dismissed from the position of choirmaster at the Opera and Ballet Theater, and in 1949 he was reinstated with a promotion - 30-year-old graduate student Mikhail Berdennikov became the theater's chief choirmaster. During this period, with Berdennikov's participation, the operas Pebbles, Aida, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, and Prince Igor were created.
He completed his postgraduate studies in 1950. At the same time, he conducted various opera performances at the Conservatory's Opera Studio, including The Tsar's Bride and Aleko. In 1952, after Professor Kompaniyets retired, Mikhail Berdennikov took up the positions of lecturer at the Conservatory's Choral Conducting Department and chief choirmaster of the Opera Studio. In 1954 he became a senior lecturer, and in 1957 an associate professor.
Since 1959, he worked for some time at the State Bandura Choir of the Ukrainian SSR. In 1964, he resigned from the Kyiv Conservatory and moved to Novosibirsk at the personal invitation of Arseniy Kotliarevsky, where he began working at the local conservatory: first as a professor of the choral conducting department, then as its head. During this period, with the participation of Mikhail Berdennikov, the opera May Night was staged in Novosibirsk.
In 1967, he moved to Rostov-on-Don, and for two years taught conducting and reading choral scores at the Rostov State Music and Pedagogical Institute, while at the same time he was a teacher at the Donetsk Music and Pedagogical Institute for a year.
In 1969, at the request of his student, the director of the Opera and Ballet Theater Volodymyr Kolesnyk, he returned to Kyiv, where he worked as a choirmaster at the theater. He also returned to the conducting department of the Kyiv Conservatory, where he taught until his last days.
Over the next decades, he was simultaneously engaged in research work, compiling and editing collections of music, in particular, Palestine. Choral Works" (1972) and "J. S. Bach. Motets" (1974). He is the author of several scientific works: "On Some Methodological Problems in the Classroom of Choral Conducting", "Notes on Choral Intonation. On the Fundamentals of the Methodology of Rehearsal Work" and others. Researcher of the creative heritage of Renaissance and Baroque artists: Palestrina, Bach, Orlando di Lasso, Josquin Despres, Andrea and Giovanni Gabrieli.
Tomb of Mykhailo Berdennikov and his daughter, Baikove cemetery
In 1977, he received the academic title of professor. For the last ten years of his life, he was a member of the Artistic Council of the House of Organ and Chamber Music.
Mentor of more than 30 people's and honored artists of Ukraine, artists. Among them are Anatolii Navrotskyi, Tetiana Kopylova, Vitalii Skakun, Volodymyr Volontyr, Dmytro Radyk, Volodymyr Kolesnyk, Vasyl Moisiuk, Volodymyr Kurach, and many others.
He died at the age of 71 on October 14, 1990. He was buried at the Baikove Cemetery with his daughter.
In 2019, at the initiative of Professor Dmytro Radyk, a memorial plaque was erected in the Kyiv Conservatory (now the Tchaikovsky Music Academy) in memory of Mykhailo Berdennikov.
Personal life.
Wife - Zoya Thomson, student of Mykhailo Berdennikov, Honored Artist of Ukraine, artistic director of the chamber choir of the R. M. Glier Kyiv Municipal Academy of Music.
Daughter - Kateryna Berdennykova (1970-2006), musicologist, PhD in Art History, researcher of Bach's works. She died prematurely at the age of 36.
