Yuri Alekseevich Gulyaev (August 9, 1930, Tyumen - April 23, 1986, Moscow) was a Russian and Ukrainian singer (lyric baritone).
He studied at a music school. In the seventh grade, his father gave him a two-row harmonica, to which he began to sing the entire repertoire of S. Lemeshev, heard on the radio and from records. In 1949, after graduating from high school, Yurii Huliayev entered the Sverdlovsk Medical Institute, but, quickly realizing the mistake in his choice of profession, he moved to the Ural Conservatory in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) to the vocal faculty, where he graduated from the class of F. I. Obraztsovska. Until his fourth year, he sang as a tenor, and only later did his beautiful velvety baritone emerge. In his fifth year (1953), Yuri Guliaev was invited to the Sverdlovsk Opera and Ballet Theater. His career as an opera singer continued at the Donetsk (1955-1960) and Kyiv Opera Theaters (1960-1975), and from 1975 until the end of his life, Yurii Huliayev was a soloist at the Bolshoi Theater. His repertoire includes the roles of: Shchors (Shchors by Lyatoshinsky), Listnitsky (The Quiet Don by Dzerzhinsky), Onegin (Eugene Onegin by Tchaikovsky), Figaro (The Barber of Seville by Rossini), Graf di Luna, Renato (Verdi's Il Trovatore, La bohème masquerade), Escamilio (Bizet's Carmen), Robert (Tchaikovsky's Iolanta), Papageno (Mozart's The Magic Flute), and others.
Died of an asthma attack on April 23, 1986 in Moscow, buried at the Vagankiv Cemetery.
Creative activity
Yuriy Huliaiev's concert activity developed in parallel with his operatic one. Since his studies at the Conservatory, during the first postwar famine years, many students earned money by performing concerts. Yurii Huliayev sang arias, songs, and romances accompanied by an accordion. The stage brought him wide popularity. His velvety, warm, and rich baritone conquered the audience, and his open, beautiful face and charming smile attracted them. His repertoire included folk songs ("A snowstorm is blowing down the street", "I'm looking at the sky"), Russian romances ("In the middle of a noisy ball", "Don't be deceitful", "Don't awaken memories"), foreign classics (Schumann, Grieg) and contemporary songs, to which he devoted much of his energy.
On May 27, 1962, he first performed the song "How Can I Not Love You, My Kyiv!", which in November 2014 became the official anthem of the city of Kyiv.
Huliayev worked hard on each song, drawing heavily on the experience of the older generation (in particular, his idol Lemeshev). But he used the tradition creatively, creating his own unique world of song. In Ukraine, Yuriy Huliaiev collaborated with composer I. Shamo, and in 1966 the singer's creative friendship with O. Pakhmutova began, whose cycle based on the poem by M. Dobronravov "Gagarin's Constellation" ("Gagarin's Constellation") became for Yuriy Huliaiev a real constellation. Gulyayev became a real constellation, and the song of the cycle "Do you know what kind of a guy he was" became the singer's calling card forever, as well as the songs "Russian Field" and "At an Unnamed Height."
A whole cycle of works was written for him by M. Tariverdiev. Gulyayev performed songs by T. Khrennikov, G. Sviridov, D. Shostakovich, and D. Kabalevsky. Demanding of himself, tactful with others, Yuri Guliaev subtly felt the difference when working with the orchestra conducted by Yuri Silantiev, with the State Russian Folk Orchestra named after M. Osipov, or with the accompaniment of the piano (for many years his constant accompanist was R. Trokhman).
Huliayev composed several dozen songs himself, most famously "Memories of a Regimental Band," "I Wish You" based on poems by R. Rozhdestvensky, and a cycle of songs based on poems by S. Yesenin ("Under the Window Moon," "Dear, Let's Sit Next to Each Other," "Tanya Was Good").
The singer has toured extensively in the United States, Canada, France, Japan, Belgium, and Cuba.
He was a laureate of the VII World Festival of Youth and Students in Vienna (1959) and the USSR State Prize (1975), Honored Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1960), People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR (1965), and People's Artist of the USSR (1968).
In honor of his memory, the Yuri Gulyaev Festival-Competition of Young Opera Singers was established in Russia and has gained state status. In Tyumen, a street and the Philharmonic Hall are named after him.
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