Khromushin, Oleg Nikolaevich

Born in the city of Salsk, Rostov Region.

From September 1944 to April 1950 he served in the Soviet Army, participated in the Great Patriotic War.
From April 1950 to June 1954 he was arrested on a denunciation (Articles 58-1 "a", "treason to the Motherland") and was under investigation on charges of writing ditties of anti-Soviet content in 1942 (aged 14-15 years). Sentenced by a military tribunal in Krasnodar to 10 years of camps and 5 years of defeat in rights. Staged for the construction of the Volga-Don Canal. He worked at the Stalingrad sawmill them. Kuibyshev loading logs.
Appointed in 1951 as a conductor of a brass band composed of prisoners.
In the summer of 1953 he was sent to the construction of the Kuibyshev hydroelectric station ^[1] .

He was released on June 11, 1954, he worked as the head of the amateur club in Stavropol on the Volga (now - Togliatti).
In 1956 he moved to Moscow. In the organization "Circus on stage" created a vocal and instrumental ensemble.
In 1959 he graduated from the School of Music in Rostov-on-Don with a degree in composition. There he directed the orchestra at the Rodina cinema.

In 1959, the Leningrad Conservatory entered the composition class of Professor V.N. Salmanov . He graduated from the conservatory in 1964.

The name Khromushin gained fame even during his studies at the Conservatory: at that time he already wrote music for two leading orchestras of the country: the Leningrad Radio conducted by A. Vladimirtsov and the USSR Radio and Television (conducted by Yu. Silantyev). Khromushin's thesis was also unusual for an academic university: a symphonic-jazz composition (Toccata for accordion and pop-symphony orchestra).

After graduating from the conservatory from 1964 to 1966 he worked as artistic director of the Lenkontsert jazz orchestra.
In 1964 he joined the Union of Composers.
In the early 1970s, he worked with the Bolshoi Children’s Choir of the USSR State Radio and Television under the direction of V. Popov. In the performance of this group, Khromushin's music sounded throughout the country and abroad (USA, Japan, Germany, Bulgaria and so on). Later, Khromushin began to write music for another well-known children's group - the Leningrad Radio Choir (conductors - Y. Slavnitsky and S. Gribkov).
In 1978, for the song “How Many Us?” In the words of L. Kuklin, he received the first prize at the International Competition “Children's Musical Feast”.

He died in 2003, was buried at the Novodevichy cemetery in St. Petersburg.

Oleg Khromushin is the author of 300 songs, almost two dozen musical and theatrical opuses. The main feature of Khromushin’s music is contact, sociability. In the works of Khromushin, jazz and academic music are closely intertwined. Paying tribute to symphonic jazz, Khromushin considered the so-called “third” direction to be more promising, in which not the synthesis but the polyphony of genres dominates, and the specificity of each remains untouchable.

The composer and traditional forms fill the rhythms and intonations of modern pop music in the opera Boy with Green Fingers (based on a fairy tale by M. Druon) and in the mini-opera Surgery (after A. Chekhov).

Since 1970 - Head of the Department of Wind Instruments at the N. Krupskaya Institute of Culture. Since 1993 - Head of the Department of Musical Art at St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions . Professor.

An original combination of academic professionalism with jazz principles of music-making lies at the heart of the pedagogical methodology used by O. Khromushin and inherited by his students and followers. This principle is implemented in the original series of musical collections founded by Khromushin - “I want to learn jazz!”.

Oleg Nikolaevich [Khromushin] is known for his pedagogical work. In music schools, his collections “Jazz compositions in the repertoire of children's music schools”, “Jazz solfeggio”, and “A textbook of jazz improvisation for music schools” are used. ^[2]

Pedagogical musical series “I want to learn jazz!”

The goal of the series is to give novice musicians an idea of ​​the nature of jazz music and its laws (style - traditional jazz). Each of the episodes of the series is dedicated to a certain type of “jazz material”, with the help of which one gets acquainted with popular melodies, rhythmic structures of jazz, the principles of improvisation. Each of the episodes of the series is dedicated to a certain type of “jazz material”, with the help of which one gets acquainted with popular melodies, rhythmic structures of jazz, the principles of improvisation.

Oleg Khromushin adheres to the view that the path to musical art for a child with a lively and “informal” perception of the environment often lies precisely through jazz music making:

- When the war started, I was already 14 years old, one Russian family was evacuated from Kiev to our city. There was a boy with them. Once he sat down at the piano and played jazz. At first I was dumbfounded, then rushed to him. We met right away, and he showed me various chords, jazz transitions. I began to imitate, improvise, and, surprisingly, I did it! Since then, he truly fell in love with music. And through jazz he entered other musical genres and styles. ^[3]

Series Collections

• Oleg Khromushin . Textbook of jazz improvisation.
• Oleg Khromushin . Gentleman's set for a beginner jazzman. Appendix to the textbook of jazz improvisation.
• Oleg Khromushin . Ten pieces for beginner jazz musicians. For the piano.
• Oleg Khromushin . Jazz solfeggio.
• Compilation and arrangement of Oleg Khromushin . Pieces in the manner of jazz. For chamber ensembles. ^[four]

• 1992 - Bride from Paris
• 1987 - Planet of New Year trees (film-play)
• 1987 - Looking for a friend of life
• 1984 - Chelyuskintsy
• 1982 - In the old rhythms
• 1977 - The Naked King (film production)
• 1974 - Girl and the Lion
• 1974 - The Great Tamer
• 1971 - Mr. Twister (Short)
• 1970 - Raging Margarita ^[5]
• 1969 - Francoise (operetta film)

• Why is the hare tail? : songs on verses by Oleg Serdobolsky. SPb. : Composer, 2002.
• Why cool the fire? : songs for children. SPb. : Composer, 2004.
• How many of us! : songs for children: for piano (button accordion) with text. L.: Soviet composer, 1984. ^[6]

• Tombstone on the grave of O.N. Khromushin at the Novodevichy cemetery in St. Petersburg