Uzkikh, Fedor Spiridonovich

Born into a peasant family in the village of Konevskoye (now Yugo-Konevo) of the Yekaterinburg district of the Perm province . Here he graduated from elementary school. From childhood, he sang in the church choir, and having learned the basics of musical notation in 1888, he became its leader. In 1896, he was invited in writing by the Zemsky chief to take the place of regent and teacher of singing in the primary school of the village of Beloyarskoye . At the same time, at the local teahouse, he organized a rural choir of adults and children ^[1] .

In 1897, Fyodor Spiridonovich was sent to Yekaterinburg to the folk singing courses of the Perm Provincial Committee of Guardianship of National Sobriety, which was led by Alexander Dmitrievich Gorodtsov , an opera singer and public figure. At the end of the courses in 1899, he took the place of the regent of the Alexander Nevsky (Luzinsky) Church in Yekaterinburg, where he organized a choir of lovers of singing. At the same time, Uzkikh was invited to become a member of the music club at the Yekaterinburg Public Assembly.

Since 1898, he was a singing teacher in the 1st and 2nd Ekaterinburg girls' gymnasiums, taught courses in the Perm Provincial Committee for Guardianship of Popular Sobriety in Yekaterinburg, combining teaching with the organization of free folk singing courses at the Yekaterinburg County Committee for Guardianship of Popular Sobriety. The choir of students under his leadership took part in the most important cultural events of the city, including the opening of the Verkh-Isetsky Theater and the Opera and Ballet Theater .

From 1917 to 1922 held the position of a county instructor of singing in the Yekaterinburg Department of Education, conducted singing courses in Kaslya, Kyshtym, Nevyansk, Shadrinsk. During this period, due to the lack of special musical and singing literature, he composed poetry music for drama performances, anniversaries (a total of 20 songs of his own composition, 27 with borrowed tunes), and made several trips for practical instruction in schools, correctional houses, reading rooms and clubs with the purpose of promoting a song repertoire of a revolutionary nature.

After the abolition of the position of a singing instructor in 1922, he taught in Sverdlovsk schools, in the Tatar-Bashkir pedagogical school and other educational institutions in Sverdlovsk, organized a section for singing teachers, led the choral circles of the Sverdlovsk Communist Club, the Communist University, organized choral groups at clubs and schools, at the Chernousovsky weaving factory "Red Weaver".

Last jobs - Sverdlovsk secondary schools No. 2 and No. 3, Sverdlovsk Pedagogical College.

He was awarded silver (1915) and gold (1916) medals “For diligence”, a letter “Hero of Labor” (1921) of the All-Russian Union of Education Workers.

He died on March 8, 1936.