Михаил Гулько

Mikhail Gulko (born July 23, 1931, Kharkov, Ukrainian SSR, USSR) is a Soviet and American singer and musician, performer of Russian chanson. Born in Kharkov on July 23, 1931. His father was a well-known person in the city - a bookseller's accountant, and his mother was an actress, pianist and singer, so a musical atmosphere always reigned in the house. From childhood he studied music, sang at amateur art evenings with his mother's accompaniment, later he began to play the accordion and often performed at dances and school evenings with musical accompaniment. After school, he graduated from the Mining Department of the Moscow Polytechnic Institute, most actively combining studies at the institute with performances in restaurants, on the stage, dancing and private concerts. After graduation, he worked as a mining engineer at the design institute and mines of Donbass, and then he was offered a job in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky. In Kamchatka, he worked as the head of a vocal and instrumental ensemble, and graduated from a music school there. By this time, his style of perception of life and its image in the song had already taken shape. He became one of the first in the genre of modern urban romance. Then there was a stable myth about the camp past of Mikhail Gulko. It is clear that the genre of the singer, the theme of his songs and incredible artistry became the reason for these rumors. Nevertheless, he did not sit in prisons, but he had many performances in these places. Once he got to the camp with a concert, since then he has come to camps and prisons dozens of times and always free of charge. In 1980 he left for the USA, in New York he continued to work as a musician and singer, since 1993 he toured Russia. His first album Blue Sky of Russia, which included the popular songs Lieutenant Golitsyn, White Birch, Echelon, Kolyma, was released in 1981. Then, in 1984, there was a second album - “Burnt Bridges” (songs “Lord Officers”, “Farewell to the Motherland”, “Fags”, “Birches in the Zone”). In 1985, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War, he released the CD "Songs of the War Years", and in 1996 - the CD "Abroad", several songs of which were written in collaboration with Mikhail Tanich. The title song from the album sounds performed by Gulko in A. Eyramdzhan's comedy "Prima Donna Mary". In 1999, his songs were released in the Legends of Russian Chanson series, and in 2002 - in the Grand Collection series. In 2006, a DVD disc with the concert film "The Fate of an Immigrant" by Mikhail Gulko was released in Ukraine. In 2007, the publishing house "Dekom", in the series "Russian Chansonniers", published Mikhail Gulko's autobiography "The Fate of an Emigrant" (author-compiler M. Kravchinsky) with a musical audio application of the best songs. Every year Mikhail Gulko comes to Russia with concerts.