Nina Shatskaya: “I easily sing two parts with a live voice”

— Nina, tell us about your concert in the Kremlin, which will take place very soon.

“This is a solo concert that I’ve been working toward, probably, my entire creative life. It is very significant and eventful. The program will be varied. It’s called “From tenderness to passion.” Romances and original romances will be performed. There will be a little jazz, such a different palette, designed for different stories. It is noteworthy that the concert will be accompanied by an orchestra from Rybinsk, from my homeland, and it bears the name of my father, who created it.

The concert will take place not on the main stage – it would probably be strange, given my chamber genre, to sing in a huge hall – but in the Small Hall, although it is quite large in terms of the number of spectators. This is a hall for a thousand people.

— Is this your first solo performance in the Kremlin?

— The fact is that my first performance in the Kremlin also took place with this orchestra, when I was just a girl, after the tenth grade. My dad then took me with him to the Kremlin for the youth and student ball, which usually takes place at the end of December. I sang one song there. She performed in a white dress, very revealing for those times, which she specially sewed for her graduation party at school. And they chose the prom queen. In the end they chose me. And at that time I was working as the head of a rural club – there, near Rybinsk, there was a small village near a flour mill. The plant was already more than a hundred years old, and everyone called it “The Mill.”

— So you studied and worked?

— I wasn’t studying at the institute then. I graduated from tenth grade, and my parents and I sat down to think about where I should go. And I read a lot of books, studied music and did not pay much attention to school – I often visited my father at rehearsals. And when I graduated from school, it became unclear what I would do next. Because my father was very afraid to send me into the world of the stage. He understood that for a woman the fate of a singer is very difficult and that a very small number of performers manage to put both their personal lives and careers together. And he was afraid that the girl from Rybinsk would hardly be able to become a great artist; at the same time, he realized that if this did not happen, then my life would be ruined. I really wanted to play and sing. My parents didn’t understand what to do with me. And so, in order to get practice in the field of culture, I began to work as the head of a rural club. My mother was the director at a recreation center, she helped me.

— Were you interested, when you were very young?

— It was very interesting to work. I remember doing anniversary events, life was unexpected. Here I am, the head of the village club, coming with my dad for this evening. And I am chosen as prom queen. The presenter asks (after all, it was considered a student’s ball): “Where does our queen study?” And I was very naive. I say: “I am the head of the village club.” He laughed so hard! He was sure I was joking. And that’s how it really was. And then I sang my first song with the same orchestra in the Kremlin. It was December 1983. That is, it turns out that we are celebrating the anniversary of my first performance. And although, of course, I have stood on the Kremlin stage many times since then, this is my first solo concert at this iconic venue.

— Tell us about the orchestra that your father created and with which you will perform.

“Dad created this orchestra before I was born. Initially, he was amateur, performed any music, from Russian folk to Soviet song classics, and he played jazz. My father started with a small ensemble that played jazz at dances. The whole city knew him and loved him very much. The orchestra existed as a jazz orchestra for a very long time, before perestroika, more than 25 years. They were even able to record a record, a giant disc, at the Melodiya recording studio, having arrived as such a big band from Rybinsk, in just three shifts – in twelve hours. Thus, they set a record. For professionals who understand, this was an incredible event, because they usually write for a long time. Professional sound engineers could not believe that an amateur orchestra from Rybinsk could play like that. We were sure that soloists were invited. But they all grew up with dad in the orchestra. And over time, this orchestra became professional – the base orchestra of the Komsomol Central Committee, and played at colossal international festivals. Dad has been dead for more than twenty years, but the orchestra exists, led by his father’s student, the wonderful musician Oleg Gromov. He managed to refine the sound with a string group. Now it is a pop symphony orchestra. They repeatedly performed at the House of Music with variety programs. And sound engineers are always amazed by the beauty of the musicians’ sound.

— It turns out that he is truly dear to you?

“It is very important for me that the city gave the orchestra the name of my father. It turns out that it’s the same last name that I bear. In fact, we – both me and the orchestra – are the children of my father. And I will do everything in my power to popularize this team.

— Will you work alone in the Kremlin, without guests?

– One. I was thinking about the guests. Many artists agreed. But it’s already mid-December, the performers are very busy, these are very difficult times. And then, I easily sing two parts. I don’t need guests as support. There will be a beautiful couple dancing ballroom dances, and an instrumental orchestra with a very beautiful, still recognizable sound.

— Do you sing live for the entire concert?

– Certainly!

— You are a performer of a more classical genre; Have you ever thought about doing a show?

— In fact, I don’t chase special effects. But recently I had a concert with dressing up, with a change of genre. And I suddenly realized that I could do a show. I don’t mean I can handle it financially. What I’m saying is that I can visualize details. And I realized that I could physically do a dance show. For a long time I didn’t dare to dance, but I began to slowly return to it. Once, quite recently, at a concert show, I suddenly felt that this happens to artists! – something doesn’t work, doesn’t lend itself… And the audience is very friendly, but I can’t open up. And I had a very beautiful ballad in the program, and I started dancing to it. And suddenly I realized that I could, that the feeling of movement that I had had returned to me, but I did not allow myself to trust improvisation. And suddenly everything worked out. I then posted a video of this performance on the Internet, and everyone praised me very much and now asks me to continue in this style. Maybe in the future there will be a theatrical show with disguises and special lighting. I realized how I can do this. I know the thread on which all these numbers will be strung.

— You said about “author’s romances,” but you don’t write for yourself?

– No, I mean the romances written for me. I don’t write myself, although I so often interpret works in my own way that I think I could write myself. But, on the one hand, I’m lazy, on the other, I’m afraid to seem like a graphomaniac. This is not even an inferiority complex of mine, but a horror complex. I hate graphomaniacs.

– You still have to try.

– Maybe. It’s easy for me to write prose, but poetry is not. Maybe someday I’ll write something.

— Are tickets for the concert already on sale?

– Yes, for a long time. But this is a rare case when I don’t have to deal with technical issues. The Kremlin invited me, and they do the sales themselves. When I do concerts myself, I expect to be sold out. Although now I was doing a concert in Sochi, there was a small hall there – 400 seats. I didn’t even put up posters, but it was a full house. Or I just arrived from Yekaterinburg, where a large hall with a capacity of 1,000 was almost completely sold out. The reception was incredible, a very complex program – our performance with Grisha Siyatvinda. He reads Marquez, I sing. I have many halls that sell out.

— Serious producers told me that lately things close to the classics have gone off with a bang. Interest in them has increased sharply.

– Yes it is. I have a very complex program, which I love very much, and during the concert I read sonnets of the poet Blazheevsky. He has a wreath of sonnets of fourteen poems, called “Autumn Road”. When I read this five years ago, I became sick of them. I have never read poetry at a concert. But they entered into me so much, sprouted, that I was simply choked with despair at the mere thought that someone else would say this next to me. And I read these poems one by one, without deliberately taking a book, and I intersperse them with beautiful romances that I selected myself. And I am accompanied by an amazing guitarist from Krasnodar, Arthur Marutyants. I was sure that this program was difficult. She is listened to very well in chamber halls. But recently I introduced her to a club where very respectable people, spoiled by both life and art, were having dinner. I was amazed that for the entire hour or so that I was reading and singing, this audience sat speechless and listened in one breath. And the fact that this special audience, who had long distanced themselves from real life, entered this state was also a great happiness for me. That is, the public, even if jaded in many ways, is ready to engage in complex projects and move into emotional pain and respond to it. Not to mention a less blasé, but at the same time more emotional viewer.

True, the concert, which will take place in December in the Kremlin, is actually devoid of complex things. They will be, but without drama and tragedy.

— Will you strive to create a more New Year’s mood?

— Yes, the concert will include light New Year’s songs. Full of light, joy and love. Domestic and world masterpieces.