Actually, I told O. Sevastyanova, the text author, that such verses were of no use today, but I liked them and would set them to music just for myself. Alexander Tyschenko arranged it for a band. Later he called me and said, ¢ I can’t sleep for two nights already. Let me sing it.’ And he did. While listening to the record, I realized it was a hit. Over the recent years my songs were performed by Taisia Povaliy, Vasyl Zinkevich, Vitaly Bilonozhko, Oksana Bilozir, Pavlo Zibrov, Ivo Bobul, Lilia Sandulesa, Valentina Stepova, duet Svitjaz, Jan Tabachnik, Cergiy Afanasiev, Tetyana Nedilska, Nadia Shostak, Nina Shestakova, Ruslana Lyzhychko, Phillip Zhmaher, Vahtang Kikabidze, Biser Kirov, Irene Skazina, Baron and Music Step group. Some songs on Krischenko and Galabyarda’s texts were performed by Alla Kobyljanska. I am also writing songs for young singers, such as Andriy Kravchuk, Eugene Vlasova And Nazariy Yaremchuk’s sons.

Beside pop music you tried yourself in classical music and in ...

Well, it’s a great layer in my works stock. I wrote an opera-ballad The Blind by T. Shevchenko’s motifs. I also composed for Kyiv, Moscow and Leningrad Music Halls, in particular musicals Love Is a Golden Book by Eleksey Tolstoy, God Mother, etc.

Tell please how your Concerto for a trumpet and a symphony orchestra was performed in New York along with Tchaikovsky and Glazunov's music.

Well, it happened by chance in 1989. We celebrated my wife’s birthday in Maxim restaurant. Two gloomy men were sitting at the table nearby and we invited them to make us a company and our invitation was accepted. They turned out to be Americans. At 4 a.m. I presented to one of them, John by name, my score and gave him my telephone number. John was small while the score was large and, to be frank, I was then sure he would drop it. In a half-year I received a letter from the New York Art Academy. I was invited by the Academy to participate in the concert of classical music, where Tchaikovsky and Glazunov and Zlotnik’s works would be performed.

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