ALL-UNION MAESTRO RAIMOND PAULS

Raymond Pauls is a true symbol of elegance, which does not change its tastes: one love for life, in clothes – only a tail coat and black and white color, true to the classics in music, in variety art – lyrics. The author of the music of such hits, as “Yellow Leaves”, “Vernissage”, “Maestro”, “Vintage Clock” and many others. Quite a lot for one composer, but Raymond Pauls continues to write, even when he is involved in public affairs.

Glassblower son
The future composer was born in Riga on January 12, 1936. His father, Waldemar Pauls, was a glassblower at the time, his mother Alma-Matilda was a housewife. The father, under the impression of the book “Paganini” by Arthur Kubert, decided that his son should learn to play the violin. He bought Raymond an instrument and identified it as a pupil of a children’s musical garden at the Riga Music Institute. It was on the eve of the entry of the Soviet troops …

In 1943, when Raymond went to school, his father sent his family away from the bombings in one of the villages. There, the boy studied at a local school, and at the age of 10 he entered a special music school named after Emil Darzin at the Latvian State Conservatory. But the study was not easy for the boy. Thanks to the talented teacher Olga Borovskaya, Raymond gradually felt a taste for playing the piano. Not the last role was played by candies, which the teacher secretly handed out to the most capable schoolchildren.

In love with jazz
While still a student of the music school, Pauls became very interested in jazz and started playing at dance parties. Composer Raymond Pauls. By his own admission, he “rushed into jazz like a pool.” George Gershwin became a favorite composer, and most of all, young Raymond was impressed by the fact that pianist George Gershwin had neither a general nor a special musical education.

Dancing absorbed all the free time of Raymond Pauls, but he received an invaluable practice of playing music without notes, from memory. And where the notes were still needed, he learned to quickly read from the sheet. In the summer of 1953, Raymond filed documents at the Latvian State Conservatory and was accepted into the performing department. As a student, he worked part-time as an accompanist at a music school, without abandoning his usual dance floor.

Odessa muse Raimond Pauls
composer Raymond Pauls wife
1958 was held under the sign “Farewell to the Conservatory!”. The choice is made – Riga Pop Orchestra. And with him tour: Georgia, Armenia, Ukraine. The scene, giving an extraordinary burst of energy, immediately took them away. After the curtain fell, it was necessary to relieve tension. And, as often happens with artists, with the help of alcohol. Among the cities in which Pauls first tour took place is Odessa. One of the local beauties, Svetlana Epifanova, or, as her family was called, Lana, had an amazing fate – to become the muse of Raymond Pauls. His marriage to Lana is one of the most amazing examples of marital fidelity, which lasts more than fifty years. After so much time at concerts, Raymond sometimes plays the melody of his love – one of the first songs of Gershwin. “When I play this melody, it seems to me that I am in Odessa. After all, Gershwin is from there … ”the maestro admits. In early 1962, the daughter Aneta was born near Raymond and Lana. This greatly influenced Paul’s decision to stop drinking …

Acknowledgment by Raymond Pauls
To become a professional, Raymond returned to the student’s bench: he again studies at the conservatory, but now – composition. And in 1964 he became artistic director of the Riga Variety Orchestra. His music has become recognizable.
On November 27, 1968 in the Concert Hall of the Latvian State Philharmonic Society the premiere of the first author’s program of Raymond Pauls took place. He himself was amazed: all the tickets to the composer Raymond Pauls bought this evening! Moreover, there were no tickets for the following. Inspired with success, the musicians embarked on a tour of the republic, which was a great success, but for some reason they were silenced in the press. In fact, Pauls and the orchestra set out to create national popular music.

A few years later he headed the Modo ensemble. The song “Yellow Leaves Swirling Over the City” appeared in 1975 and immediately became the most popular hit of the year: it sounded on radio and in all restaurants from Riga to Magadan, not to mention Jurmala. Vacationers from all over the Soviet Union in every Jurmala squash heard this melody.

Maestro Aneta’s daughter grew up in a creative atmosphere: Raymond had many talented people among his friends, almost all of the pop stars in their house. Once for Anete’s birthday, Andrei Mironov decided to teach her to dance “for real”. As Pauls’s daughter recalls, “he didn’t count our fashionable parables-claps”. Surprisingly, Raymond, the famous “pioneer” of pop stars, has banned his daughter from being a singer!

Raymond Pauls – the symbol of the musical era
The finest hour came for the maestro when his creative alliance with Alla Pugacheva was formed. And nowadays the songs “Maestro”, “Old Clock”, “Million Scarlet Roses”, “Without Me”