Sometimes it happens that songs literally skip past the listener, and there are those that sink into the soul so deeply that they do not stop singing from generation to generation. In the 70s of the last century, the Veras quartet appeared. The group originally consisted of some girls. On the eve of the All-Union Contest of Variety Artists, the ensemble was supplemented by musicians and turned into a vocal-instrumental ensemble, which bewitched both the jury and the audience with their performance.
Team History
The idea of creating a vocal ensemble of singing girls arose among students graduating from the conservatory. The reflector of the idea was one of them - Taisiya Tlekhuch. The idea was supported by the Belarusian State Philharmonic, and the quartet Verasa (Heather Flowers) was created in the image of the Pesnyary male group. Initially, it was a quartet, which is the backing vocals of Eduard Mitsuly, Honored Artist of Belarus. Composition of the Veras quartet: Yadviga Poplavskaya, T. Tlekhuch, L. Shemetkova, R. Tarasova. The following year, L. Isupova and N. Mikulich joined the team.
In 1974, as mentioned above, the quartet was replenished with musicians, and began to be called VIA Veras. The ensemble in the same year became the laureate of the All-Union Competition of Variety Artists. The invited musicians were Alexander Tikhanovich, and Vasily Rainchik. The latter subsequently became the leader of the ensemble.
Touring activities
VIA "Verasy" takes part in regular tours with concert programs for Komsomol construction sites, takes part in concerts dedicated to significant dates, performs in military camps in front of military personnel. The ensemble takes part in festivals dedicated to political song. In Helsinki, at the Veras festival, they received the title of laureate, and they brought a prestigious prize from the Red Poppy International Festival.
The full composition of the Verasa group is touring with famous artists. Together with the American singer, director and actor Dean Reed, the group gave concerts in Siberia and BAM.
I know how sometimes it is difficult to work with me, but with these guys I had a complete understanding. Veras is not only highly professional artists and musicians, but also wonderful people with a beautiful soul and a big heart (Dean Reed)
In 1980, the ensemble participated in the Golden Orpheus festival among invited guests. In the same year, the song "Robin" was broadcast, which became the ensemble's business card. In 1983, the ensemble was invited to television to record the New Year program, where the song "Carnival" was first performed.
On whom does longevity of songs depend? Of course, the palm belongs to their authors. If there were no author, there would be no song. But their hits are made by performers who not only perform the song, but also convey to the viewer what is called the soul of the song - the author’s idea. The song "Carnival" was a hit, performed for several years at concerts and at the "Lights".
Discography
Veras are best known for their hit songs: Robin, Zavirukha, Carnival, and I Live With My Grandmother. The company "Balkanton" in 1978 recorded the album "Red Poppies", which included twelve songs, among which the most famous:
- "Red Poppies";
- "I was traveling from Berlin";
- "We stay in the songs."
In 1980, the company "Melody" presents the next album of the group called "Our Disco". It included ten songs, among which:
- "Our disco";
- "Snowman";
- "Robin".
In 1981, the company "Melody" recorded another hit - "I live with my grandmother." As Alexander Tikhanovich said, the ensemble was thanked for the song, as it was aimed at improving the demographic situation in the Soviet Union.
In 1985, “Melody” released a disc with fifteen songs, among which the most famous and popular were:
- "Music for all";
- "City of youth";
- "And life goes on";
- "Caravan";
- "Carnival".
Group breakup
For almost two decades, the success of the Verasa group did not leave. Its composition was updated, and the repertoire was constantly updated with new songs, which became popular almost after the first performance. Popularity, prestige and inconceivable press release about Tikhanovich ...
The world is not without good people. Someone really did not like the popularity of soloists Jadwiga Poplavskaya and Alexander Tikhanovich. Intrigues began. As A. Tikhanovich later said, they wanted to put him in a negative light - as a group leader pretending to be a place, which he did not even think about.
We worked happily, everything was fine, everything was in order. Then there was a case due to which I had to leave this team. Rather, I didn’t have to, I was there ... As always, someone appears, somewhere, some intrigues begin, and I also got into such an intrigue.
(Alexander Tihanovich)
The case against Tikhanovich
In the Soviet Union, it was simply impossible to fire a person from work, and there were no good reasons for that. So, a trick was invented with the alleged use of marijuana by the artist and its implementation. The case was fabricated when the artists toured in Central Asia. The press instantly reacted with a devastating article in the newspaper Sovetskaya Kultura. Subsequently, it became clear that everything in this case was sewn with white thread, the evidence was far-fetched. But Alexander Tikhanovich did not work in the Verasa team. Jadwiga left with him. This happened in 1986.
After the departure of a popular couple from VIA Veras, the life of the ensemble continued. New artists came. In 1996, after leaving Dorofeeva’s team, who decided to pursue a solo career, and after the head of the ensemble began to lead the Youth Variety Theater, Veras ceased to exist. But the legacy from the past VIA remains in the form of hundreds of songs, two giant CDs and many hits that are still sung to this day.
They were connected by music
After leaving Veras, Poplavskaya and Tikhanovich created the group "Happy Chance" in honor of the song that was performed at the festival "Song of the Year", where they became its laureates. Jadwiga and Alexander from their previous work left nostalgia for their favorite songs, but they did not stop there. The creative tandem Poplavskaya-Tikhanovich was created in Minsk by the Song Theater , in which young promising Belarusian performers took part . In 1991, Y. Poplavskaya and A. Tikhonovich received the title of Honored Artists of Belarus. In 2005 they were awarded the title of People's Artists of Belarus. Until the last minute of his life, Alexander Tikhanovich was associated with music.
Years passed, and the former leader of the Verasa group, V. P. Rainchik, decided to revive them. Now the new ensemble is led by his son - Sergey Rainchik (wearing glasses in the photo above). The ensemble is a frequent guest of the festival "Legends of Retro FM". The youth, which is now part of the Verasy group, is a blank sheet from which the history of the new ensemble begins. He, as the former leader says, is not just an ensemble, but a phenomenon in the Belarusian culture.