Mikhail Gulko performed his best works in the genres of urban romance and Russian chanson. The singer lives in America, but annually comes to his homeland on tour. In the biography of the chansonnier there was no term in the camps, while he liked to speak to prisoners and did it for free. From the prison public, this man was charged with energy, which nourished his creative powers.
early years
Mikhail Gulko was born on July 23, 1931 in Ukraine, in the city of Kharkov. His mother was an actress, singer and pianist, his father was an accountant at a bookseller. Music in this house sounded often. Mikhail Gulko grew up under the records of Yuri Morfessi, Konstantin Sokolsky and Petr Leshchenko. The boy learned early to play the accordion.
While studying in the second grade, the student received a diploma for winning the amateur competition. This award was the first in the artist’s life, and it became for him the most expensive. The future performer spent wartime in the Urals in evacuation. Every day, returning from school, the boy ran to the market, near the entrance there, on a small trolley, a legless sailor in a uniform and a peak was sitting.
Next to him was a girl with a scythe. The sailor, under the accordion, performed a war song, which Mikhail remembered for his whole life. The boy listened to the song with the audience and cried. The musician today has not forgotten this music and words, but does not perform this song at concerts, he admits that tears interfere with him.
At school, the young man participated in amateur performances, sang and played in dances and evenings. However, in his early years, Mikhail did not plan to connect his future life with vocals. He did not succumb to the entreaties of his parents and became a student at the Moscow Polytechnic Institute, where he chose the mining faculty. However, the young man did not quit music.
After college couples, he performed in restaurants, on the pop stage, gave private concerts, and played dance. To earn a living in Moscow, a student, along with compatriot Lyudmila Gurchenko, who was also born in Kharkov, traveled to the Moscow Region with concerts.
Speeches stopped at a time when devastating newspaper articles appeared about the main actress of Carnival Night. She was accused of "unearned income." After graduating from the capital's university, Mikhail began working as an engineer at the Yuzhgiproshakht Design Institute. The future musician visited the mines of Donbass, went down to the miners, saw how anthracite dust covered the faces of the workers.
After the shift, Mikhail washed off coal dirt from himself and headed to the club to sing. It was in the design research institute that the future musician met Vadim Mulerman, who later became famous thanks to the hit “Lada” and performed on the stage.
Music
Mikhail Gulko went to the North in the mid-sixties. It was in Kamchatka that the engineer changed his occupation and became the leader of the orchestra. In the Magadan restaurant called "Ocean" this group performed. VIA soon appeared in the institution, and the Kharkov vocalist headed it. In Kamchatka, the performer graduated from a specialized school, having received a musical education.
Discography
All the songs of Mikhail Gulko were included in several albums, the first of which was published in 1981 and received the name "Blue Sky of Russia". The artist also owns the following musical collections: “Burned Bridges”, “Songs of the War Years”, “Abroad”, “New York-Moscow”, “On the Continent”, “The Fate of the Emigrant”, “Old Photography”, “Unsung Songs”.
Personal life
Mikhail Gulko was married three times. He first married in his early youth. Wife Anna gave birth to his daughter Tatyana. The family life of young people did not work out, the couple broke up. Soon, the performer met a new love and visited the registry office again. With his second wife, the singer emigrated to America, and his first wife went there with her daughter.