#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. This is Taimyr continues telling about the winners of the Nornickel corporate competition – Stars Corporation. This time our guest is Valery Savitsky, who won in the nomination Best solo performance in an instrumental direction.
By 2020, Valery had taken part in the Stars Corporation for the fourth time.
For the competition, he recorded two videos: one – in collaboration with Andrey Bobrikov, who plays the hanga (a percussion instrument consisting of two connected metal hemispheres. – Ed. Note), and vocalist Olga Vinogradova. That video was not successful, but his solo work was awarded. Valery played his own music.
It is interesting that he does not consider himself a composer – in the full sense of the word – he is just familiar with the basics of musical composition, knows the notes on the guitar fretboard, the construction of scales, some complex sets, but most importantly, he is constantly learning new things. This is the only way to make and play a truly complex, memorable piece, the author believes. By the way, he didn’t write the music on purpose for the last performance – it was ready, but he hadn’t performed it at the Stars Corporation before. The composition remained without a name – Valery laughs that it is more difficult for him than coming up with the music itself.
“Where do I get inspiration? I can’t name one thing. It happens, just a good mood, I pick up a guitar, and the music is born by itself. And it sometimes I force myself to write something. I am thinking, choosing notes”, he confides.
The passion for the guitar began, as it often happens, in his youth: at the age of 15, Valery’s classmate boasted of a new instrument, and our hero realized that he also wanted to play. The parents understood their son’s hobby and presented the young man with an instrument for the New Year. Then there were different periods: playing in a group and solo, mastering the electric guitar and heavy metal, acoustic guitar and complex, lyrical compositions.
“I went with two classmates to the local House of Youth’s Creativity. One played, like me, on the guitar, the other – on the drums. In general, there are many musicians in the city, we are friends with some, we communicate, and at the Copper Plant we even have a guitar club, which I lead, and anyone can come join it”, notes Valery.
Valery plans to launch his videos on YouTube and Instagram. He emphasizes the complexity of the guitar compositions when he performs solo – in this way the guitarist compensates for the number of performers and instruments.
Among his favorite masters are American virtuoso guitarists John Petrucci and Andy McKee, British Mike Davis, Italian Luca Strucanioli. Valery believes that you need to learn from masters in order to raise your own level. But, unfortunately, he has never been to the concerts of these performers, but he does not lose hope.
In the previous article about the Stars Corporation winners we told about Victoria Popova’s hobby for woodcarving.
Text: Maria Sokolova, Photo: from the personal archive of Valery Savitsky
