#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. A children’s music studio appeared back in 1948, and in 1955 a music school opened in a two-story building on Kirov street. At the same time, a specialized building’s construction began. The architect of the project was a graduate of the Riga university, a former Norillag prisoner, architect Jakob Trushinsh.
At first it was planned to create a musical school based on the drawings of a small standard school. But Trushinsh decided to change the project, increasing the number of floors, complicating the decoration and, most importantly, adding a concert hall with 400 seats. He suggested using it not only for educational classes, but also for holding city concerts. The chief architect of the Norilsk project, Vitold Nepokoichitsky, was jealous of this architectural initiative.
In addition to Trushinsh, a whole ensemble of specialists worked on the external decoration and ceremonial interiors, but the main parts still belonged to him, as well as to the design engineer Lev Frantsman, who skillfully designed the dome of the hall, on which the acoustics depended.
From the memoirs of Jakob Trushiņsh: “I had a conflict with Nepokoychitsky about the music school, the project of which I significantly changed. Then he refused to lead this project and formally handed it over to Mazmanyan. Mazmanyan practically did not interfere in the project, and, where necessary, he protected me from Nepokoichitsky. In general, all construction and finishing took place under my supervision. The author and designer of this project was Lev Franzman, he designed the elegant thin domed covering of the concert hall. The beautiful furniture was designed by Nikolay Lebedev, the architectural details of the facades and interior spaces were designed by Mikhail Vuytsyk. The capitals of the columns were painted by Lyudmila Zhiltsova”.
The construction of the building was not easy, construction was frozen, then resumed again. This is how Norilsk resident Vladimir Rassadin, the son of the Norilsk Drama Theater’s musical department’s head, recalled this: “The construction of a music school began near our house, naturally, it was built by prisoners. The construction site was surrounded by a plank fence with barbed wire on top and towers at the corners. We established friendly barter relations with the prisoners. We climbed onto the roof of the house and threw a loaf of bread, a pack of tea, a hundred grams of butter over the fence, and in exchange they threw us wonderfully made pistols and sabers made of wood. We wondered how one could give such things in exchange for such nonsense as tea, butter and the like. After some time, the construction stopped, and we did not understand why. We didn’t hear anything about rehabilitation, which was quite natural for our age”.
The music school building was handed over in parts: first, in 1958, the main, educational part, and a year later – the concert hall. It is interesting that in the acceptance order, dated May 15, 1959, there is the following clause: “Assign a name to the concert hall of the music school named after May 9”.
As a result, instead of a standard school building, the city received its own hall with excellent acoustics, not inferior to the best venues in the country. It hosted not only all concerts, but also social events. For example, deputies of the City Council first met there, and the first exhibitions of paintings were held in the foyer. As architect Larisa Nazarova wrote, “the building of the music school, elegant, like a bride in a white dress, stood out with its purity and nobility against the background of gray buildings. It remained unique for many years. For example, in Krasnoyarsk the concert hall was designed and built only in the 1980s”.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we talked about how the shopping, social and household facilities of Talnah changed.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Norilsk people and Nornickel Polar Branch’s archives, Alexander Haritonov
