Petya Houdjakov

Petja Houdjakov (bourgeois Peter Houdjakov; Russian Пётр Александрович Худяков ; born August 4, 1934 in Sofia ) is an Austrian musician, dancer and actor. He is the founder and choirmaster of the Bolshoi Don Kosaken .

Life

Houdjakov comes from a Cossack family from Rostov-on-Don . His parents, who are Soviet citizens, lived in Bulgaria for a while. His father was a master tailor and sewed the uniforms for General Tolbuchin and the soldiers of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in his workshop. After the Second World War , the parents returned to Rostov. He stayed in Bulgaria because, as a passionate diver , he wanted to study at the Naumov Sailor Institute in Varna .

His interest shifted to dance, so that from 1952 he appeared and was trained at the St. Makedonski Music Theater in Sofia. He stayed there until 1965. In the meantime, he completed postgraduate studies in ballet and choreography at the Kirov Ballet in St. Petersburg. As a member of the theater in Sofia he played in the 1964/65 season at the Dresden State Opera .

This was followed by engagements in Vienna at the Raimundtheater and Theater an der Wien , where he was until 1968 and became a popular dance partner of Marika Rökk . Parallel to the theater, he began playing the accordion as a Russian musician in Viennese restaurants . He completed his skills with a few semesters at the Prayner Conservatory in Vienna. In addition, he worked on a few commercials and clips, such as the TV series Beyond the Dawn .

In the theater he met his first wife Elisabeth, a make-up artist. This marriage comes from daughter Alexandra (born August 24, 1975), who is an Austrian rock, soul, blues and jazz singer. In 1979 Houdjakov moved to Berlin , where he founded the Bolshoi Don Kosaken . There he also ran the Ivuschka restaurant .

In 1983 his marriage ended in divorce; since 1987 he has lived with his second wife Valerie, pianist and singer, in Strasshof on the north railway . Their home is also called the "Cossack House" because the singers stay there during the tour. Together they founded the agency Konzertdirektion Lera , which Valerie heads and manages the Bolshoi Don Kosaken choir .

In 2014 there was an exhibition on Houdjakov's life's work in the Soshenitsyn house in Moscow. In 2015 she was seen in Vienna at the Russian Cultural Institute. At both events, Petja Houdjakov gave a concert with his wife Valerie and daughter Alexandra as well as the soloists of the Bolshoi Don Kosaken . In 2016 the exhibition was shown on the occasion of the Marchfeld fair in Strasshof on the northern railway .

Artistic creation

He gained fame with his Bolshoi Don Kosaken choir . For 30 years they have traditionally been performing on December 23 with the big Christmas concert in the Wiener Konzerthaus . There are also countless other concerts and performances in Austria and all of Europe. Statistics were drawn up for Houdjakov's 80th birthday, counting 10,000 appearances from 1968 to 2014.

After the publication of his first music cassette Street Songs, invitations to private and official events and to concerts followed, where his songs also contributed to international understanding and to the relaxation of the political situation between East and West. For this Houdjakov received numerous honors (see below).

other projects

Together with his wife, he created the Bolshoi Don Kosaken project in a different way . The soloists of the choir sing arias and choirs from various operas and operettas. The Slavic Tenors with the soloists Lubomir Diakovski, Konstantin Iankov, Grigorii Palishchuk and at the piano Rossiza Diakovska are just as much his creation as the Ensemble Sharada and the vocal ballet Rasputin , in which the classical ballet, supplemented with modern elements, together with the choir the story the legendary Russian character Rasputin on stage.

Honors

On behalf of the Bolshoi Don Kosaken, choir director Petja Houdjakov has already received several awards (see below). One of the most important, however, is the one that he and the choir received in St. Petersburg in January 2018. The Cossack head - ataman of the Cossack community in St. Petersburg "Nevska Setsch" Poliakov Vjatscheslav Anatoljevic - presented Peter Houdjakov with a medal in the house of the Cossack painter Sergei Morozov for the revival of the Cossack culture, tradition and customs. This is the highest award among the Cossacks, as it represents the recognition of the Bolshoi Don Cossacks as the actual successors of the Don Cossack Choir Serge Jaroff . In his address, Ataman emphasized that the Cossacks are grateful to the choir for spreading the songs internationally in accordance with the Cossack tradition.

• 2019 Pushkin Medal for Prof. Petja Houdjakov
• 2018 Medal of the Cossack Community of St. Petersburg
• 2014 Culture Prize from the market town of Strasshof an der Nordbahn
• 2014 Cross of Honor for Science and Art
• 2012 Gold Medal for Services to the Federal State of Lower Austria
• 2007 Russian medal "Peter the Great" (2nd degree)
• 2007 Russian Gold Medal "Services to Culture"
• 2005 Gold Medal of Merit of the Federal State of Burgenland for cultural merit
• 2001 Appreciation for Services to Russian Culture Abroad
• 2001 Awarded the professional title "Professor"
• 2000 plaque from the Humboldt University for cultural merit in Berlin
• 1996 gold record from EMI Austria
• 1994 Gold Medal of Merit of the State of Vienna for cultural merit

social commitment

Petja Houdjakov is involved with the Bolshoi Don Kosaken choir in many charity guest performances and concerts such as Licht ins Dunkel , the Möwe association , St. Stephen's Cathedral , St. Anna Children's Hospital and many other Austrian and Russian organizations.

Solo CDs

• Unknown Russia
• My Russia
• The vastness of the sea
• Russky Chanson
• Street songs (MC was transferred to CD by Russian collectors in 2017)

For recordings with the Bolshoi Don Kosaken choir , see there.

DVDs

• The artist
• The song our companion

Web links

• Site of the Bolshoi Don Cossacks
• Petja Houdjakov at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Gallery of the Bolshoi Don Kosaken ( Memento from January 13, 2020 in the Internet Archive )