Tall, stately and similar to Paul McCartney, Gennady Ponomarev at first did not impress the singer Zhanna Bichevskaya.
When he first met, he presented the future wife with a cassette of his songs, and then for a long time he sent postcards with verses of his own composition without a signature. Zhanna Bichevskaya did not immediately guess who her most ardent admirer was.
Biography of Ponomarev Gennady Robertovich
Gennady's birthplace is the city of Tula, which he dearly loves and comes on tour. The house and apartment where the poet and musician was born are still preserved and are his place of inspiration, peace and memories. The year of birth of Gennady Ponomarev is 1957, this year the poet and songwriter has 60 years of anniversary.
Gennady’s father Robert Serafimovich loved music very much, had his own tape recorder and, noticing his son’s musical abilities, sent him to a music school. Mom was in solidarity with her father, she sang perfectly. The boy learned to play the guitar himself, the guys in the yard showed only a few chords. It turned out that the guitar is “his” instrument, which makes unique sounds, the boy wrote several songs almost immediately.
Thanks to his own creativity, Gennady Ponomarev, after graduating from high school, was accepted into the professional team of the city of Tula, which held rehearsals in the local Palace of Culture.
Army
In the late seventies, when he received a summons from the military enlistment office, Major Eleev, the head of the club of the Kremlin regiment, arrived in Tula. The handsome and tall Gennady Ponomarev fell into his troops and it so happened that he began to play in the ensemble of the Kremlin regiment. Together with other soldiers, Gennady performed at concerts, festivals and even managed to write a song about post No. 1.
It was a time of physical and spiritual maturity of a young man. Motivated by uncertain feelings, Gennady Ponomarev went to the library of the Kremlin regiment and at that Soviet, godless time, he wanted to read the bible. His desire was granted and the young man periodically began to study the book of life.
Spiritual development
But this did not go unnoticed, one of the ensemble members reported to his superiors that Ponomarev was "inside rotten and reads the Bible." The young man was called "to the carpet" and the regiment's political officer, Lieutenant Colonel Eliseev, issued a strict verdict. He was exiled to the city of Solnechnogorsk to the higher military courses "Shot".
Gennady Ponomarev discusses this page in his biography as a believer. On the eve of the transfer, he was sent to an outfit in the St. George Hall of the Kremlin, where soldiers were ordered to make tables after Brezhnev’s anniversary. Together with a friend, Gennady was carrying a heavy carpet somewhere up the stairs, when the young men stopped to rest, Gennady raised his eyes, and suddenly the face of Christ appeared before his eyes. It turned out that they climbed to the very top of the church and someone put there the icon of the Savior.
Gennady is convinced that the Lord in this way strengthened the spirit of a young man. From the army he returned completely to believers and accepted Holy Baptism. The service in Solnechnogorsk was successful, all the remaining time the future composer served in the ensemble.
Songwriter Ponomarev
Back in the army, Gennady Ponomarev decided that if the musical career did not go wrong, he would be asked to sing in the church. And it so happened that when he became one of the members of the Fanta group and performed in Tula concert halls, he was noticed by the regent of one of the local church, Lyubov Borisovna Sobinina. It is interesting that she came precisely to Gennady and invited to sing in the church choir on the choir. This pleased and horrified Gennady, because, in his opinion, after secular songs it was not appropriate to sing in a holy place, but the regent reassured him, saying that the singers of the church did not work anywhere.
Thus, the composer Gennady Ponomarev served ten years in the temple of the city of Tula. During this time, he discovered a whole layer of unique Russian singing and composer culture. This enriched him not only as a musician and composer, but also as a believer, a spiritual person.
Creativity of Gennady Ponomarev
Therefore, when Zhanna Bichevskaya became a little more supportive of the young man, the first thing he asked her was: “Are you baptized?” This simple question put Jeanne in a stupor; it turned out that she had no idea about it, but she wanted to be baptized.
As befits to thoughtful and faithful people, they passed not only civil registration, but also got married in the church. Since then, they have not parted for twenty-nine years.
Under the influence of Gennady Robertovich, Zhanna Bichevskaya changed her repertoire, now she sings more spiritual songs, almost all of Gennady Ponomarev’s compositions are performed by her husband, and some of them are completely devoted to her. Here are some of them:
- "Tsar Nikolai."
- "The eyelid is too short."
- "Autumn musician."
- “Love, brothers, love.”
- “Thy name, Lord.”
- "Fear of the Lord."
- "Goodbye, free element."
- "Stars raced, capes washed in the sea."
- “Maybe you don't need me.”
- "Pineapples in champagne, pineapples in champagne."
- "The Russians are going through."
- "I was seeing in autumn dreams."
- "I will break the silence with a sigh."
- "Oh! How birds sing! ”
- "God, give us the King."
- "Having experienced the torment."
- “I would like to wear a magnificent crown.”
These and other compositions were written either completely by Gennady Ponomarev, or on poems by poets such as A.S. Pushkin, B. Pasternak, O. Mandelstam, S. Bekhteev, N. Zhdanov-Lutsenko, hieromonk Roman and so on.
