Where does Mikhail Turkish live? Mikhail Turetsky personal life, family and his home Mikhail Turetsky - biography

Name: Mikhail Turetsky

Age: 57 years old

Place of birth: Moscow

Activity: showman, conductor, singer.

Founder of the art groups "Turetsky Choir" and "Turetsky SOPRANO"

Marital status: married

Mikhail Turetsky - biography

The path to the top is never easy. Mikhail Turetsky had to overcome it, literally carrying on his shoulders a whole crowd of people, which we know as the “Turetsky Choir”. By the way, the band that conquered half the world is 25 years old this year!

Mikhail was born in a friendly full of love, support and understanding for the family. The father is a front-line soldier who went through the war and miraculously survived. Of the hundred people with whom he served, only three returned, including him, Boris Borisovich Epstein. The mother’s family died during the Holocaust; the Nazis buried everyone alive except her. Boris Borisovich managed to take his future 17-year-old wife out of the town in which she lived in time. Thus, he saved the Turkish family.

Mikhail Turetsky - childhood

Misha became their youngest, late child. Everyone tried to dissuade his mother from giving birth - she was already quite old. But she firmly decided to give life to another son. Their eldest, Alexander, had serious problems with his lungs, he was sick all the time, and treatment cost a pretty penny. The doctors repeated without compassion: the boy’s life depended entirely on financial investments in his health. While working at the factory, my father more than once had to commit a crime - he carried out products under a wide army jacket in order to sell them later. He knew that he faced up to five years in prison, but the desire to save his son was stronger than fear.

Since childhood, Misha has been afraid of losing his parents - he was still small, and they are already older people. I understood that I had to get back on my feet quickly, because I would have to rely only on myself. But most of all he loved to sing. Already at the age of one and a half years he was humming songs, confusing the words and not understanding the meaning.

Noticing his hobbies, mom and dad enrolled the youngest in a music school. Studying was difficult, Misha cried and did not want to memorize intractable material. Seeing such a thing, the father waved his hand: “Do what you want!” And then Misha’s character kicked in: catching up and overtaking everyone became the meaning of his life. Rising before dawn, he was already sitting at his tools at six in the morning. And after college he went straight to Gnesinka.

Mikhail Turetsky - biography of personal life

"It's time to get married!" - Mikhail decided as soon as he turned twenty-one. Snub-nosed cutie Lena turned up right there - in Gnesinka. From the outside they seemed completely different, but their interests, tastes and preferences were so similar that harmony quickly settled in the relationship, and the lovers decided to formalize the relationship. Lena loved her betrothed honestly and faithfully, and even the usual root of stumbling block for everyone - money, of which there was so little - did not become a reason for disagreement.

Mikhail made money as a cab driver - he bought an old Zhiguli and went to drive passengers every Saturday evening. He also had the opportunity to work as a loader in a department store near Moscow - however, from there he flew like a bullet, especially since the idea of ​​teaching music to children arose. In general, I earned as much as I could and with whatever I could. When Natasha was born to Lena and Mikhail, happiness knew no bounds. But according to the law of meanness, it did not last long.

In August 1989, Mikhail went to visit a friend in Klaipeda. In the midst of his vacation, they brought him a telegram from his brother Sasha: “Call Moscow urgently.” With trembling hands, Mikhail dialed the Moscow number: is there really something wrong with his parents? But on the phone I heard my mother’s hysterical cry: “They are all dead! All! Lena, her father and brother!

On the Moscow-Minsk highway, his wife's car drove into oncoming traffic... On the way to the accident site, Mikhail hoped until the last that a mistake had occurred. But everything turned out to be as he was even afraid to think. On the side of the road, a green horseshoe caught his eye - a souvenir, his gift to his father-in-law... Then they called from the police and asked him to come for the bodies. Mikhail vaguely remembered what happened next. He understood: he and his daughter were left alone.

Choir of Mikhail Turetsky

“How can such a young father raise a child?” - the mother-in-law was worried and offered to take custody of five-year-old Natasha. Mikhail flatly refused. His daughter was everything to him, his only support.

This is how life works - everything in it is not accidental. It was at that moment that Mikhail Turetsky was offered to create a choir of Jewish sacred music in Moscow. This was a real lifesaver! In a year and a half, Mikhail created a program and began touring Europe together with the choir. The success was deafening! But America became the real goldmine. Realizing that you can really make money only there, together with the choir, Natasha and mother-in-law, Turetsky flew to the USA.

The promising group had good patrons - Boris Berezovsky provided financial support, which helped the choir reach the coveted Miami. Natasha went to school - an elite gymnasium for the children of rich people. And the Jewish choir, as expected, turned out to be in great demand on overseas shores; famous compositions in Russian, English, Hebrew and other languages ​​went off with a bang. Popularity grew, and along with it, box office receipts. It was not just a Jewish choir that returned to their homeland, but a group with a commercial name - “Mikhail Turetsky Choir”.

Someone else's aunt

Twelve many years Mikhail bore the sad title of widower. Many women wanted to marry him, but he could not imagine how he would bring someone else’s aunt into their house with his daughter and say: “Now she will live with us.” One meeting changed everything. Once on Halloween we performed in Dallas, America. One of the concert organizers came with his daughter Liana.

Seeing Liana, Mikhail fell into a stupor. Tall, long slender legs and a revealing but tasteful suit with an open stomach - you can't take your eyes off her. To the question “Where is the husband?” she answered briefly: “I ate too many pears!” After the concert, Mikhail invited Liana for coffee, and we talked in the cafe until the morning. After the next performance in Chicago, Mikhail realized how badly he wanted to call this girl. Their communication became daily. Well, all this led to the fact that Mikhail came to Liana’s father to ask for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Not everything was smooth - problems arose with taking Sarina out of the States. Everything settled down only when Mikhail adopted her and was able to take her new family to Russia.

"Chorus" and "Soprano"

25 years on stage is solid! The secret of the choir's success was, perhaps, that Mikhail did not limit the repertoire. Classics, folk art from different countries, modern pop hits, rock, jazz, musicals - everyone could find something that would captivate them. “Singing only classics is like having strict trousers in your wardrobe, beautiful, expensive, but alone. But you can change into something more democratic. Or combine it, as they began to do in Hollywood, wearing a tuxedo with jeans and sneakers,” Turetsky reflected.

In general, the team fell into fusion - a mixture of styles. “Why are there no female voices in the team?” - Mikhail was often asked. And really, why? After all, the majority of the choir’s fans are ladies, and there is a large layer of music that sounds better when performed by women. So the idea came to create a women's team. Under the leadership of Mikhail there were two choirs at once. He values ​​every ward, and they are one hundred percent confident in their leader and know for sure that as long as they sing in chorus, they will not be left without work.

A successful and rich musician gives only 300 euros a month for the maintenance of his ten-year-old daughter Bella Borodovskaya.

In April, Mikhail TURETSKY, conductor and director of the choir of the same name, will turn 50 years old. According to official biography the artist has three daughters: 28-year-old Natalya from his first marriage and 6-year-old Emmanuel with 2-year-old Beata from his second wife. But for 10 years now another TURETSKY daughter has been living in the world, Bella, whom Mikhail carefully hides and categorically refuses to acknowledge. We tried to find out why.

Today Mikhail Turetsky He is actively preparing for his anniversary, giving interviews to glossy magazines, telling them about what a caring husband and cool father he is. Just somehow this perfect image the story about the little girl doesn't fit Bella Borodovskaya– to his natural daughter living in Germany.

Classmate Lena, whom Mikhail married at the age of 21 “out of nowhere,” died tragically

At first sight

In 2000, Mikhail and his choir were on tour in Germany. During a concert in Frankfurt he saw in the front row an incredible beautiful woman. Shocked by her appearance, Turetsky jumped off the stage and invited the lady to dance. The audience applauded enthusiastically, the conductor whirled the beauty around in a waltz, and finally, without being at a loss, he asked the young lady for her phone number. Tatiana Borodovskaya 6 years younger than Turetsky - sophisticated, thoroughbred, gentle, she saw a sign of fate in this meeting at the concert.
“It so happened historically that a month after that, according to the plan, I was supposed to move to Moscow.” Tatyana is 44 years old today, she looks amazing and has incredible magnetism. – I returned to my homeland, worked for Anton Nosik Deputy editor-in-chief at ntv.ru (now the news agency newsru.com). And suddenly Turetsky called.
“It turned out that Mikhail Borisovich’s office was next to us,” recalls the media mogul, owner of LiveJournal and the most famous blogger on the Runet, Nosik. – And he often began to pick Tanya up from work.
Anton and Tatiana are childhood friends.

After the death of his first wife, the musician raised his daughter Natasha alone

“We are neighbors at the River Station,” says Nosik. – We lived next to each other for many years – window to window. I also courted her, but Tanya was attracted to other gentlemen... And the affair with Turetsky took place before my eyes.
“How did Misha captivate me,” Tanya asks herself, “he is a very interesting person.”
A passionate romance began, which the couple did not hide; there were a lot of witnesses to it. At that time, Mikhail lived with his daughter, a high school student from his first marriage, Natasha - Turetsky’s wife died tragically when the girl was 5 years old. Natasha accepted Tatyana, and the three of them began to live together in the artist’s two-room apartment on Belorusskaya. After some time, Borodovskaya became pregnant. In the summer of 2001, the couple arranged a romantic vacation at sea, Mikhail showed with all his appearance how much he wanted this child. When they found out that a girl would be born, they decided to name her Bella in honor of Turetsky’s mother.

At 28 years old, Natalya TURETSKAYA knows how to present herself

Difficult birth

“And in September 2001, Turetsky was forced to go on tour to America for three months,” says Tanya’s friend Evgenia Bokiy. – I had to return exactly to Tanya’s birth. She decided not to turn sour in Moscow and went to Germany to visit her parents, where she was going to give birth and wait for her betrothed... But Turetsky did not fly to Germany. He just disappeared! Didn't answer the phone, didn't call himself.
— It was a shock for us! – Anton Nosik is indignant. — He left his wife a week before giving birth. The horror of Turetsky running away from a pregnant woman is much more powerful than all the romanticism of their love story.
Tatyana survived a real blow! In a state of shock, she was taken to the hospital; it turned out that due to stress, her labor stopped.
“She couldn’t give birth for a long time—her contractions stopped,” recalls friend Zhenya. - Then, of course, German doctors did their job. And in December 2001, a small copy of Turetsky was born - his daughter Bella.

Tatiana BORODOVSKAYA gave birth to a lovely daughter to TURETSKY, and he betrayed her

“Wonderful girl, I saw her the other day,” says Nosik. - I am her sandak (in Judaism this is what they call " godfather"). In 2003, in the synagogue of the city of Wiesbaden, I read a prayer over her and blessed her name - it is a great honor to baptize a baby.
Tatyana’s pride did not allow her to look for Turetsky, call him, or humiliate herself. But her friends and family could not calmly watch the suffering loved one. They found Mikhail, and he said: “I met someone else! If you want, I can give you $5,000 and let Tanya get away from me.” While touring in America, in October 2001, he met his current wife Liana.
“She quickly took it into circulation,” says Bokiy. – Tanya plucked up the courage to call Turetsky only two years later. He hid from her for a long time. As a result, they tried to put pressure on him even through Joseph Kobzon- he told him: “Recognize your daughter! This is indecent!” But he still categorically refuses to acknowledge her - he fights like a beast. Although after the story with Kobzon he began to give money for the child - however, for this you need to run after him and beg. One day Tanya's friend once again I tried to call Turetsky, but ended up with Liana. "You know, he has a wife and small child? - “Well, she is not his wife, and the child is not his child! And we don’t want to know about these people!”

Little Bella inherited not only her famous father's appearance, but also his musicality

Blame the wife

Turetsky himself does not comment on this story and only once in an interview with the magazine “Caravan of Stories” he mentioned that time:
“Some girls made attempts to make a husband out of me. Then I went to the Chief Rabbi of Russia Adolf Solomonovich Shaevich and said:
- What to do? I was pushed against the wall.
“If you can’t get married, don’t get married,” he answered.
I could, because a career, the formation of a choir and obligations to myself and the collective seemed much more more important than novels».
“The reason, of course, is not a career,” says Nosik. “He came under pressure from Liana; for some reason she furiously doesn’t want him to recognize his daughter. For some reason, it is important for her that this story remains a secret. It is clear that they now have their own lives, many children, but it would be nice if he recognized Bella. The problem here is to persuade Liana...
Turetsky has a obsession with the topic of Jewry.

Emigrant Liana seduced TURKISH with high heels and sexy slits in her clothes

“Fifty generations of my ancestors married only their own,” says Mikhail.
Perhaps they did not agree with Tanya on this?
- What are you talking about! Tanya is a real Jew,” says Nosik, himself a famous Jew.
Borodovskaya herself still has not found an explanation for Mikhail’s action.
“I don’t have a tragedy,” she says. - What happened, happened. People break up. There is nothing you can do about it: they meet other men and women and go their separate ways. This is how life works. I didn’t look for the reason for Misha’s actions. I accepted the situation as it is. You could go into anger, or you could accept everything, move on and be happy. I chose the second path. I have no complaints about him. What he doesn't talk about Bella is his own business. What can I do? I don't force him to do this. And I don’t want to take revenge.
Bella is a citizen of Germany, where she has a birth certificate, where Mikhail Borisovich Turetsky is written in the “father” column.
“Misha was written down in the certificate with his voluntary consent,” Tanya confirms. - They asked me who the father was, I named him, they sent him a letter, he agreed with it.
Plus there are heaps of letters, testimonies, and photographs together.

Little Emmanuelle and Beata don't know that they have a 10-year-old sister, Bella.

Still

“He doesn’t quietly deny that this is his child,” says Bokiy. — He visits her in Germany, gives her gifts, but categorically refuses to utter the word “daughter.”
- Why haven’t I told you about this story yet? What will this change? - says Tanya. — Turetsky and I have a daughter, and he takes care of her as best he can. We can call him at any time. Don’t forget that we live in another country; people here don’t know who Mikhail Turetsky is. But Bella knows that she has a dad, that he is an artist, she was at Misha’s concerts. When we come to Moscow, he communicates with her, when he comes to Germany, too. Once he even took her to his family. I don't think Misha bad person. He's a good person. Without his care, I would not be able to raise a child. We are relatives to each other.

Mikhail Turetsky with his wife and her daughter Sarina

Tatyana is probably afraid of losing her source of finance, so she does not tell unpleasant details. Turetsky often transfers money to Germany through Anton Nosik.
- Sorry, sorry, he doesn’t really help! - Anton is indignant. — The amount that Mikhail sends to Bella (if you ask me, I would give my child more) is 300 euros per month! Can this really be called help?

Mikhail surrounded by his beloved women: on the left is his wife Liana, on the right is her daughter Sarina, whom Mikhail adopted

Recently Tanya turned to Mikhail: “You are now celebrating your 50th anniversary, well, invite Bella to Moscow.” The choirmaster refused.
“For some reason, many people think that Turkish is blue,” Bokiy argues. – But this is not true, Misha is a very smart guy. She loves herself, that's why she takes care of herself. And in general, he has delusions of grandeur: he believes that there are only three artists on stage: Pugacheva, Kobzon and him.
Tatyana Borodovskaya is still alone. She spends all her energy on her children - an adult son from her first marriage and a 10-year-old daughter.
“After Mikhail, I didn’t arrange my personal life,” Tanya admitted. — She never got married. Well, maybe I didn’t want to.
— Do you still love Turetsky?
- Well, this is a personal question. There was a beautiful story, it ended like everything ends in this life. People break up - it happens.

Alien-friend

Turetsky first married at the age of 21 to his Gnesinka classmate Elena.
“Lena had an upturned nose, an open smile and bottomless eyes,” Mikhail recalls in one interview. “I became her first man.” We loved each other, but I had no intention of getting married. However, Lena became pregnant.
For the sake of his family, Mikhail worked as a private driver, worked as a watchman and loader in a supermarket, and as a janitor.
In 1989 Elena Turetskaya died in a car accident.
“My first wife’s father was traveling in a car with her and her brother from Lithuania on the day of my sister’s birth,” Mikhail recalls. — According to eyewitnesses, at the 71st kilometer of the Minsk-Moscow highway, the car drove into oncoming traffic, hit a bus, and then collided with a truck. Forehead to forehead. And instant death. All three.
Mikhail’s mother-in-law Zoya asked him to sign documents for the child’s refusal and give his granddaughter Natasha to her.
“I said: “I won’t sign anything.” Jews never give up on their children,” Mikhail tells how it happened.
Now my daughter Natasha is already 28 years old, she graduated from law school, and works in her father’s team - she manages the website of the Turetsky Choir...

The star's parents Boris EPSTEIN and Bella TURETSKAYA have been married for 66 years

Then Mikhail met Borodovskaya, and later, when she was expecting a child from Turkey, on tour in America he met Liana - her father was a concert organizer in Texas.
“As an artist who spent a month on tour, Liana’s appearance - her high heels and open belly - made an indelible impression on me,” Mikhail recalls. — I suggested going to a restaurant.
After drinking cocktails, Turkish and Liana spent the night together. Thus began a romance. Turetsky persuaded Liana to leave America for Moscow. However, a problem arose: Liana has a daughter from her first marriage, Sarina (now 15 years old), who could not be taken out of the USA. Then Turetsky adopted her and gave her his last name. He raises the girl as his own (that is, he does not recognize his own, but adopted someone else’s child).
“I didn’t want more children,” Mikhail says in an interview. - A child will interfere with our rest, creative pursuits, pathos, status, and in general.
But Liana gave Mikhail two more daughters: Emmanuelle (yes, Mikhail named her after that same porn heroine) and Beata.

Photos from Turetsky’s personal archive and from Borodovskaya’s blog

The secret of Mikhail Turetsky's family life is simple: he is a leader and manager at work, and at home he resigns his powers and transfers all power to his wife Liana and daughters - Sarina, Emmanuelle and Beata. On the eve of Mikhail’s birthday, which he celebrates today, April 12, he invited HELLO! to your country house.

The fact that Mikhail was born on Cosmonautics Day and today celebrates his 55th birthday seems no coincidence. In many matters, he is truly an astronaut and a pioneer. More than 25 years ago he founded the art group “Turetsky Choir” with an unusual concept: ten vocalists with different voices perform live compositions - from boring classics to invigorating rock. Over the years, the team has appeared on stage more than six thousand times and traveled around the world more than 4.5 million kilometers. The tour schedule of the "Turetsky Choir" is scheduled months in advance, but this does not prevent Mikhail from leading the female group Soprano and being a husband and father of four children. In the "Turkish Choir" he is simply called the Tsar. Is it easy to be a king and lead three “states,” Mikhail said in an interview.

Mikhail, the Turetsky Choir does not release videos, you are not played on the radio, you are not involved in scandals. How do you manage to sell out houses all over the world without this?

I think it's all about the fact that we sing live. At this moment you can put your soul into it, but when you sing to a soundtrack, you can’t put your soul into it. Singing live every day in a new hall is difficult: you have to adjust the sound, be always in in a great mood, collected mentally and physically. Therefore, sometimes artists cut themselves some slack and use a soundtrack. I have an agreement with all members of the group: under any circumstances, we sing live, because we don’t want to deprive ourselves of this pleasure. Moreover, we must always remember: if spectators come to a concert, it means they trust us with their attention, money and time. Time is the most precious thing a person can give you, because you can never get it back.

Mikhail showed an interest in music since childhood. When his parents had the opportunity, they bought him a piano and hired a teacher. It is noteworthy that their classes soon ended: the tutor declared that the boy had no talent. Much water has passed under the bridge since then. “Home is the only place where I can not prove anything to anyone,” says Mikhail today

During these three hours, while our concert lasts, we try to take the audience on a tour of the world of music. We have ten soloists, each with their own unique voice, from the lowest to the highest. Some sing an aria from the opera "Pagliacci" by Ruggero Leoncavallo, some sing Freddie Mercury's hit Who Wants To Live Forever, and some sing songs by Vysotsky, the group "Kino" and even Rammstein. Recently I noticed: spectators began to bring children to concerts because they know that we will not let you down and will not stoop to vulgarity. There is a colossal layer of “adult” music that needs to be passed on to children so that they can carry it on. For example, “Swan Fidelity” by Evgeny Martynov is a song about love, and a child already at seven years old can roughly understand what it is about. And when children sing: “Tomorrow at 7.22 I will be sitting on a plane in Boryspil and thinking about the pilot” - it’s a little strange.

“Turetsky Choir” is an unusual musical project. We can say that you have one foot in show business and the other in art. Is it easy to maintain balance?

The main thing in this matter is not to walk too far, otherwise your pants will tear! (Laughs.) It’s not easy to maintain balance, but we somehow manage to do it. Many classical performers are skeptical about us, and people from the pop industry, on the contrary, believe that we are too conservative, but at this junction we have our own large army of fans. Of course, in order to expand the audience, we have to play by the rules of show business, but we try to take only the best from it: we use modern technologies to make the show brighter, and high-quality musical equipment to make the sound louder. But there are things that I do not accept...

What are these?

Hypocrisy. Hugging in front of cameras and talking bad about a person behind their back. Unfortunately, this is common in show business. My father taught me to treat all people with approval. Even to competitors. I sincerely rejoice at the successes of my colleagues and look for benefits in this for myself. For example, an artist went on tour to the region and disappointed the audience, so they may not come to my concert. And if he performed well, people will understand that it’s okay to go to concerts, and they’ll come to my performance next time. When there are many rich people around me, I do not envy, but rejoice. This motivates you to take even more action. I have had great ambitions since childhood; I was born on April 12 and always dreamed of becoming an astronaut.

The Turetskys have been living in a three-story house near Moscow for more than five years, but they still haven’t stopped improving it: they are now renovating the rest room and Emma’s bedroom

Over the 26 years of existence of the Turetsky Choir, the group has remained virtually unchanged. They say that you have quite strict rules: you do not allow drinking or even sex before the concert. This is true?

Everyone knows: the Russian body digests alcohol well. (Smiles.) When we first started touring, the guys sometimes abused it, but we have 42 concerts a month, and at each one we have to give 150 percent. It's hard. That’s why I wrote “prohibition on the highway”: if you go on tour, you can’t drink, otherwise you’ll be fined. All the soloists signed, and we never returned to this topic. As for sex before a concert, everyone knows: making love takes a lot of energy, and there is no energy left to throw out energy into the hall. So there is such a wish, but after the concert it’s a personal matter for everyone.

It’s probably easier in this regard with the girls from the Soprano group?

Yes, but there are other pitfalls here, which is why there are nine of them in the group and they can replace each other. I believe that nine is the threshold of vulnerability of the female team. They can’t all get sick, go on vacation, or get pregnant at the same time. In a team where there are three women, collapse can happen, where there are five, the same, as, for example, in the Spice Girls. One got married and left the group, and the second said: “I’m in charge here now.” And the team fell apart.

Isn’t it difficult for viewers to appreciate such a large team at once?

It’s very difficult, so I dose it. The team can consist of nine people, but no more than six sing at the same time, there are solo songs. This is what makes Soprano unique: each member of the group devoted her life to music, and not just a beautiful girl who sang karaoke well and came on stage in search of a beautiful life and an oligarch husband. This year, Soprano nominated Russia for the Eurovision Song Contest, but it didn’t work out; they chose Yulia Samoilova. In any case, we support her, because she represents our country, and we are patriots. I believe that the main goal of this year’s competition is to restore the centuries-old friendship of the Slavic peoples. But once Slavic peoples cannot agree, the Jews must have their say. So I'll have to go there next year. (Laughs.)

Mikhail Turetsky with his wife Liana, daughters Sarina, Emmanuelle and Beata and their pet, a Yorkshire terrier named Gray, in a photo shoot for HELLO!

You know how to negotiate! It recently became known that on May 7, the Turetsky Choir and Soprano soloists will perform Victory songs in Berlin. Was this your initiative?

You understand, life is such a fragile thing, the planet can be destroyed by pressing a button. To prevent this from happening, such actions of peace and friendship are needed. We will perform “Victory Day”, “Buchenwald Alarm”, “Smuglyanka”, “Katyusha”, and “compliments” will be heard in German. We will sing not about victory over Germany, but about victory over fascism. I will dedicate this concert to my dad and everything to the Soviet people. Father is a participant in the breakthrough Leningrad blockade, went through the entire war and in 1945 came from Berlin to Moscow on foot. He always considered himself lucky, because out of 100 conscripts from the first days of the war, only three survived. When we sent a letter to Berlin with a request to hold a concert, they thought for a long time, but they gave permission for a group from Russia to sing Victory songs on Gendarmenmarkt Square in Berlin on May 7, when the document of surrender was signed. This means that a new time has come.

Mikhail, a new time for you could have come in the 90s, when the Turetsky Choir was already recognized in the USA, but few people in Russia knew it. Why are you then in this difficult time, didn’t go to America?

Indeed, many people left Russia in the 90s, but most often they went not for ideological reasons, but for sausage. You had to go for ideas in the 70s, when there was real political pressure and oppression. And in the 90s, when perestroika began, people had more opportunities to realize themselves. In the mid-90s, we were doing well abroad - we were offered contracts in America and England, but when the opportunity arose to get the status of a municipal team in Russia and go on tour with Joseph Kobzon, my guys and I didn’t even choose. Moreover, our families were here. My father was always a patriot and never left Russia, although we had the opportunity to move to Israel or America. And so he somehow managed to live until he was 97 years old without Israeli medicine. He felt great here too, and even in his old age he skied and went to the skating rink with his granddaughters.

You have always been close to your parents, and now you have friendly family. Tell me, is it more difficult to manage a choir of ten men or four women at home?

At work, I am a manager, a leader who is recognized, so managing them is not so difficult. As for home, that’s Liana’s kingdom, and maybe I don’t always agree with her on everything, but I prefer not to conflict. The most important thing for a man is his brain. If a woman has one, it’s also good, but the soul and heart are still more important.

What issues do you and Liana disagree on?

Most often for raising children. I grew up in the Soviet Union, and Liana grew up in America, we were brought up differently, and our worldview is different. But in family life, as in business, you have to compromise and negotiate. The ability to give in is sometimes the lot of the strong, not the weak. I spend a lot of time on tour, and all of us - both the girls and Liana - have learned to live in this mode. As my wife says, the secret of our marriage is that I am always away from home. And, having lived together for 15 years, I cannot disagree with her. (Smiles.)

Which daughter is easier for you to find a common language with?

The eldest, Sarina, is the most accommodating, she has a peaceful character. Emma and Beata are capricious, but in a good way words: they will defend their point of view to the last. They both creative personalities and with character, you need to talk to them and do it only in a good mood. This is the only way to convey the essence to them. Re-educate a child into bad mood no, it’s better to let it go and return to this topic later. It is important to talk to girls one-on-one. Emma is seriously involved in music and sometimes goes on tour with me and performs. That’s where I feel good with her, we are similar and can talk heart to heart for hours.

Mikhail's middle daughter, Emma, ​​is seriously interested in music, so she and her father favorite place in the house there is a living room with a white piano. And when her studies allow, Emma goes on tour and performs with the Choir.

You once said: “My future son-in-law has not done anything bad to me yet, but I no longer love him.” Sarina is getting married this summer, are you still as categorical as you are?

This is what fatherly love is like! (Smiles.) I raised a flower, prepared everything for her to be happy, and now I’m looking - is this a prince on a white horse, is he worthy of my daughter? Getting married is not even half the problem, it’s three percent. Remember, like Vysotsky: “Pull a guy into the mountains - take a risk! Don’t leave him alone, let him be in a team with you - there you will understand who he is.” A person manifests himself in difficulties and difficult life situations, so time will tell. Now her fiancé, Tornike (Tornike Tsertsvadze is the son of the founder of the GG Group restaurant holding - Ed.), is a blank sheet of paper for me, so let life write something on it and give him the opportunity to express himself. Before my eyes good example— Dmitry, husband of my eldest daughter, Natasha (from her first marriage. — Ed.): I like his patience, endurance and attitude towards children. He actively participates in raising my grandchildren and helps his daughter in everything. And for this I am already grateful to him, and then it’s not so important to me. The daughter is happy, which means the son-in-law is right.

Style: Yuka Vizhgorodskaya. Stylist assistant: Alina Frost. Makeup: Valentina Shabanova. Hair: Marianna Ridzanich

“I don’t know how my mother-in-law survived the day 24 years ago when her daughter, son and husband died in the same car... A head-on collision with a truck.”

The Kremlin and Carnegie Hall, tours around the world, performances with world stars Placido Domingo, Julio Iglesias,Gloria Gaynor etc. “Turetsky Choir” is greeted with applause everywhere. It's time to say: founder of the art group Mikhail Turetsky- a real lucky guy. Of course, he lives in a luxurious house in Skolkovo with a beautiful wife, he has four daughters... And only a few know what he had to endure on the way to success...

On the eve of his birthday, the creator of the popular choir told AiF about a very personal...

Not only at home, but now also at work, I am surrounded by women. Turetsky with his creation - the Soprano group, which is already 5 years old. Photo: From personal archive

Mother-in-law - authority

When the artist went to the USA, for the sake of his daughter, he took with him not his young mistress, but his 73-year-old mother. With daughter Natasha. California, 1995. Photo: From personal archive

— My first wife died in a car accident. I was 21 when we got married Elena- my classmate at Gnesinka... How to survive such pain? There’s no way to get over it... She’s here to stay forever. But it was necessary to hold on somehow - after all, daughters Natasha It wasn't even 5 years old then. I don’t know what my mother-in-law, a heroic woman, experienced then. Zoya Ivanovna. How did she survive the death of her daughter, son and husband? They were all in the same car... A head-on collision with a truck. Zoya Ivanovna is an authority figure for me to this day. Former head teacher, school director. At 87 years old, she is the strongest woman.

Almost immediately after my death, I was in dire need of help. And this help came to me from above. I was offered to create a choir of Jewish sacred music in Moscow. It was a salvation. The music of my ancestors - an ancient powerful art - gave me the strength to live. There is a lot of suffering, nostalgia, and trepidation in it. And I threw myself into work. I even rehearsed at night. I wanted to be the best at what I do. This is what supported me at that moment more than friends or even my parents.

I haven't gotten married for a long time. I saw: my daughter is not ready to accept a new mother. I looked at the situation from the child’s point of view. I have good intuition. If I saw that a girl wanted to be with me, but she hardly wanted my daughter, for me this immediately meant the end of the film, a “No Entry” sign on the road. I didn't want to get married just to have a wife. I needed the child to have a mother. Of course, sometimes a miracle happens - a stranger’s woman becomes closer to her mother, but I’ve only seen this in TV series! No one can replace a child's mother. Only the father, if there is one. So I am both dad and mom to my daughter. Aidishe pape...

Artistic director and art director of the Turetsky Choir Mikhail Turetsky with his wife Liana and daughter Emanuelle. 2012 Photo: RIA Novosti / Ekaterina Chesnokova

Mom instead of a mistress

It is clear that I am not a puritan; I have had novels and secret relationships that a young man needs. But in the end, I always made the choice in favor of the child. When I was planning to work on a long-term contract in the USA (Miami, Florida), I did not take the girl I was dating with me, but went with my 73-year-old mother. It was some kind of self-sacrifice. But, on the other hand, I was happy for both of them at once - it’s good for my mother that she’s in Miami, and it’s good for Natasha to be with her grandmother... Over time, I realized: I need to raise my daughter to an age when she doesn’t need a mother, but just girlfriend. That's what happened... When Natasha was almost 17, I met Liana. (Liana, the daughter of the organizer of the tour roles of the “Turetsky Choir” in the USA, lived in America and worked as a programmer. - Ed.) There is an 8-year difference between my wife and daughter. We even lived together for some time. Me, my daughter and Liana with her daughter from her first marriage, whom I later adopted.

Then my daughter and I separated - this is generally the most best model. Everyone should live in different places and come to visit each other. Otherwise, jealousy and conflict of interest are always present. Therefore, I try to clearly delineate all zones so that there are no collisions. I have my own relationship with my wife, my own relationship with my daughter. There were no conflicts between them - and for that I am grateful!

Recently my eldest daughter gave birth to a son. He has a young father who can take care of him. It turned out that the grandson was born from January 18 to 19... Zoya Ivanovna asked: “Mishenka, name the boy Vanechka. I'm asking." And I’m ready to do anything for her. Named Ivan... And then I look: my father’s last name Gilevich. This is the Gospel - Ivan Gilevich! And he was born in Epiphany night... So the mark of the chosen one is on this child. But for me the main thing is that he is good person. I tell my wife: “Liana, you are sleeping with your grandfather. But, thank God, you’re not a grandmother!” (Laughs.) I have the rare case that I myself am a grandfather, but I don’t sleep with my grandmother. (Smiles.) What happiness!

95th anniversary of the maestro’s father, Boris Borisovich Epstein. Mikhail Turetsky with his daughter Emmanuelle, wife Liana, daughters Natalya and Sarina. Photo: From personal archive

Earn three rubles - give two back

I have four daughters. Do I dream about a son? If we want, we will give birth tomorrow. There's still time. My father gave birth to me at 50 years old. And I also saw my son People's Artist Russia - lived to be 96 years old.

My dad is a participant in the breakthrough of the Leningrad blockade. I sat in the trenches for 900 days. He told me: “From hunger, two of our soldiers went and stole two cans of canned food from the warehouse. They were shot right before my eyes.” Or: “While lighting a cigarette, I dodged the wind, and the bullet that was flying at me hit my friend.”

Despite everything he had to endure, his father knew how to enjoy every day. So I look up to him in everything. When my father was 93, he asked me: “Are your singers happy with the way you pay them?” And, charismatically gracing, he continued: “You earned three rubles, give me two. You will live long."

Mikhail Turetsky.Leader

M. Turetsky with his wife Liana

- Dad, why are you crying? - asked the eight-year-old daughter.
I was sitting in the city of Long Beach near New York in a state of complete hopelessness on the Broadwalk, a boardwalk along which Americans walk and run for health, and tears flowed from my eyes. I don’t know what to do. My partners let me down, I showed my character and was left without money. Behind me is a team of twenty people who have nothing to feed and no money to buy return tickets with. It hasn't been this bad for a long time.
“I don’t have a shoe factory, a store, or even a kiosk.” “I only have sounds that are difficult to sell,” I answered Natasha.
- Dad, you bring joy to people! And this is much better than a stall. Stop crying, let’s go,” my daughter pulled me by the sleeve.
And I got up and went. There is no point in shedding tears in front of a little girl. You can't give up and become limp.
There were plenty of reasons for pessimism: I was already thirty and still unsuccessfully trying to make a living from classical music. He inspired the choir he led that it was possible, you just need to find the right path. All responsibility lay with me, and there was nowhere to wait for support. Who would have thought that the right words I'll hear from my daughter. Natasha said so childishly about “joy to people” that I found a second wind and found a way to get out. And then, and many more times before I achieved success.

Few people manage to sell creativity. I don’t know how I succeeded in this. There is a joke on the topic: “In Soviet era the professor’s daughter is asked: “How are you, who received the classical music education, raised in an intelligent family, became a currency prostitute?” - “Just lucky!” So I was lucky. Just not right away.

My childhood passed in a small area of ​​Moscow communal apartment near the Belorusskaya metro station. We occupied a fourteen-meter room. There was no one to pamper my brother and me: there were no grandparents, dad and mom were busy surviving. My father worked as a foreman in a silk-screen printing workshop at a factory near Moscow, and my mother worked as a nanny in a kindergarten.
Dad, Boris Borisovich Epstein, is one of the blacksmith’s six children, originally from Belarus. His father, a powerful man known throughout the area, died at forty-two from pneumonia. Late autumn He came out of the forge hot and caught a cold. So at fourteen, dad, along with his older brother, took charge big family. Having matured, he realized that they could not feed themselves in the village, and at eighteen he went to study in Moscow, at the Academy of Foreign Trade, dragging all his brothers and sisters to the capital.
A competent, intelligent person, he quickly made a career in the Exportles organization, received living space - seven square meters in the center of Moscow - and easily learned German, since it was similar to Yiddish. Looking ahead, I’ll say: once in New York at age eighty-five, my father managed to communicate there too, because English, it turns out, is also similar to Yiddish...
At twenty-seven, dad began to think about a family. Finding himself with relatives in the town of Pukhovichi near Minsk, in a poor, clean hut he saw a seventeen-year-old Jewish girl playing the guitar. “This will be my wife,” dad decided and left for Moscow.
His relatives talked to the girl’s family: “What kind of nose he has, you can see for yourself, but we guarantee that it won’t deceive.”
In October 1940, her father took Bela Turetskaya to Moscow. And in July 1941, the Germans entered the town and destroyed my mother’s entire family. They were forced to dig their own graves and buried alive. In the same 1941, my father went to the front. He took part in the breakthrough of the Leningrad blockade and was awarded government awards for this. As a boy, every year my father took me to Leningrad to places of military glory, showed me the transit point on Fontanka, 90, historical places, and took me to the Tovstonogovsky Drama Theater.

Parents of M. Turetsky

Of every hundred people called up in the first days of the war, only three returned. The dead were recognized as heroes. But dad couldn’t even get his job back. Largely because after the war, Stalin’s officials did not favor Jews, even if they had passed from Moscow to Berlin.
“Do you want to work at Vneshtorg? - they told him. - Please. We have a branch. On Pechora." Dad did not want to leave Moscow and, giving up his career, got a job at a factory.
My older brother Sasha had problems with his lungs. My father’s salary was six hundred rubles, and a consultation with a pulmonologist professor was five hundred. “Your son’s life is in your hands,” said the doctor, escalating the already tense situation.
And dad committed a crime: he wrapped his body in silk scarves, put on a leather jacket left over from the front, and took the products outside the factory to sell them later. Somehow he managed to come to an agreement with the workers who made a batch for him beyond the norm. But private entrepreneurship at that time was punishable by law and threatened with imprisonment for up to five years. There were thirty-eight women in the workshop, mostly single, destitute by the war, and not a single one called Petrovka. How he managed to build such correct relationships with so many women - only God knows!
We didn't live well. We had neither a car nor a dacha; all the father needed was to save his son from illness. And he did it.
I'm an unplanned child. Mom gave birth to me at forty, dad was already almost fifty. Everyone unanimously dissuaded my mother, she had a bad heart, but she did it her way. Friends advised my parents to name me Yura, because I was born on Cosmonautics Day, the twelfth of April, a year after Gagarin’s flight.
“Yur-r-ra? - Dad said, grazing slightly. “It’s a tr-r-r-r-r-r-r-pronounceable name.” Let there be Misha."
My brother and I are Turkish because my mother explained to my father: There are Epsteins, but there are no Turetskys left—the surname must be preserved. And dad easily agreed with this. I had a real Jewish mother. There is an anecdote that accurately conveys the essence of her character: “What is the difference between an Arab terrorist and a Jewish mother? You can come to an agreement with a terrorist." My brother and I became the meaning of her life. And dad found a worthy place for himself, living as if in his own world. He provided for the family, answered our questions, but never overloaded or demanded attention. He never told me when I grew up:
“Why didn’t you come? Why didn’t you call?”
Mom always lacked something, despite the fact that we were loving and caring sons and visited them with our father almost every day. When we said goodbye and left, dad immediately returned to his business, and she stood at the window until the car disappeared, and I understood: we didn’t give her enough again...

“A Jewish boy with dark eyes, and there is such Russian sadness in them...” - this is about me. At one and a half years old I already began to hum, at three I performed in a row all the songs that came from the TV and radio: “An order was given for him to the west, for her - in the other direction, the Komsomol members left for civil war" I didn’t understand what it was about, and instead of “order” I sang “refusal”. On Sundays, my father allowed himself to lie in bed a little longer, and I climbed under his side. It was then that the repertoire policy of the future “Turetsky Choir” was forged. “Dad, give us “Care,” I said, and we dragged on: “Our care is simple...” or “Twist and Charleston, you filled the globe...”

The songs of the Soviet era are amazing. I sang them with fanatical joy, and my parents understood: we need to teach the boy. At that moment we got a second room in a communal apartment and a piano. They found a piano teacher for me. The lesson cost ten rubles - a serious test for the family budget. And at the age of six, I liked to walk on the street with friends, and not figure out what a bass clef is. Having received the assignment for home, I counted the number of notes in the exercise and drummed on the first keys I came across. Mom compared the number of notes with the number of strokes on the keyboard and sighed in disappointment:
- What kind of nonsense is this?
“Such a sketch,” I shrugged.
This lasted four months. The one hundred and sixty rubles spent did not materialize into quality. “Untalented boy,” said the teacher. “Don’t waste your money.”
I was happy: I was spared from suffering. But my voice grew, I sat down at the piano and, not knowing the notes, picked out the melody by ear - “Lilac Fog”, “You are the only one for me”. Guests came, they put me on a chair, I sang - everyone was delighted. “A talented boy is growing up! Must study."
And my mother took me this time to a state music school. On the notice board there is a leaflet “Services and prices: piano - 20 rubles. per month, violin - 19 rubles, oboe, horn - 9 rubles, flute - 3 rubles, piccolo flute - 1 rubles. 50 kopecks.”
"ABOUT! - said mom. — The piccolo flute will suit us. It’s not expensive, and you’ll enjoy the musical process.”
Recently, my artists gave me a piccolo flute and engraved their nicknames on the entire fingering: Tulya, Kuzya, Boar, Beast... I took it and realized that my hands remember everything. And then, in four years, I learned to play masterfully. At the same time, my father took me to the boys’ chapel.
- You have talented child“,” a teacher once said, “it would be nice if his father came to see me.”
“And this is me...” answered dad.
And then I realized that he was old and looked like my grandfather. Since my parents are old, it means I will soon lose them. The fear settled in my childhood heart that I might lose this mighty roof over my head. I decided to become independent as quickly as possible, because I would soon be alone...
I don’t know what I could have come up with, but fate intervened. In the person of his father’s cousin, the famous musician Rudolf Barshai. He gained particular fame after 1977, when he left the USSR for the West, performed with the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra and became the chief conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Things didn't work out for him in his homeland. Probably, the authorities could not entrust the orchestra to a morally unstable person, married three times, the last time to a Japanese woman.

When the very young Rudolf arrived in Moscow, his father placed a folding bed for him on his seven meters. In the summer they went to my father’s older brother’s dacha, where Rudik went to the wooden restroom in the morning and there, on the push, from five to eight he “sawed” on the violin, so as not to disturb anyone. This is how steel is hardened. At that time, the Soviet music school was considered the best in the world, as well as ballet and space. The world's outstanding orchestras are cemented by Soviet musicians. And today... Who will sit from five to eight on the “point” in order to achieve something?
Uncle Rudolf managed to recognize my talent before he emigrated. One day he came to visit us.
- What is Misha doing? - Uncle asked.
I played the flute.
- Sing.
I sang.
“Musical guy,” he assessed. — I’ll call the director of the Sveshnikov Choir School.
My uncle called in front of me. “Look at the boy - if it’s not his door, don’t take it,” he said wisely.
I was accepted into school at the age of eleven. I immediately fell behind, the rest of the children studied from seven, some had already played Rachmaninov’s Second Concerto. On the very first day, I sobbed and said to my father:
- Don't want! I can't!
“Do what you want,” dad said and walked away.
Catching up with peers has become the meaning of life. Eventually I got involved. I couldn’t study at home: my neighbor in the communal apartment was making a “goat face.” Hearing the sounds of music, a seventy-year-old locomotive driver, a communist with the Order of Lenin on his pajamas, chased me around the apartment shouting: “The Israeli devil!” School classes started at eight thirty. I got up at five forty, washed my face, munched a sandwich as I walked, and rushed by metro to school on Krasnaya Presnya. At six-thirty I was already sitting at the piano and working before classes started. Which child today is capable of this?

By the eighth grade, I caught up with my classmates, despite the terrible competition. Out of two thousand applicants, twenty boys were accepted. Ten completed their studies until the bitter end. Even with such selection, few people do successful career. You need connections and money. But if you can “shot” in pop music if you have only these two components, in classical music you can’t do without education. Sometimes in the conservatory, with a half-empty hall, there are concerts that could cost millions, they are so brilliant. But turning them into a product that people will buy is not always possible, because understanding classical music is accessible to few. Yes and often talented musicians as if they are not of this world, they are simply not perceived as stars. And well-packaged banality sells well because it looks appropriate. What is glamor? This is a cheap product, expensively presented. My musicians and I were lucky to learn music at the end of the day Soviet system. This was the time of unmercenary teachers who invested their souls in their students. And we studied with the same enthusiasm. "Gnesinka", where I entered after graduating from the choir school - Graduate School Music. In this Temple of the Muses, I was made a conductor - a seasoned musician, capable of elevating and leading people. I absorbed musical science like a sponge, for the time being not burdening myself with thoughts about my daily bread. But quite early - at twenty-one - the time came, I fell in love and got married.

Lena had an upturned nose, an open smile and bottomless eyes. A real Russian beauty. We met at Gnesinka, she combined her studies with work - she sang in Minin’s choir. We had a lot in common, we learned the basics of music together, went to concerts, plays and an ice skating rink. Both loved nature. I became her first man. At twenty-two, Natasha was born to us. It was probably a little early, but we were happy. Against the wishes of the parents. Both believed that we were of different breeds. They did not create any obstacles, but from individual remarks it was easy to guess: the relatives were not happy.
“I would like my daughter to marry a man of her own nationality,” her father told my mother before the wedding.

My mother dreamed of seeing me next to a Jewish girl. After all, fifty generations of my ancestors married only their own.

So what? Love erases all differences. My father-in-law realized this over time. He was a real Russian officer, a deeply decent and intelligent person. He and Lena had an amazing relationship. Like one soul for two. And they were very similar in character - absolute restraint and extreme kindness. Lena loved me devotedly and never demanded anything, but I had to prove to myself and others that I could not be a boy, but a husband and breadwinner.
How could I earn money? Private transportation. I’ve had my license since I was nineteen, I even went in for motorsports. I somehow managed to find time between music classes. I took part in the rally once and came sixteenth from the end. But the main thing is participation! I sold all my valuables, including a leather jacket and a radio, borrowed more from my brother and bought a used Zhiguli model eleven. Since then, every Saturday evening and not only, I went to work. Everything happened: they took away my earnings for the evening, asked me to get out of the car, and didn’t pay, but thank the Creator, there were no serious consequences for my health.

By the end of my fifth year, I was working in four places at the same time. In a large supermarket in Strogino he was a “night director,” that is, a loader. I received five or six cars a night: three with bread, two with dairy products and sometimes sausage. The sausage was the most a terrible blow, because I had to turn over all one and a half to two tons with my own hands, weigh them, and also make sure that the driver and the forwarder didn’t steal a couple of loaves. But the word “deficit”, under the slogan of which the perestroika country lived, did not exist for me. When I was racing after night shift from Strogino to the center to teach music to children, the traffic cops on the highway saluted me: once every two months I brought them a box of buckwheat and tea to the department. I made various connections and acquaintances. I was completely fine, but my soul still thirsted for music and creativity.

Finally I found something to please her. In parallel with the store and teaching, he began working with an Orthodox church choir and at the same time with a political song ensemble. After some time, I became convinced that I had not made a mistake with my profession. And working with the actors of the “School” theater musical art"under the guidance of Yuri Sherling, I realized that I could teach anyone to sing. I will bring even a non-singing ballerina to the level of pop performance.

I don’t know how long our marriage with Lena would have lasted. Today it’s hard for me to talk about this, because so many years have passed. I only know that our feelings were sincere and real. It is believed that early unions do not stand the test of time. But it is not destined to know whether this would be true in our case...
In August 1989, together with my friend and teacher Vladimir Anufrievich Semenyuk, I went by car to Klaipeda to visit his graduate student, a Lithuanian. Talks about music, trips to Palanga, sun, sea and sand. In all respects it was a pleasant trip. One day, despite the late hour, I couldn’t fall asleep, although at twenty-seven I didn’t know what insomnia was. At half past two in the morning the doorbell rang. Telegram. “Call urgently. Sasha,” wrote the older brother. “Is there something wrong with mom or dad?” — I thought frantically. In 1989, there was no place to call Moscow from Klaipeda at night. Semenyuk and I drove to the city center and found ourselves in front of the locked doors of the telephone booth. I didn’t find a place for myself until half past seven. And when I was finally able to dial telephone number, I heard my mother’s voice on the phone. “So she’s okay,” was the first thing I thought.
“Control yourself,” said mom. - They all died.
I didn't understand anything.
- Who is everyone, mom?
— Lena, her father and brother.
I hung up the phone, went out into the street on weak legs and, having reached the lawn, collapsed into the grass. The teacher ran up to me.
“Vladimir Anufrievich, give me a cigarette,” I asked. “Something is burning inside.”
- What happened, Misha?
I couldn’t answer, I jumped up and ran to call again. Mom, who survived the death of all her relatives, dictated in a calm, even voice: “Seventy-first kilometer from Minsk, police station number...”
Lena, her father and brother went to Vilnius for a relative’s birthday. Lena's father, a neat and pedant, never broke the rules traffic. It will not take the car out of the garage if the turn signal does not work. He did not trust the steering wheel even to his son, who had just returned from the army, where he served as a driver. Nobody knows what happened to my father-in-law, but on the way back to Moscow, his car flew into oncoming traffic. The Ikarus driving along it began to go into a ditch, but the Zhiguli caught up with the bus and, having hit, flew into its lane, where they were crushed by a heavy ZIL.
All the way to the accident site I thought: “This is a mistake. This can't happen. It's not them." Finally we arrived. Some guy on a tractor showed me the exact location of the incident. “I’ve been driving for twenty-five years, but this terrible disaster I haven’t seen it yet,” he said. - This is where it was...
And I realized that I had hoped in vain. On the side of the road lay a crumpled green souvenir horseshoe. My “foreign” gift to my father-in-law.
In the nearest town I bought a bottle of vodka, all the flowers I had,
and returned to the scene of the tragedy. The teacher and I had a drink. We smoked. We sat in some kind of coma, and then I called the police department. “Come for the corpses and take the car,” they told me.
I'll never forget long haul home. A truck with three coffins was walking ahead, and I was driving behind it. It was somehow impossible to overtake...
I was scared to see my mother-in-law. A woman who lost her children and husband in an instant. During these couple of days my face became the color of asphalt. What can we say about her? But the mother-in-law sat surrounded by her friends and behaved well - she was pumped full of tranquilizers.
As an intelligent person, she was silent, but I knew what my mother-in-law was thinking: “You are alive, but Lena is not.” I could go with my wife or invite her to Klaipeda. But he didn’t do anything fateful that would change the fateful route.
After some time, my mother-in-law began to persistently suggest that I give up Natasha and get guardianship for her. Her relatives came to me:
- Why do you need a child? You're still young.
“With all due respect, I can’t,” I replied. — Jews do not abandon their children.
I wanted to take the girl into my apartment, entrusting her to the care of my mother, but then I realized that separation from my granddaughter would finish off my mother-in-law, distraught with grief.

Photo: from the archive of M. Turetsky

At this moment I was in dire need of help. And this help came to me from above. I was offered to create a choir of Jewish sacred music in Moscow. It was a salvation. The music of my ancestors - an ancient powerful art - gave me the strength to live.
In eighteen months we made a program that we performed in England, France, Israel, America, and Canada. The choir was financed by the Jewish charitable foundation "Joint". When they realized that the leader of the team is an individual, is not ready for stupid submission and wants to go to large concert venues, they lost the desire to support us. And since 1992, the choir and I were left without support. It was a very difficult task to promote the Jewish Choir brand in Russia. It seemed to everyone that we were singing only for Jews. I wanted to prove that this is not so. But it didn't work out very well. We had no money, no advertising. One naked enthusiasm.
It was difficult for us to make our way to America, because it was the only place at that moment where we could make money. Eventually, things started to work out. New friends helped, who saw us as a fantastically talented project. And although there were few performances - mostly on weekends, we were recognized by critics and professional musicians. Relationships in the team were also difficult. I remember in 1993, after ten days of aimlessly living in a Brooklyn apartment while waiting for work in California, a revolution almost happened in our team. Eight out of sixteen people signed an ultimatum: they say, we don’t understand why we need California, we don’t believe that they will pay us, we refuse to go. The situation had to be resolved in the twenty-eight hours it took to travel by bus from New York to Miami. I made a speech: “I won’t let the project fall apart!” Then he summoned the conspirators one by one: “You, Alexey, are fired. Vladimir, if you want to leave and then come back, please. You, Leonid, how much money do you want to stay?” In general, I bribed four members of the team, released two, fired two - and the opposition was crushed. Oh, I knew psychology well Soviet man. I'm like that myself.
In 1994, I was advised to apply for financial support from LogoVAZ. I called, and Berezovsky arrived at the synagogue where we were rehearsing and said: “You have twenty-five minutes.” We sang to him in beautiful voices. “I give five thousand dollars a month,” Boris Abramovich promised. We divided this money among twenty people, receiving a good increase in salary for a year. Then things turned sour. Berezovsky left, his assistants said: “In order to continue helping you, Borya must love you, and we have money in our account. Borya loves you, but there is no money.”
Gusinsky, who headed the Russian Jewish Congress in those years, also loved us at one time and even supported us. I always thanked both Gusinsky and Berezovsky very much during concerts, until my senior comrade, famous artist Gennady Khazanov, after the show at the Variety Theater, didn’t say: “Mish, why do you bow to them all the time? Did they build you a house in Spain? Gusinsky succinctly helped you only so that he would be supported by the Jewish lobby in America.” In 1995, we turned to Aizenshpis. He said: “I need one and a half million dollars from LogoVAZ, and the country will fall asleep and wake up thinking about the Jewish choir.” But LogoVAZ had already ended at that time. There was nowhere to get one and a half million, and at the end of the year I divided the choir into two parts. One stayed in Moscow, the other went with me on a contract to Miami. I could take it with me beautiful girl, but went with an elderly mother and daughter. My mother-in-law was terribly afraid that I might not return, so I carefully prepared my granddaughter, who was then eleven years old: if I suddenly decided to stay overseas, Natasha had to stand on her hind legs and declare: “I want to go to my grandmother in Russia!” But she didn't do it, although sometimes it was really difficult for her. The daughter studied at an institution for wealthy children. The school bus took home first those who were richer, then the middle ones, and she was the last. At that time I had neither the reputation nor respect that I have today, and Natasha was looked at as an emigrant from a poor family.
Only my mother felt quite comfortable, she even had a platonic affair with the owner of the cafe, Mr. Nevel, thanks to whom she remembered Yiddish. They rattled on all evening, hoping that I didn’t understand anything. Dad arrived later and decided that mom, at seventy-three, shouldn’t be disturbed. He didn't like America much. “There is no Bolshoi Theater, I have nothing to do here. “I’m delighted with New York City, but I won’t pull my cap off my temple. The Soviets have their own pride: they look down on the bourgeoisie,” he recited Mayakovsky and four months later returned to his homeland.
But I never wanted to go to America forever. I respect Western values, but even more - Bolshoi Theater, ice rink, summer sky over Moscow at five in the morning. I wanted to live in my homeland. And I decided to try my luck one last time. If I don’t receive support, I will say goodbye to the idea of ​​a Jewish choir in Russia forever. Overseas, things finally started to work out for us. We shocked the local public so much that the Miami authorities issued a proclamation declaring February 6th “Moscow Choir Day.”
This time I began to attack the office of Joseph Davydovich Kobzon. Made one and a half thousand calls, no less. I bought cards and called Russia from a payphone. Maybe I knocked louder than others, but as a result Kobzon heard me. And he took us on his anniversary tour of Russia and the CIS, which became a kind of breakthrough for the team.
After a couple of years, I decided to change our odious non-profit name “Jewish Choir”. In addition, we felt cramped within the colossal, powerful, but only Jewish music - after all, this is only a part of world musical culture. The choir members are mostly Russian, the audience is people of different nationalities. Why not perform other music, such as classical, folk, jazz, rock? This is how the “Mikhail Turetsky Choir” was born.
Joseph Davydovich did not approve of such changes, he swore, believing that I was betraying my roots. I think accusing me of cheating is unfair. The choir carried its name into a more difficult time, when even the Jews themselves were in no hurry to invite us to their performances.
So, it was 2001, and I toured America with my band. After some time, my daughter Natasha, who lived with me in the States, was returned to her grandmother. My mother-in-law finally appreciated me. Since then we have lived in peace. True, I never held a grudge against her, I understand her: my future son-in-law has not done anything bad to me yet, but I no longer love him.

Mikhail Turetsky with his mother-in-law and daughter

For twelve years I was single. I couldn’t imagine that I would bring “someone else’s aunt” into the house and tell Natasha: “This is our new mother.” Some girls made attempts to make a husband out of me. Then I went to the Chief Rabbi of Russia Adolf Solomonovich Shaevich and said:
- What to do? I was pushed against the wall.
“If you can’t get married, don’t get married,” he answered.
I could, because my career, the formation of the choir and obligations to myself and the team seemed much more important than novels. Until I met Liana. I remember the feeling of shock when I looked into her huge green eyes. “Two waves remained in your eyes so that I could drown, plunging into them...”
We met after a concert in Dallas. Liana's father was one of the organizers of our performances. On October thirty-first, Halloween was just celebrated in America, and Liana wanted to spend this festive evening with her child, but she could not offend her dad, who insisted that her daughter listen to a Jewish choir from Russia. As an intelligent person, Liana came backstage to thank the musicians for the concert. Marta Klioner, our impresario in the States in those years, saw her with her daughter and asked where her husband was.

Mikhail Turetsky with his wife and her daughter Sarina

- My husband ate too many pears! — my future wife answered.
- So we have so many boys in our team, I’ll introduce you! - Martha intercepted Liana and took her to meet the artists.
We ran into each other in the corridor - a beautiful, flashy girl and next to her a little curly-haired angel, her daughter Sarina. As an artist who spent a month on tour, Liana’s appearance—her high heels and exposed belly—made an indelible impression on me. We started talking. I wanted to tell her a few non-trivial compliments. I suggested that we all go to a restaurant together and have coffee. Three cocktails increased the concentration of romance in my body. And I said to Liana: “Let’s go to you.” I already knew by that time that she was an independent girl, living separately from her parents in a two-story house. She resisted, but I showed slight persistence. We went to Liana and talked with her until the morning. I offered to go on a tour with us, to which Liana feigned inaccessibility and called a taxi to take me to the hotel. This is how our acquaintance began.

The team moved on to Houston. Already in the next city, Chicago, I felt that I wanted to call this girl. I dialed her number after the performance, and we again talked all night. It cost me a fee for two concerts. But some life values ​​and positions have already been determined. I invited Liana to come to us for the central concert of the tour at Carnegie Hall in New York, but she culturally refused, citing the fact that she could not leave work and leave the child for a long time. After Carnegie Hall, I came to see her in Dallas myself. The next day, when Liana was picking Sarina up from kindergarten, the teacher called her aside: “Do you know what your daughter said? She said that the uncle from the concert is now sleeping at your house!”

It was time to decide on my feelings. Mom always missed the extended family she lost in Belarus. On that visit, I visited all of Liana’s relatives and realized that my mother would approve of this option. Family and relationships are the same as in a Belarusian town, only at a high American level.
At first Liana refused to leave her big friendly family, okay
paid work as a programmer and move to Moscow before I posed the question harshly. Her relatives were not happy with our plans. Grandfather, as an experienced person, said that an artist is a gypsy, which is bad for family life. And when I came to Liana’s parents to ask for their daughter’s hand in marriage, her dad warned that she had a very difficult character. But she and I are naughty people. And yet they convinced their parents. Then problems arose with the removal of Sarina. I adopted her and moved her to Russia.
The team and I followed our own special path, bypassing the chain of “producer-TV-public-box office”. They got into show business with one foot, stayed in art with the other, and with that they came to concert venues. For some time, however, I was still trying to find a producer. In 2003, I came to Joseph Prigogine, he listened to the track for about forty seconds and began to wag his foot, look at the phone, and hint: I was wasting my time.
“Iosik, you overlooked me! - now I tell him. “I wish I could “mow it” now!”
Today he talks to me for forty minutes on the phone and doesn’t mind his time. “Perhaps it would be better if you came to visit?” - I suggest.
The choir chose its own musical policy - we did not limit ourselves exclusively to classical music. There are also pop, rock, jazz and musicals. Only classics are like formal trousers in the wardrobe, beautiful, expensive, but alone. But you can change into something more democratic. Or combine it, as they began to do in Hollywood, by wearing a tuxedo with jeans and sneakers. Today, musical fusion is winning - a mixture of styles, when you can offer people different sensations in a unit of time. I will be grateful to the one who will shorten the divine lengths in Leo Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” and fit four volumes of the novel into five hundred pages so that modern children can master it. I apply similar abbreviations to classical music. After all, it’s not easy to perceive it. You need to tune in, open your soul. Many people have the desire, but no time. I can introduce the listener to Verdi in ten minutes, seasoning the music with the enzyme of pop rock for easier perception. As a result, Verdi sounds like Queen. And this is not a parody. Not banter, not popular speech, just a different, modern interpretation. A music critic might call me an upstart who takes what is easiest and most accessible, thus making money. But if I were him, I would say thank you to Turetsky, an agitator and promoter of good music.

Group "Soprano"