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Shiko AranovMoldovan conductor, composer
Date of Birth: 23.04.1905
Country:  Moldova |
Content:
Biography of Shiko Aranov
Shiko Aranov was a Moldovan conductor and composer, as well as the founder and leader of the first Moldovan jazz orchestra "Bucuria" (meaning "Joy" in Moldovan). He was honored as a Merited Artist of the Arts in 1950 and a People's Artist of the Moldavian SSR in 1953.
Early Life and Education
Aranov was born in Tatarbunary, a town in southern Bessarabia (now part of the Odessa region in Ukraine), to a poor Jewish family. During his childhood, he learned to play the bass helicon and later joined the local brass band when his family moved to Arciz. From 1913 to 1919, he studied at a technical school in Kiliya and then attended the Kishinev Conservatory "Uniria" for French horn from 1923 to 1927. After serving in the Romanian army, Aranov was demobilized in 1930 and enrolled at the Bucharest Royal Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts, where he studied trumpet and composition and graduated in 1935. He also conducted orchestras in several cinemas in Bucharest, such as La Capitol, Trianon, Regal, City, and Corso.
Music Career
With the annexation of Bessarabia to the USSR in 1940, Aranov returned to Kishinev. He performed as part of an entertainment orchestra led by clarinetist Charles Breitburd at the Kishinev cinema "Orpheum" before it was transformed into the newly established Moldavian State Philharmonic and renamed the "Moldavian State Jazz Orchestra" (Moldgosjazz). Aranov became the artistic director of the orchestra. The following year, as the war broke out, the orchestra was evacuated to Kokand and renamed the entertainment orchestra of the Moldavian State Philharmonic under Aranov's leadership. Until 1945, the orchestra performed on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War, with a program consisting of patriotic and Moldavian folk songs, with a dedicated section for jazz. The orchestra also had its own dance group, which performed not only folk dances but also Argentine tango and tap dance.
After the war, the orchestra was disbanded. From 1947 to 1956, Aranov worked as the musical director of the State Ensemble of Moldovan Folk Dance (later known as "Zhok"), which under his leadership became a laureate of the IV World Festival of Youth and Students in Bucharest in 1953. He then served as the artistic director of the "Bucuria" jazz orchestra, which he organized, from 1956 to 1963 and 1967 to 1969. From 1964 to 1966, he led the orchestra of the Moldovan Radio and Television Committee.
Personal Life and Legacy
In July 1940, shortly before returning to Bessarabia, Aranov married Sidonia Schwartz from a wealthy Jewish family in Bucharest. They had three children together: Viktor, born in 1946; Mariana, born in 1949 but died at the age of 10 months due to accidental drug overdose administered by a doctor; and Julian, born in 1952, who is currently a translator and publisher. Aranov is considered the founder of Moldovan pop orchestra music. He composed eight suites and twelve fantasies for entertainment orchestra, over two hundred jazz compositions, music for choreographic scenes, and for the films "Liana" (1955) and "Moldavian Melodies" (1959, in collaboration with Vasile Zagorski) by Moldova-Film studio. He also created several popular songs during the war years, including the song "I Cannot Return" with lyrics by Konstantin Slavin (1943), as well as songs in Russian such as "Aurica," "Night in Moldova," and "At the Dniester," and numerous pop songs in Moldovan, such as "Să nu regret," "Nu sint de vină numai eu," "Am visat câte ubește," "Aurica," "Nopțile Moldovei," "Fetele din Chișinău," "Ochiul tăi frumoși," among others. He also arranged many jazz interpretations of Moldovan, Jewish, and Russian folk songs.
