A Harmony of Talent and Hardwork
In order to capture the attention of a reader, the beginning of an interview should be unique. At least, this is what I read somewhere. But I am not able to do unique things. That’s why I invite you to meet the hero of my interview — Ivan Kalutsky. When I was still a first-year student, I heard about the talented student of pharmacy faculty of KSMU. Back then, his name was shrouded by an air of mystery and inaccessibility. However now I have met with Ivan and it was surprisingly simple…
At the performance auditorium of the university, students prepared for the First Day of School. A young man sat nearby me and started to talk. To be honest, I wouldn’t like that conversation to end at that time. And on that day, I heard his voice for the first time. I have never heard such beautiful live singing!
And now I am happy that I know Ivan. I was excited that I’ve got a chance to take an interview with him: Ivan is an incredibly smart, kind and extroverted man; he is always ready to help. And he can even talk with strangers.
In this year, Ivan became part of the fellowship of President of Russian Federation Prize. According to his words, it is one more stimulus to improve his creativity and reach new results in science. Together with a team, Ivan participated in the All-Russian Olympiad of pharmacology, devoted to hundred years of VSMU called after Burdenko. In personal offset, he became 2nd laureate and his team became 3rd laureate in team offset.
- Ivan, in the university, you study and participate in many researches. It’s obvious but there is art in your life. How did you end up liking classical vocals?
- It is difficult to say. Probably, it happened in kindergarten when I participated matinee or some other performances. When I was seven year old, I started to sing. And I had vocal teachers in school. Knowingly I started to sing more when I was 10. I thought I will tie my whole life with vocals. And I give thanks to faith that I have pieces of people souls who taught me, and what they gave to me. It reflects in my manner of singing now.
I participated in many competitions. My first competition was successful, when I was 10. And later I took a laureate and a grand prix.
- How did they know about your vocal abilities?
- To be honest, I didn’t want to sing here. I only wanted to hear others and look for their creativity. But my former classmate became my group mate, who revealed my secret.
- What is most important in creativity? What principles do you follow when you choose repertoire?
- The most important thing is to push not on 100% but 120%. It is important for me, to give a message to the people who are listening to me, to show them how I interpret a song. A song must have a deeper sense.
I don’t mind about the awards. I don’t mind what people will talk about me later. Unfortunately, people judge a person by looking at his awards or how other artists treat to you. But for me, the biggest importance is when the people understand what I am trying to tell them.
- How can you manage both studies and creativity; where did you gain energy and inspiration?
- There are times when I can’t manage it all. Studies require a lot, and studies is first priority. When you are trying to pay some attention to the creativity, you understand that you skipped something in studies. But I am trying to unite what I like and what is useful to me.
I take energy and inspiration from the songs that I sing. However, the head team is important too, because then you can get positive energy and you focus on things all the time.
- Is vocal only a hobby for you or is it something more? Will you improve yourself in this way?
- I can not say that vocal is my hobby, it refers to my lifestyle. Some people say: it is easy to live while you sing. When you are walking with earphones to the university or coming back and music accompanies you, it creates a mood and inspires you to “greatness” (laugh).
Studies is my first priority but music is always with me.
Every performance at competitions gives me new energy, strength and possibilities to show myself.
- When you performed at the first ‘Student spring’, how was it?
- I participate in ‘Student spring’ from the first year course. Then I sang a song by Muslim Magomayev «Верни мне музыку» (‘Return the Music to me’). All art of Muslims Magomayev is a classic. It is so close to my heart. It has experiences that it matters to me. It has a soul, which is important to me.
At the ‘Student spring’, I was interested in how students sing. I’ve tried to get their image and every time I got something new and interesting, I asked them how they do it and listen to their answers. I am glad that we have so many talented young people.
- Do you ever have creative block?
- I’ve already told that creativity is my life. But what do I can consider as creative block? It is whenever I don’t find a song that suits my mood or I can’t match an image. I fight with it by just listening to music. I go to classical music concerts, because classic is our basis. However, I also go to the modern music concerts in order to hear new art.
- Would you change something in your creativity?
- As any singer who is developing, I want to try something new. Sometimes I want to take official suit off, put it in the closet and try to do something light, modern and, of course, interesting. But if you want to focus on that seriously, it needs a lot of time and energy. In order to catch a cool mood, it needs a certain cases or songs.
- Is it difficult to fight with star-struckness? What do you think about it?
- I put a part of myself whenever I sing a song, but it always seems that I missed something, I didn’t tell enough.
It is very strange to me to get any awards. It is always a shocking news to me, because I don’t believe they can appreciate me so highly. I always criticize myself. I don’t get star-struck. I don’t like to talk about my creativity, I like to share with my expressions about singers or just talk about songs, singers or say what I like or that I don’t like. I don’t like to talk about myself.
- Your future professions is provizor (pharmacist). It’s responsible and difficult. Do you tie your future with it?
- When I studied chemistry in school, it has always fascinated me. Chemistry became the cause that made me decide who I will be and what I want to be. I was sure that I want to be doing something with chemistry as a science, or with medicine. I consider my profession as a possibility to help sick people. It is important to me. That is why science is more important than singing. But in the future, I would like to sing too.
- Performance, it is a part of yourself, and you are charismatic person. Do you work in science in the same way?
- As I said before, creativity is a part of me, its with me all my life. When I am doing a work, I would like to have the answer that goes and flows like a song. Then your work will not just be read, but it will be read in one breath.
- I wonder, what encourages your self-development all these years?
-Many education programs encourage me, and careful teachers who focus on additional stuff, like articles. Apart from the basic literature we study during classes, they also share other books and articles that help develop our worldview and teach us that, in the end, it is our independent choices of what is necessary information and to search for books by ourselves in the future.
talked with Veronika Olievskaya
edited by Law Yi Wan, Reshma Durai
