Kalio Mulberg: “The Path to Perfection”- essay of Boris Turchinsky.

When the Odessa conservatory (now called Musical Academy named after A.B. Nezhdanov) is mentioned, one first of all recalls the outstanding performers-its graduates, such as E. Gilels, D. Oistrach, S. Richter, K. Dankevitch, N. Milshtein, O. Blagovidova, Y. Zak and many-many other musicians known throughout the world. Their educators are usually mentioned far less frequently. And this is hardly fair!
You can judge for yourselves. In the Odessa Academy alone nowadays are teaching 4 Academicians, 11 Doctors and 45 Master Graduates of Fine Arts,
32 Professors, 22 Assistant Professors, 8 Peoples Artists and 34 Honored Artists of the Ukraine, 20 Honored Art Workers and 3 Honored Cultural Workers of the Republic. Many of them are awarded with orders and medals, prize-winners titles. Only few of the Higher Musical Institutions of the world possess a similar selection of such high-class teacher-specialists. And you would hardly find a tutor whose work would be crowned with the original and very prestigious foreign reward: the International biographic centre of Cambridge collecting information of the outstanding musicians of the world, in February 1991 included the Professor of the Odessa Academy, the Head of the Department of the Wind and Percussion Instruments, the honored Worker of Art of the Ukraine –Kalio Evaldovitch Mulberg into the list of musical authorities –world leaders of the artistic activity.
How did it happen that a son of a circus actor (Kalio’s father was a famous acrobat in the USSR before the Second World War), whom destiny itself prompted to become a successor of the family tradition, all of a sudden was carried away by music? According to C. Mulberg, it was the circus that played the decisive role in this. When the boy was 8 years old, he watched on the arena in Moscow the performance of two negro-musicians-tap-dancers: one was playing banjo, the other one-saxophone. Kalio was so thrilled with this performance, that he asked his parent to help him learn to play saxophone.
A couple of years later a musician gave Mulberg’s father an advice: “To be able to play saxophone one should first master clarinet to perfection”.
This is how the 12-year old son of an acrobat took the instrument in his hands that actually determined his destiny. It was not long before the war broke out.

First years of the war the Mulberg family lived in Barnaul, then in Sverdlovsk, and after the Ukraine was liberated from the Germans, in Odessa. Wherever he could Kalio played saxophone and clarinet – in orchestras and small groups- at cinemas, in the circus, in parks during the summer and even at weddings. As he himself said, he “comprehended the musical science by practice”. However, very soon Mulberg understood that he won’t succeed without formal education. Thus, continuing to work in the orchestra of the circus of Odessa, Kalio entered the local musical school and in 1948-the conservatory.


At the entrance exam he performed the first concert of K.M. Weber with such inspiration and mastery, that he incited great appreciation in famous composer K.F. Dankevitch, the Chairman of the Selection Committee, who was at that time the rector of the conservatory. He definitely predicted Mulberg’s great future as a clarinetist! And he wasn’t mistaken!
At the first year in the conservatory like in musical school, Kalio studied under P.V. Drozdov. They played together in the Odessa symphony orchestra, where Mulberg was invited after he passed his entrance exams. The young clarinetist learned much from his teacher, whose major teaching principles were persistence in reaching the goal he set and continuous search for new goals. Years later Drozdov’s student started using his teacher’s creative methods in his pedagogical work. “For instance, I always listened with pleasure to the clarinet sounds of Pavel Vasilievitch filled with deep timbre, intense metal gleam” –recalled Kalio Mulberg. – “Once Drozdov rehearsed in my presence before the concert in the class of the musical school. I involuntarily started comparing the sound of my clarinet with his performance dreaming to reach the mastery of my teacher. Suddenly I paid attention to Drozdov’s exhale. I noticed that he held the instrument steadfastly while his respiratory apparatus was working with great activity. And Pavel Vasilievitch right away prompted me how to “grasp” his exhale performance. Soon, following my teacher’s advice, I started feeling that my sound became deeper, denser, and more expressive and the clarinet itself turned to be more manageable.” Mulberg also recalled another postulate of Drozdov, which he followed during all his artistic life: “Before a concert the musician should rehearse in class at the quality of 110%, because on stage, when he remains alone face to face with the audience, he loses 10% due to the excitement, and then remain the necessary 100% quality.”
In a little while the teacher and the student parted: Drozdov moved to Kiev while C. Mulberg, a second year student, shifted to the class of Assistant Professor Vera Pavlovna Bazilevitch. With this teacher Kalio was also lucky. Bazilevitch was a remarkably deep, delicate and versatile musician. She finished the Odessa musical school for clarinet and piano, then the conservatory as a musical expert and she studied conducting with Professor A.I. Klimova.
In the Opera House she played organ and clavecin, in the musical school she led a class of the symphony orchestra and regularly taught conducting at the brass band courses of the military region of Odessa. In the conservatory she taught clarinetists, accordionists and French hornets. V.P. Basilevitch possessed an amazing pedagogical talent: she could find an approach to every student, to his individual capabilities. Mulberg like a sponge absorbed the main principle of his teacher: to provide every student with the method that will help him learn his own abilities and possibilities, to understand what to do, to be able to reach the best results in playing an instrument.
Basilevitch not only helped Kalio in the swift growth of mastering his performance, which had an immediate affect on his artistic career (Mulberg was offered a job as a soloist in the symphony orchestra of Odessa Opera and Ballet Theatre) but she also noticed in her student an exceptional pedagogical talent. On her recommendation, the management of the conservatory offered the 5th year student pedagogical work. Thus, since 1952 four important things firmly entered the life of Kalio Evldovitch : concert activity, theater work, raising a new generation of conservatory clarinetists and scientific research.
Mulberg-clarinetist reached the peak of his popularity in the USSR and abroad after he became a prize-winner of the musical contest, which was held in Moscow in 1957 in the frame of the World-wide youth and student festival. To get there Kalio had to go through a series of selective contests. And he coped with the task perfectly: at the Republican contest he won the second prize (no-one won the first one), and he became a winner at the All Union contest. It’s interesting to mention that the first prize and gold medal were presented to him by the graduate of the Odessa conservatory – the outstanding violinist D. Oistrach.
This success draws attention to the young performer. He was showered with invitations for performances. Mulberg traveled giving concerts nearly all over the Ukraine, not once and not twice he performed in Moscow, Leningrad, Tbilisi, Tcheliabinsk and other cities of the USSR. The audience of Finland, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Bulgaria and other countries greeted him with admiration. What was the secret of this musician whose concerts were overcrowded with distinguished art experts? That’s what one of the most famous specialists –professor Usov- wrote:” Mulberg’s clarinet always sounds deep, dense, expressive, whether it is a classical work of the era of romanticism or a work of modern musicians. The gramophone record of Kalio Mulberg issued in 1983 by “Melodia” firm, confirmed even more convincingly high opinion about the talented musician. Sonatas of F. Pulenka and P. Podkovirova, sonatina of B. Martin, capriccio of Glazachev recorded on it, are marked with the remarkable artistic taste, magnificent feeling of style One can say about K. Mulberg that having inherited rich traditions of clarinet performance, he brought into it some of his own attitude. His interpretation is marked with the traits of individual understanding of music and the role of the instrument in it”.
And still another important detail of the artistic style of Kalio Evaldovich: in his concert activity he always tried to choose unbeaten tracks. In the former USSR he became the first performer of clarinet with the orchestras of R. Kybin,
A Kiplend, G. Glazachev and other authors. The appearance on the concert stage of the clarinet and the piano duet became a real innovation in the musical world. Since 1965 K. Mulberg started fruitful cooperation with the talented pianist M. Glazunova. From performance to performance interest to this chamber music was growing. To a great extent it was due to the artists’ search of new methods: they thoroughly prepared programs from dissimilar works of V.A. Mozart, D. Bortnzysky, N. Rakov, S.Taneeva, L. Bernstein, and G. Glazacheva.
Novelty characterized also another side of Mulberg’s performance activity.
Many composers used to write and are still writing music for clarinet. However, these works were evidently not interesting enough.
Kalio Evaldovitch , therefore, thinking of expanding his repertoire, started a search for musical works, which he could adapt to “his own” instrument. Once composer R. Stchedrin was giving a performance on TV. He performed his new piano piece “Basso-ostinato.” Years later K.Mulberg recalled: “At some moment I imagined that this piece might sound interesting on clarinet. First, he decided to raise the key, to be able to use the low sound “mi”, created in the middle the counter-composition in the ascending and then, in the end, descending movement. This way a new piece for clarinet was started.”
Having completed the intended work, Mulberg sent the notes to the author, to accept his consent to such an interpretation of his piece. And R. Stchedrin responded right away: he approved of the offer and introduced some significant recommendations for the bass. The piece turned out very interesting and later Kalio performed it at concerts with pleasure.
Mulberg also managed to establish creative cooperation with the following composers of Odessa: G. Glazachev, A. Krasotov, Y. Freidlin, G. Uspensky,
I. Aseev, A. Stanko, H. Henary. Some of them (for instance, A. Krasotov,
Y. Freidlin) offered completed pieces for a duet. As to other authors, K. Mulberg and M. Glazunova had to different degrees taken part in searching the final version of their pieces. The experience of the work at R. Stchedrin’s piece wasn’t forgotten either. Years later Kalio Evaldovitch became famous not only in the Ukraine, the former USSR, but also in many other countries of the world
as the author of converting pieces of composers for clarinet and other wind instruments – the notes of these works of his are still being reprinted abroad continuously. Hard to imagine what ethical, emotional and simply physical weight fell upon Mulberg. Daily many-hour work with the instruments. Rehearsals and performances at the theater plus duet concerts. Meeting with composers and literally “scrutinizing” each note of their new works for clarinet.
Author’s creations: there were appearing more and more conversions created by himself. To cap it all, lessons with students as a conservatory teacher, administrative activity: Since 1965 up till 1979, and then since 1985 todate Mulberg is the Head of the Department of wind and percussion instruments. After 1967- the Dean of Faculty of music. From 1979 (after he became a Professor) up till 1995 –Assistant Rector of the Odessa Musical Academy. In this capacity he carried out scientific research of his own.. That’s not by chance that his colleagues highly appreciated his efficiency calling it “fantastic.”
Kalio Evaldovitch, as he himself stated, was forced to engage in science. From his first days of teaching Mulbergs suddenly discovered enormous methodical
Flaws in preparing clarinetists: there was no available literature; students still used the text-book of S. Rozanov “The Basis of the Methological Teaching and Playing Wind Instruments” that was issued still in 1935. The author’s school for clarinet playing on the basis of which several generations of musicians were brought up, lacked a series of very important sides of the initial training of the clarinetists. Due to this, not only beginners but also graduates often made serious mistakes in holding the clarinet, in the position of lips, tongue; wrong breathing and shortcomings in other technical components. Mulberg – after ten years of teaching the students, contemplation, watching- decided to try to fill in these methodical gaps. And he started writing a text-book “Theoretical Basics of the Teaching of Clarinet Playing.”
In 1975 this first work of Kalio Evaldovitch was published in Kiev. It actually became the first book of one author not only in the Ukraine but also in the USSR (in the collected works there sometimes appeared articles on some educational problems) in the field of clarinet playing methodology. And then on the basis of his scientific research summarized in one of the text books, Mulberg prepared and brilliantly defended the thesis “The Research on Some Components of the Technique of a Clarinet Playing”, which brought him a deserved candidate’s degree in the study of art.
No matter what administrative positions Kalio Evaldovitch occupied in the musical academy, no matter what enormous work he had to carry out in other spheres of his artistic activities, Mulberg always found time for scientific work. In the long list of his publications there are such text-books as “Organizing Teaching Clarinet Play” and “Practice of Amateur Brass Band Musicians”, research that demanded from him deep investigation in the archives, such as “From the History of Performance on Wind Instruments in Odessa” (the 19th—beginning of the 20th century) in co-authorship with E. Dagilaiskaya, “Performers on Wind Instruments in the History of the Musical Culture of Odessa”. In 1995 Mulberg published “Notes of Clarinetist”, the work that became a reference book for every clarinetist. In this book they found answers too many questions of vital importance connected to the mastery of performance. A new book of
K. Mulberg “Of Clarinetist’s Mastery” was published in 2002, in 2003 –“The Path to Perfection of Playing Clarinet”, then in 2008 – “Orchestra Complexities for Clarinet and Peculiarity of their Performance in P.I. Chaikovsky’s work”.
Considering all above, you arrive at the natural conclusion: all these scientific research of K. Mulberg were not the end in itself. They helped him in teaching young clarinetists revealing to them the mystery of technique and mastership. And the students that studied at the department of wind and percussion instruments of the Odessa Musical Academy absorbed anxiously the experience and knowledge of their tutor. Kalio Evaldovitch’s students nowadays work successfully in orchestras of Moscow, Kiev, Charkov, Odessa and other cities of the USSR and in the musical associations of foreign countries (such as Portugal, Germany, Chyina, USA, Israel). Larisa Nikolaevna - his faithful wife and companion was and still is K. Mulberg’s support in life. It seems that it is to a great extent her merit that Kalio Evaldovitch, even now, having passed the age of 80, continues his various activities with youthful enthusiasm.
K. Mulberg distinguishes particularly talented students among hundreds that studied under him: I. Olenchik- Honored Artist of Russia, Assistant Professor of the Russian Musical Academy named after Gnesinich, Prize Winner of the International solo contest of the symphony orchestra;

N. Volkov - Assistant Professor of the Academy named after Gnesinich, Honored Worker of Culture of Russia, Candidate of the Study of Art; L. Dzhurmia -Honored Artist of the Ukraine, famous conductor; V. Stoyanov-, Professor of the Lisbon Conservatory (Portugal), conductor; V. Tichonov – Asssistant Professor of the Kiev National Musical Academy, orchestra soloist of the Kiev National Opera and Ballet Theater; E. Surzhenko-Assistant Professor of the Donezk Musical Academy; Z. Burkatsky- Assistant Professor of the Odessa Musical Academy, Candidate of the Art Study, Prize Winner of the Republican Contest; M. Krupeya- Assistant Professor of the Odessa Musical Academy; A. Starchenko-Prize Winner of many International contests, a teacher of the Freinburg Musical Academy (Germany); C. Voronkina- a teacher of the Odessa Musical school; V. Popov and U. Petelko- solo-clarinetists of the Odessa Opera Theater; V. Vatmacher and
F. Teplov—teachers of musical education institutions in Israel. The list can be enlarged.
Last year Kalio Evldovitch reached the age of 80. What a remarkable path to perfection covered this talented clarinetist, teacher and scientist. What interesting life, surrendered to CREATIVE WORK! In the name of all worshippers of his talent, his former and present students I wish to express the deepest gratitude for his heroic deed in music and his love for people.
We are all thankful for the good we received from the great clarinet maestro- Kalio Mulberg.


Boris TURCHINSKY (graduate from the Odessa conservatory- K. Mulberg’s student)