Eugen Doga (born 1 March 1937) is a Soviet composer of Moldovan descent.
A creator of three ballets "Luceafărul", "Venancia", "Queen Margot", the opera "Dialogues of Love", more than 100 instrumental and choral works – symphonies, 6 quartets, "Requiem", church music, and other, plus music for 13 plays, radio shows, more than 200 movies, more than 260 songs and romances, more than 70 waltzes; he is also the author of works for children, the music for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games in 1980 in Moscow.
In Moldova, the years 2007 and 2017 (when the composer celebrated his 70th and 80th birthdays, respectively) were declared the Year of Eugen Doga. Chișinău's main pedestrianised thoroughfare has been named Eugen Doga Street in his honour.
The World Intellectual Property Organization (Geneva) in recognition of his outstanding achievements in music awarded him with a special certificate in 2007.
Biography
Youth and education
Doga was born on 1 March 1937 in the village of Mocra in the Rîbniţa District (then in Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic), in a Romanian family.
The childhood of the composer coincided with a period of historical cataclysms – the war, repressions, hunger, poverty, exhausting hard work (the composer's memories of his childhood[.
After finishing seven years at school, Eugen Doga with his friends went to Chișinău (barefoot and without money, as he recalled later to enroll in the School of Music of which he learned about when listening to a homemade radio. He was admitted to the music school, despite having no prior training. Thanks to his natural talent and hard work, Eugen Doga managed to quickly catch up, mastered musical notation and learned to play cello. He still has the fondest memories of his cello teacher Pablo Giovanni Baccini, who with his personal example greatly influenced the future destiny of the composer.
"My second teacher, an old man by the name of Pavel Ivanovich Bachinin, became my salvation. I always think of him with joy. He scheduled my first lesson at 6 o'clock in the morning. I came in – he was already sitting there playing the piano. I liked him a lot – intelligent, very musical, and tactful. He worked with me every morning from 6:00 to 8:30, before lectures, for two and a half years. He taught me not only to play the cello, but simply to be a decent human being. He never said the word 'must', never used the imperative mood. However, through his own example, his attitude, he had taught me a lot,"- says Eugen Doga.
In 1951–1955 he studied at the Music School in Chișinău, specializing in cello, and then at the Conservatory where one of his classmates was a future opera star Maria Bieșu. She made her debut with his song.White flower garden" (Floare de dalbă liadă) on the Moldovan television. Paralysis of the left hand prevented a career of a musician – this was due to the fact that he used to live in a basement. Doga studied for another 5 years at the Art Institute "Gavriil Musicescu",[15] in the class of Professor S. Lobel specializing in composition. 1 January 1957 for the first time in his work, "New Year song" (Cântec de anul nou) was performed on the Moldovan radio children's choir and orchestra under the baton Shiko Aranova.In 1963, he wrote his first string quartet.
After graduating from the Conservatory in Chişinău, he performed as cellist in the Orchestra of the State Committee of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic for television and radio (1957–1962), taught at the Music College "Stefan Neaga" from Chişinău (1962–1967), and worked from 1967 to 1972 at the repertory-editorial Board of the Ministry of Culture of Moldova.
He made his compositional debut in 1963, with a string quartet, later becoming the author of many musical compositions, theater scores and film soundtracks
