Sacha Vlady

Aleksander Okolo-Kulak pseudonym - Sasha VLADI September 1, 1906, Liepaja, Latvia - March 23, 1989, New York, USA - by education - an economist and entrepreneur, by abilities and passion - a poet and composer Alexander Okolo-Kulak came from a Polish noble family. He was born in the Latvian city of Liepaja (Libau) on September 1, 1906 in a wealthy family. His father is an architect, co-owner of a construction company. The mother took care of the children. Since 1912, the boy received his primary education and continued his studies at the Russian gymnasium. From the age of 12, having discovered an interest in music, he began to play the piano privately. After graduating from the gymnasium in Liepaja, he studied in Paris, Copenhagen and Liege, where he studied economics. Alexander was fluent in Polish, Russian, Latvian, French and English, understood Spanish and German. In 1933, Alexander received a doctorate in economics from the University of Liege in Belgium. The love of music changed his professional destiny. After returning to Latvia, he continued his musical studies in the piano class with professors V.Burkat and B.Kunka (B.Ķuņķ). From 1933 to 1944 he worked at the Liepaja Theater as a pianist-accompanist, musical consultant and artistic director. He composed music for songs based on his own poems in Polish, Russian and Latvian, published them in Riga, in the publishing house of Joachim Altshuler, composer (co-author of the tango "Sleep, my poor heart"). Tango "Bored" Near-Fist, thanks to the performance of Peter Leshchenko, has become popular and more famous of all the works of this composer. In the 30s, Petr Leshchenko performed in Liepaja with concerts, perhaps then he met Oko-Kulak and his wife. It was at this time that Petr Leshchenko included the tango "Boring" in his repertoire, and in 1933 he sang on a record at the "Columbia" company in Vienna. The "Boring" tango had twelve multilingual variants, but Polish, Russian and Latvian were the most popular. In 1944, the composer's entire family left for Austria. From 1945 to 1952 they lived in Paris. Alexander Okolo-Kulak was a member of the Society of French Composers. In 1952, the composer emigrated to the United States, where he worked as a light music arranger and music editor, and was engaged in commercial business activities. Alexander Oko-Kulak's composing activity manifested itself in almost all musical genres, ranging from light music - solo and choral songs to symphonic, instrumental and chamber music. For songs written on his own poems, Alexander was awarded a number of prestigious awards at Latvian song festivals abroad. Alexander's wife, Anna Matilda Okolo-Kulak, was a co-author of some of his works, she wrote lyrics for his songs. She passed away on the sunny morning of January 18, 2002 in New York, when she was 92 years old. Alexander Okolo-Kulak passed away 12 years earlier than his wife - on March 23, 1989 at 83 years old. The name Vladislav found on the Web is incorrect. That's right - Alexander Okolo-Kulak and Sasha Vladi. Perhaps the source of the erroneous version was the information on the website of the Polish Song Library.