Biography:

Vyacheslav Grigoryevich Dobrynin (Russian: Вячесла́в Григо́рьевич Добры́нин, born Antonov (Russian: Анто́нов)[1]; 25 January 1946 – c. 1 October 2024) was a Russian composer and singer also known as Doctor Shlyager. He was awarded the People’s Artist of Russia in 1996.[2][3]

Early life

Dobrynin was born in 1946 to an Armenian father and a Russian mother. He never bore his father’s surname of Petrosian – his father left the family before he was born and he used his mother’s surname Antonov throughout his childhood, changing it to Dobrynin in 1972.[4][5] He studied at Moscow State University and received a diploma as an “art historian and theorist” in 1970. He subsequently worked at the Tretyakov Gallery and Pushkin Museum.

Career

As an amateur musician and singer he participated in different Beatles-style groups. Dobrynin started to compose songs in the late-1960s and from 1971 co-operated with the Oleg Lundstrem orchestra, “Vesyolye Rebyata“, “Samotsvety” and other bands. He has written more than 1000 songs, often based on poems by Leonid Derbenyov, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Mikhail Tanich and Ilya Reznik. In 1998, Dobrynin got a star on the Star Square in Moscow.

In the 1980s Dobrynin started to record his own songs, and in 1990 he founded “Doctor Shlyager” band.

Death

It was reported that Dobrynin suffered a stroke in September 2024 and was hospitalised in Moscow.[6][7] His death was reported on 1 October. He was 78.[6]

Credits: