Versatile Soviet Composer Pays School Visits

The reception was in his honor, but Alexander Zhurbin stood with his hands in his pockets Monday night, surveying the crowd as it milled about a buffet table at the Irvine Hilton. “I hate to perform while people are eating,” the Soviet composer said.

Then a broad smile lit his face, erasing any hint of ill humor. And he moved toward the piano--for his fifth public performance of the day.

Before long, he had the folks clapping along to a selection of lively tunes from stage musicals he has written. By the end of this week, Zhurbin will have performed dozens of times, primarily in Orange County public schools for young audiences that are, in many cases, getting their first look at a real live Soviet citizen.

Zhurbin, 43, is here as part of a U.S.-Soviet educational exchange program called Global Common Classroom, a project organized by John Whiteley, a professor of social ecology at UC Irvine.

A composer of and for diverging tastes, Zhurbin has written three symphonies (his first was performed by the Tashkent Symphony Orchestra when he was just 16), a piano concerto, chamber and choral works, scores for more than 50 films, operas, stage music and what is generally considered the U.S.S.R.’s first rock opera, “Orpheus and Eurydice” (1975). He appears often on Soviet TV and radio with his wife, Irena, a poet and singer, and their 10-year-old son Lev, a child prodigy who has played violin since he was 3.

“I try to do different things,” Zhurbin said in English after his Monday night performance. “I like to change.”

This is Zhurbin’s fourth visit to the United States. His first coincided with the first Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Reykjavik, Iceland, in 1986. This time, he said, he has enjoyed a chance to play at U.S. schools. He has found U.S. youngsters to be “spontaneous, expressive, dynamic, very musical.”

Tuesday morning, he visited Turtle Rock Elementary School in Irvine, where advanced music students from Turtle Rock and Eastshore elementary schools performed Handel’s “Fireworks” music and a medley of themes by Tchaikovsky for Zhurbin and his wife.

Then the composer strode to the piano to give his own performance of a snippet of Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake” before playing a tape from his own Second Symphony. He then took to the piano again for one of his stage tunes and was joined by his wife for a final number. Finally, he presented the school with a record of his children’s songs.

Although he insisted that he is not a singer or pianist, it was obvious that Zhurbin is a polished performer and something of a ham. His theatrical gestures and wide grin, perfectly suited to the dance hall-flavored selections, had the young audience clapping along and laughing, even though the song was in Russian.

“It is very funny,” he interjected during one song. “I cannot translate it, but believe me, it is very funny.”

Linda Smith, a technology expert with the Saddleback Valley Unified School District, escorted the Zhurbins on their tour of schools Monday. “The kids were so excited,” she said. “Only one had ever met a Russian before. They got to realize there isn’t that much difference between Russians and Americans.”

Zhurbin’s interest in rock developed as he grew up in Tashkent in the south-central U.S.S.R. in the ‘60s, listening to Western broadcasts and black market tapes. “I know rock music very well,” he said. “In my childhood, it was Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix.”

In 1972, he experimented with rock instrumentation by composing a chamber work for “man’s voice and rock group.” When “Orpheus and Eurydice” was produced in 1975, Zhurbin had to endure criticism in the Soviet press for his Western influences.

But the work was a big success on stage, and the cast album sold more than 1.5 million copies (on state-owned Melodyia records). “Now it is a classic,” Zhurbin said proudly. He credited its success with helping to pave the way for increasing acceptance of rock in the Soviet Union.

Zhurbin listed his current rock favorites as Bruce Springsteen, Sting and “old Pink Floyd.”

Zhurbin’s own music is not known in the United States, but he is hoping that will change soon. One of his recent musicals has been translated into English. He hopes to see it produced on Broadway.

Entitled “Moldavanka” after a section of Odessa, it is based on the life of Isaak Babel, a Russian-Jewish writer who died in a Soviet prison camp during Stalin’s regime.

As Zhurbin and other Soviet artists enjoy unprecedented creative freedom under Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s policies of glasnost , those days seem long in the past.

“It was very difficult in earlier years,” Zhurbin said. “We are very excited, and we are very grateful for Gorbachev and his reforms.”

Then, after consulting briefly with translators who had little to do during most of the interview, he added: “We hope it will come to a happy end.”