The Cause of Leanid Bartkevich's Death Became Known

The famous musician spent four days in the intensive care unit of the 3rd hospital in Minsk.

Iryna Vidava, the widow of the composer Aleh Molchan, reported the sad news about the death of the Pesniary soloist Leanid Bartkevich on social networks.

As Vadzim Kasenka, a close friend and colleague of Bartkevich, told the site kp.by, he spent four days in the intensive care unit of the 3rd hospital in Minsk. "Pesniar" had a bad heart, the situation was complicated by the fact that Bartkevich suffered from diabetes.

Leanid Bartkevich was born on May 25, 1949, in Minsk. He began to get involved in music as a child: he was a soloist in the boys' choir of the Palace of Pioneers, played the guitar, and graduated from a music school in the trumpet class. During his studies at the architectural college, he was a soloist of the local orchestra, and after that, he was the vocalist of the "Golden Apples" ensemble.

In 1970, Uladzimir Muliavin invited the singer to perform in his ensemble Pesniary. Leanid Bartkevich became the voice of the popular group. In his performance, the audience remembered such hits as "Aleksandryna," "Alesia," "Birch sap", "Belovezhskaya Pushcha", "Veronika", "Kupalinka," and many others.

In 1971, the ensemble's first foreign trips began. Pesniary performed at the International Song Festival in Sopot (Poland); in 1973, the ensemble won the All-Union Soviet Song Contest held in Minsk. And in 1976, the tour of Pesniary in the USA was a great success. It was Pesniary that was the first vocal and instrumental ensemble in the USSR to tour the United States. They became the first owners of the "Golden Disc" of the USSR.

In 1980, Bartkevich entered the Russian Institute of Theater Arts (GITIS) on the course of the legendary pop director, Professor Joakim Sharoev. In the same year, due to the impossibility of combining tours and studies, Leanid left the Pesniary ensemble.

Since 1983, he has been a soloist of the Belarusian television and radio. In 1989, with his wife, Olympic champion in artistic gymnastics, Volha Korbut, and son Richard, he moved to the United States, where he lived for about ten years.

After returning to Belarus, Leanid worked in the Pesniary ensemble until the death of Uladzimir Muliavin. In 2003, Bartkevich, together with several members of the Pesnyary ensemble, created his own collective with the same name, which existed until 2008.

In 2009, musicians Anatol Kasheparau, Aleh Molchan, and Leanid Bartkevich united in the Pesniary ensemble headed by Bartkevich.

Leanid Bartkevich is an Honored Artist of Belarus (1979), laureate of the 1st prize at the All-Union Soviet Song Contest (1973), as well as a laureate of international festivals and competitions.

The artist released an autobiographical book "Pesniary and Volha," in which he shared his creative and personal life with readers, spoke about the uniqueness of the Pesniary ensemble. He dedicated a separate chapter to his friend and teacher Uladzimir Muliavin. Based on Bartkevich's diploma project, a Minsk cinema "October" was built.