Stay: the movie made by two.

- Taras, tell us about yourself.

- The first touch to music occurred at an early age. I was born in a beautiful city - Kazan.

We lived right in front of the Musa Jalil Opera House. My father - Vitaly Kutsenko - was the chief conductor in this theater. My mother, Natalya Guseva, who worked as an accompanist all her life, put me at the piano first 20 years in ballet, then with instrumental performers in various educational institutions. My father, a follower of the Leningrad School of Conducting (Professor Nikolai Rabinovich), always took me to performances. So my destiny as a musician was a foregone conclusion. I received my secondary musical education already in Kharkov. And with this city I have good memories.

In 1995 I entered the Moscow State Conservatory. PI Tchaikovsky to the class of Professor Vadim Novikov (trumpet) and Professor Leonid Nikolaev (conducting).

After graduating from the conservatory, for more than 20 years he studied the art of musical design for performances and cinema in Moscow, and also graduated from the Moscow Academy of International Cooperation (Faculty of Management).

As part of the SounDrama theater studio under the direction of Vladimir Pankov, he wrote music for more than 20 theatrical performances and films.

In 2010 he returned to Kharkov, where he applied his skills in organizing the musical process. He founded the orchestra "Virtuosi of Slobozhanshchina". With this collective, we achieved success, touring Ukraine with famous musicians: Francis Goya, Alessandra Sofino, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, Alexander Ponomarev, musical projects "Enigma" and "Metalica".

In 2018 moved to China, where he founded the Zhangjiajie Philharmonic Orchestra.

Continuing his conducting practice and teaching (as a professor at Zhangjiajie University), decided to start creating his own film.

It was in China that shot his first musical film "Freeze".

- Why did a conductor, seemingly a musician of a self-sufficient profession, suddenly decide to make a movie?

- From an early age I love “silent movies”. There, music is combined with action. In general, I like this kind of movie more, where you need to listen. First of all, and even if some movements occur in the hall during a film viewing session, I perceive them as an action here and now. Probably it is  already professional, conducting. A conductor is a musician who is tasked with accumulating the thoughts inherent in the composition and reacting to what is happening during the performance. Apparently the totality of all this led me to the idea of ​​the kinesthetics of sound. That's why I'm in the movies. Let's clarify for our readers: Kinesthetics is the perception of the world through receptors located on the human body, essentially kinesthetics can be called a synonym for touch, the term tactile feeling is also widely used.

- Why did you decide to shoot the film "Stay"?

When the great writer and producer Alex Sino posted on Facebook: the story of musicians playing in the New York subway, I remembered that in my student years myself played in the streets. Together with the musicians, we created a brass quartet, with which we toured Europe. Very often we performed for the public with Open Air and played music from baroque classicism to cover crossover. It was the happiness of direct communication with the public. I was very imbued with Alex's story, and in the course of our correspondence it was decided create a short film about a musician playing in a crowded place. After Alex Sino wrote the script, we started preparing for filming. It should be noted that in China it is very it is difficult to obtain permission for filming. For a private person, and even more so for a foreigner, this is practically impossible. But after going through the formalities, with the help of my friends and colleagues from Zhangjiajie Symphony Center, we have received all the permits and approvals. The first day of shooting took place on July 2. Naturally, all the people who were in the waiting room are ordinary passengers waiting in the wings. The reaction was not long in coming. People, like growing flowers in fast rewind, began to be drawn back to the sounds of music that came from the corridor through which they will soon pass into their future. Some listeners even started dancing, and a smile appeared on their face.

In the photo: Ilkhomjon Shoismatov

- The film "Stay" features music by Bach and quotes from "Ave Maria" by Giulio Caccini. Why?

- The idea to use the music of Bach was born by itself, since the work of the great composer is unshakable for all times and peoples. In addition, there is an adversarial moment in the performance of Bach's music: some performers in the world believe that Bach should be played without vibrato, while others on the contrary. I am attracted to such noble intrigues. I asked the leading actor of the film, Ilham Shoismatov, to remove vibration from the sound as much as possible, thereby getting closer to the authentic sound. Of course, this did not work out to the end as if we lived in the time of Johann Sebastian Bach, since the modern violin is different from the instrument of those times. But following this path, we discovered other positive aspects of interpreting this great music. The soundtrack for the film was supplemented by two of my works: "Bat" and "Organum. Ave Maria ", written under the impression of a heard arrangement by the Moscow composer and organist Oleg Yanchenko performed by Irina Arkhipova and trumpeter Timofey Dokshitser. "Bat" is my idea of ​​the tempo-rhythm of our planet today. We move even at night like flying mice - blindly, but intensely. "Organum. Ave Maria ”with a violin solo sounding at the end of the film, on the contrary - a call to humanity to stop the mad dancing and pounding. I think this is the intention of the humans.

In the photo: Sasha Gusev