Valery Aleksandrovich Gavrilin (Russian: Валерий Александрович Гаврилин; 17 August 1939 – 28 January 1999) was a Soviet and Russian composer. People's Artist of the RSFSR (1985).
Valery Gavrilin was born in 1939 in Vologda. When he was 3, his father died as a volunteer during the Siege of Leningrad. His mother was imprisoned when he was 10 and Gavrilin was sent to an orphanage in the village of Kovyrino near Vologda. At the age of 11, Gavrilin entered a school of music where I.M. Belozemtsev, a teacher at Leningrad Conservatory, happened to hear him and from the age of 12 to 16, Gavrilin went to the children's school in Leningrad to study clarinet, piano and composition. In 1954 he graduated from the Conservatory with two specialities: composition (under professor Orest Evlakhov) and musicology (under professor F.A. Rubtsov). Shortly thereafter, Gavrilin published the vocal cycle that would make his name, the Russian Notebook. He continued at the Conservatory as a teacher.
In television and film, he often collaborated with director Aleksandr Arkadevich Belinskiy.
Valery Gavrilin died in 1999 at the age of 59 in St. Petersburg, following two severe heart attacks. The asteroid 7369 Gavrilin was named in his memory. The name was suggested by the Union of Concert Workers of Russia, and the official naming citation was published by the Minor Planet Center on 24 January 2000 (M.P.C. 38196).
The 70th Anniversary of Gavrilin's birth was marked by a Gavrilin Festival in October 2009, which included concerts in his memory in Saint Petersburg, Moscow, Vologda, and Cherepovets, and which included a performance by the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev.
Anyuta, ballet in 2 acts, libretto by film director Aleksandr Belinskiy based on texts by Anton Chekhov (Анюта 1982)
House on the Road, ballet in 1 act, libretto by Aleksandr Belinskiy based on texts by the poem by Aleksandr Tvardovsky (Дом у дороги 1984)
Lieutenant Romashov, based on texts by Aleksandr Kuprin (1985)
Balzamin's Marriage, based on texts by Alexander Ostrovsky (Женитьба Бальзаминова 1989)
The Sailor and the Rowan Tree (Моряк и рябина 1968)
Family Album (Семейный альбом 1969)
Miracle Play of the Three Youths (Пещное действо 1970) (based on the miracle play of the fiery furnace story in the Russian Orthodox Church)
The Cockroach, symphonic suite (Тараканище 1963)
Overture in C major for symphony orchestra (1964)
Wedding, Symphonic Suite No. 1 (Свадебная 1967)
Theatre Divertissment, Symphonic Suite No. 2 (1969)
Russian, Symphonic Suite No. 3 (Русская 1970)
French, Symphonic Suite No. 4 (Французская 1973)