Performer (guitar), teacher.
He was born in 1942. At the age of fifteen he began to teach himself the seven‑string guitar, turned to the six‑string instrument two years later and the following year entered the Music College at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory to study with A. M. Ivanov‑Kramskoy, Honoured Artist of Russia. In 1966 he became a laureate of an international competition in Moscow.
After graduating from the college in 1968 he entered the Ural State Conservatory named after M. P. Mussorgsky (class of A. V. Minev) and in the same year, having passed a competitive audition, became a soloist of the Moscow Regional Philharmonic. By the time he completed his studies in 1973, Nikolai Komolyatov was already recognised as a master of his art.
In 1992, in recognition of his outstanding artistic achievements, he was awarded the title «Honoured Artist of Russia».
N. A. Komolyatov was the first performer of many works for guitar written by Soviet composers in the 1970s and 1980s, including P. Savintsev, M. Osokin, I. Tamarin, A. Grabovsky, V. Artyomov, E. Denisov, I. Rekhin, G. Dzhaparidze, P. Panin, A. Eshpai and others. He also introduced Russian audiences to a number of works by foreign composers, among them I. Stravinsky, B. Britten, J. Elguera, G. Moranson, E. Bergman, J. Brughauser, R. Brindle, S. Mronski and others.
His recital tours have been warmly received in Poland, Hungary, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, France, Germany, the United States and other countries.
He has appeared in ensemble with such renowned artists as A. Talmazov and I. Kozlovsky, Z. Shikhmurzaeva and G. Zhislin, V. Boldyrev and A. Tsygankov, I. Lozben and A. Korneyev, and the sisters K. and R. Lisitsian.
Many guitar concertos have been performed by him with symphony and chamber orchestras in Moscow, St Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine, under conductors such as A. Lazarev, I. Blazhkov, K. Khachaturian, A. Afanasyev and S. Myasoedov.
Since 1983 N. A. Komolyatov has taught guitar, and since 1997 he has been Associate Professor at the Department of Folk Instruments of the Gnesin Academy.
His pupils include laureates of all‑Russian, all‑Union and international competitions, among them S. Vorontsov, A. Zimakov, A. Kobina, D. Kolesnikov, R. Khabibulin, A. Dervoed and others.
N. A. Komolyatov has recorded four LPs (two solo and two ensemble) and one compact disc.
