Iosif Igorevich Prigozhin (born 2 April 1969) is а Russian music producer. He has produced for the singers Valeria, Natalia Vetlitskaya, Vakhtang Kikabidze, Nikolai Noskov, Aleksandr Marshal, Avraam Russo, Kristina Orbakaitė, Didulya and many others. He is the creator of the record label NOX Music has organized various Russian music festivals, concerts, and television programs.
Biography
Iosif Igorevich Prigozhin was born on 2 April 1969 in Makhachkala to Igor Matveevich Prigozhin (1938–1990) and Dinara Yakubovna Prigozhina (born 1940). He is of half Ashkenazi and half Mountain Jewish ethnic origin. He began working as a hairdresser at the age of 12. At the age of 16 he arrived in Moscow. In 1986, he graduated from the Moscow evening school No. 87 on Izmailovsky Boulevard. Не took classes at the Gamma Theatrical Studio. In 1994, he entered the Lunacharsky State Institute for Theatre Arts (GITIS). Without leaving his intensive creative and administrative activities, he graduated from the Institute in 2000, having specialized in "drama managing."
From 1987 to 1990, Prigozhin worked as a tour manager for concert programs. At the same time he sang on stage and released an audiocassette with recordings of his own songs. He started his active tour life in 1988. Since then he has organized more than 1,500 concerts with pop stars throughout the former Soviet Union. In 1989, Prigozhin was an administrator and organizer of the first fashion show by Valentin Yudashkin in the Moscow Variety Theatre. Prigozhin's debut as a producer took place in 1991, when the TV programs he produced Super Show-1991 and Club T were broadcast on the channel Ostankino. In 1992, he became a producer of the singer Sona. In the same year, he produced the musical show dedicated to the European Motoball Championship in the town of Vidnoye.
In 1993, he founded the "Father's Home" Foundation, which he headed until 1995. The members of the Board of Trustees included Archbishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, Grand Mufti of Russia Ravil Gainutdin, Chief Rabbi of Russia Adolf Shayevich, the artists Tikhon Khrennikov, Alexandra Pakhmutova, Iosif Kobzon, Lyudmila Zykina, Makhmud Esambayev, and others. The charitable foundation helped socially unprotected groups of the Russian population, attracted public attention to the situation of refugees from neighboring countries and internally displaced persons. In 1996, Prigozhin was the producer of the concert dedicated to the Independence Day of Georgia, as well as the anniversary concerts dedicated to the 50th anniversary of creative endeavors of Lyudmila Zykina and the 10th anniversary of the group A-Studio, the first solo concerts of Tatiana Bulanova in the Variety Theatre, and the Golden Gramophone Awards (1996–1998). He was the executive producer of the gala concert dedicated to the third anniversary of the ORT Channel (1998) and the gala concert in honor of the celebration of International Women's Day (1999). In May 1999, he was the producer of the groundbreaking ceremony of the star of the people's artist Georgy Kikabidze on Stars Square in honor of the artist's 60th birthday.
He created one of the largest Russian audio companies, ORT-Records. From June 1997 to July 1999, Iosif Prigozhin was the general producer of the company, and from March 1998 to June 1999, he was its director general. At the end of 1998, ORT-Records was awarded the Ovation National Musical Award for the category "Best Record Company". Within a few months of work, ORT-Records released albums by Iosif Kobzon, Lev Leshchenko, Vakhtang Kikabidze, Alexander Marshal, Nikolai Noskov, Kris Kelmi, the bands A'Studio, Na-Na, Splin, Bozhya Korovka, Otpetiye Moshenniki, Shao-Bao!, 2x2, Masha Rasputina, Alexey Glyzin, Yevgeny Osin, Valery Didula, Valery Syutkin, Alexander Serov, and Alena Sviridova. In 1998, it was awarded the Ovation Award as the best producer of the year. The same year, the magazine Company recognized Prigozhin as the best businessman of the year in the field of show business.