There used to be a TV program in Russia, called “Injustice”. It was mainly about the breach of justice by judges and officials. Sometimes I think that there is a Higher Injustice.

September 2010 became a month of a tragic perish of Edward Semenov. It happened one day before his 45th Birthday, one month before the release of our first original song and one staircase away from his parents’ door, where they had been waiting for him, returning home to Vladivostok from Moscow.

It was a matter of one second, one second could have saved him if he only had it and could get his pills… Or maybe it was a matter of one kind word when it was needed the most.

We keep asking ourselves – was it us, who didn’t say that word? All we knew was that Ed had problems with his heart and a few years of incredibly hard work in Italy made it worse. I could have never guessed that it would end that way when we first met during a contest in Saratov in 1999, when he seemed to be an absolutely healthy man.

Talking about injustice – Edward sang brilliantly on that contest and well deserved one of the awards, but provincial minds of the judges were far from objectivity and were based on “geography principles”.  No one was interested in some guy from Vladivostok, for there were participants from South Korea and granting awards to someone from abroad gave the contest a chance to be called “International”. Something similar happened to Edward during “Sergei Lemeshev tenors contest” when all awards went to the judges’ students.

Not sure that contests in Saratov and Tver had higher professional levels than those in Italy, shortly after that, Edward won the First Awards on contests named after Enrico Caruso, Mario Lanza and Umberto Giordano. Italy became the place where he could earn enough to provide his family and help his parents. Unfortunately, he had to work under any circumstances and in any condition, he just had to feel fine and ignore any health problems. It lasted for years…
In January 2006 we met in Moscow and decided that Edward would join the “TenorS”. We were just starting and going through hard times and Edward was with us all the time. Sometimes we were blaming him for his modesty; he never tried to be in the center of attention and even among the eight of us on the stage always chose a place on a far side.

He‘s always been there… and he is not any more… Just don’t want to believe it…

He is looking at you from our posters; he is laughing with us on the photos and sings his high notes on our records…

It’s been more than six years since Edward Semenov left this world. On every concert we sing one song in his memory. And while creating new programs I always think “I wonder how Edward would sing this song?”

He will remain with us for many-many years…
And here – on our website as well...
We will always remember...

Dmitry Sibirtsev