Rodion Shchedrin
Composer, Pianist
He was born in Moscow in 1932. He studied composition under Yuri Shaporin and piano under Yakov Flier at the Moscow Conservatory, graduating in 1955. He composed instrumental music works, such as three symphonies, concertos for solo instrument and orchestra – including six concertos for piano and orchestra, five concertos for orchestra, works for soloists, chorus and orchestra, choral works, works for piano, chamber music. His compositions include ballets such as Carmen Suite (1967), which is based on the homonymous opera by Bizet, Anna Karenina (1971), The Seagull (1979), The Lady with the Lapdog (1985), whose premieres made performed by the ballet of the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, as well as the operas Not Love Alone (1961), Dead Souls (1976), The Enchanted Wanderer (2001-2002), Lolita (1993), Boyarina Morozova (2006), The Left-Hander [Levsha] (2013) and the musical Nina and the Twelve Months (1988). He interpreted himself the part of the piano at the world premieres of Concertos for piano and orchestra no. 1, 2 and 3. After the collapse of the Soviet regime, he collaborated with significant bodies abroad. He has been honored with prestigious Russian and foreign awards, such as the USSR State Prize (1972), the Lenin Prize (1984) and the State Prize of the Russian Federation (1992), the German prize Echo Klassik (2008) and he was nominated twice for the Grammy Awards (1997, 2007). He was awarded the second-order medal “For Services before the Fatherland” by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin. Shchedrin Rodion has collaborated with the GNO as a composer/arranger in the production of the ballet Carmen Suite in 1991 and 1995.