Born 2 November 1948 in Minsk into
a family of opera singers, Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov entered the Moscow
Conservatoire in 1967. Here studied composition with Nikolai Sidelnikov,
orchestration with Edison
Denisov, and analysis with Yury
Kholopov. He also studied with Webern's pupil Philip
Herschkowitz.
From 1973 to 1980 he was an editor for
the publisher Sovetsky Kompozitor. Since then he has pursued a career as
a freelance composer. His Solo
for Harp won First Prize in a competition in Maastricht (1976).
Since then on his music has received an increasing number of performances.
In 1989 his opera Tiriel
(on
a text by William Blake) was premiered at the Freiburg Festival in Germany,
and its companion piece Thelwas
performed at the Almeida Festival in London. That year his First
Symphony (The Seasons) was performed at the Tanglewood Festival,
USA. His orchestral Mozart-Variations were
staged as a ballet in Pforzheim in Germany (1992). Other premieres include
the oratorio A
Song of Liberty (Leeds – 1993), Cello
Concerto (Manchester, UK – 1996), cantata Song
of Songs, (Geneva – 2001) Triple Concerto
2 (LSO, Barbican, London – 2004).
Many of Smirnov's works reflect his
fascination with the poetry of William Blake or express his response to
Blake's drawings and paintings. Smirnov was one of the founders of Russia's
new Association for Contemporary Music, established in Moscow in 1990.
Since 1991 Smirnov and his wife, the composer
Elena
Firsova, have been resident in England. Here they have shared the position
of Composer-in-Residence at Cambridge University (St John's College), spent
a year at Dartington (1992), and were Visiting Professors at Keele University
(from 1993 to 1998). In 1998 Smirnov and his family settled in St Albans,
near London. From 2003 he teaches at the Goldsmiths college of Music in
London.
Smirnov's music has been played by international
conductors, including Martin Brabbins, Sir
Andrew Davis, Dennis Russell Davies, Peter
Eoetvoes,
Lionel
Friend, Edward Gregson, Oliver
Knussen, Pavel Kogan, Vladimir Kozhukhar, Alexander Lazarev, Reinbert
de Leeuw, Jerzy Maksimiuk, Lev
Markiz, Gerhard Markson, Diego
Masson, Yuri Nikolajevski, Gregory Rose,
Gennadi
Rozhdestvenski,
Gunther
Schuller,
Vassili Sinaiski, Neal Stulberg, Yan
Pascal Tortelier, and Guillaume Tourniaire. Recent commissions
have been from the London Simphony Orchestra, L’Orchestra de la Suisse
Romande, The Nieuw Sinfonietta of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Blazer Ensemble,
London Sinfonietta, Brodsky Quartet, Nash Ensemble, Fretwork, Legrand Ensemble,
Leeds Festival Chorus, The Music Group of Manchester, Cheltenham,
West
Cork and Dartington
Summer Festivals, Brodsky Quartet, Karine Georgian and Mstislav
Rostropovich.
Smirnov's book "A
Geometer of Sound Crystals" (English Edition) ssm 34 (studia slavica
musicologica, vol. 34), ISBN 3-928864-99-8 was published by Ernst Kuhn
2003 (available on Ernst-Kuhn-Verlag@t-online.de)
His music is available through Publishers
Boosey
& Hawkes (London), Hans Sikorski
(Hamburg), G. Schirmer (New York),
www.sibeliusmusic.com,
and Meladina Press (St Albans
- press).