Vladimir Genin
Composer, conductor, pianist and teacher, Vladimir Genin was born in Moscow in 1958 to a family with ties to the arts.
Genin graduated from Moscow Conservatory in the Composition class of Prof. Roman Ledenev and Piano class of Prof. Ilia Klyachko. Of great importance in the musician's development, more decisive, perhaps, than his Conservatory studies, was his friendship of many years with Georgy Sviridov, a pupil of Shostakovich and one of Russia's leading composers.
Among his compositions are symphonic and chamber works, performed in Russia, Europe and the United States, released on disc and published by several German publishing companies, notably Verlag Neue Musik Berlin, Sikorski Music Publishers Hamburg, Ries & Erler Berlin and Wolfgang G. Haas Classic Cologne.
His compositions was performed by the Symphony Orchestra of Mariinsky Oper House St. Petersburg under Valery Gergiev, by the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev, by the New Opera Moscow under Eugen Kolobov, by Academia Lviv Chamber Orchestra, by the National Ensemble of Soloists "Kyivska Kamerata", by The Kammerphilharmonie Da Capo München, by The Pacific Symphony, by the Vladimir Gouverneur's Symphony Orchestra a.o.
In 1987 Genin composed The Plaint of Andrei Bogolubsky, Great Prince of Vladimir, a Mystery Play for Soloists and Chorus, commissioned by the Choral Music Theatre of the City of Vladimir. The Plaint had over 60 productions in Russia and was performed during the celebrations of the Millennium of the Christening of Russia as well as on Vladimir Chamber Choir’s concert tour of the United States. In 2012, in connection with the 900th anniversary of the birth of St Andrei Bogolyubsky, the work was again in the repertoire of the Chamber Choir.
The instrumentations of Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death and Sunless vocal cycles, commissioned from Genin by the Russian star-baritone Dmitry Hvorostovsky, were performed under the baton of Valery Gergiev in St. Petersburg (1993, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra), and in Rotterdam and Brussels (1998, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra).
The film The Cosmonaut's Letter (2002, Germany) with an original soundtrack by Genin recorded by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra enjoyed a successful release in Germany, was shown on television in Germany and Austria, and is available on DVD. The many music pieces commissioned by Sonoton creative sound solutions Munichcan be heard on many TV channels of Europe, the USA, Japan, South Africa, and Australia as documentary soundtracks.
In 2008 a CD of Genin’s In C est. 4/4: Four Chamber Compositions for Four Interpreters was published by RCD Prague.
In 2012 Olga Domnina recorded a CD of the piano cycle Seven Melodies for the Dial, written by Genin especially for this remarkable musician. The release, from the Dutch label Challenge Records, has met with considerable acclaim, receiving unprecedented top marks from the German classical music monthly Piano News for both the standard of performance and the quality of sound.
Vladimir Genin's new CD, a vocal cycle based on Charles Baudelaire's Les fleurs du mal, has been chosen "Disc of the Month" in January 2015 by the US classical music review MusicWeb.
- "The feeling of synergy between the musicians and this music as well as between each other is complete and would be hard to surpass. This is a major song-cycle, and I am delighted that it has been given such a fine recording as this. There are those who claim contemporary music has nothing more to say, but if you want to render these people speechless you can confront them with Les fleurs du Mal." Dominy Clements, Classical CD Reviews - MusicWeb International 2015
He occasionally orchestrates filmscores for the important German film composers.
The Menuhin Academy Soloists (Switzerland) with the star violinist Valeriy Sokolov, who premiered the violin concerto "Pieta", and other outstanding musicians took part in its 60th anniversary celebrations at the Munich Philharmonie Gasteig.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians contains an article on Vladimir Genin, who now resides in Munich.