Yuri Kasparov

Yuri Sergeyevich Kasparov (born 8 June 1955, in Moscow, Russian: Юрий Серге́евич Каспа́ров—his name is variously transliterated) is a Russian composer, music teacher and a professor at the Moscow Conservatory where he had studied for his doctorate under Edison Denisov. Under the patronage of Denisov, he founded the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble in 1990 and is its Artistic Director. He is the chairman of the Russian section of the International Society for Contemporary Music.

Life

In 1978, Kasparov graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute with a degree in Engineering. He graduated with a second degree in Music from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory (usually called simply the Moscow Conservatory) in 1984 and went on to complete his post-graduate studies there in 1991. Between 1985 and 1989, he worked for the Russian State Central Studio of Documentary Films as editor-in-chief for music.

Music

Kasparov has argued "that the whole tradition of Russian music is too dependent on extra-musical symbolism and association (whether religious, political or nationalistic) and that Russian music of time would benefit from becoming 'purer', more concerned with itself for its own sake, as in Kasparov's opinion, Western music is. This, Kasparov argues, would lead to Soviet musicians being less isolated."