PROFESSORS AND GUESTS OF 16 INTERNATIONAL YOUNG COMPOSERS ACADEMY IN TCHAIKOVSKY-CITY

Composers:

Aaron Cassidy (USA / Germany) is an American-German composer and conductor. His compositions have been presented in hundreds of performances across 27 countries by leading contemporary music specialists. That work has been presented at major international festivals and venues including Donaueschingen, Ultraschall, Warsaw Autumn, Huddersfield, Darmstadt, Gaudeamus, Dark Music Days, Mixtur, Bludenz, Bendigo (BIFEM), Tage für Neue Musik Zürich, ISCM World Music Days. Recordings of his work are available on 12 commercial CD releases from Kairos, NEOS, NMC, HCR, and New Focus Records. As a conductor, Cassidy has appeared with leading ensembles. Notable recent performances include appearances at the Berlin Philharmonie for Musikfest Berlin, the Musikfabrik im WDR series at the WDR Funkhaus, and at the Munich Biennale. Cassidy taught at the University of Huddersfield (UK) as Professor of Composition from 2007–22, and was Director of the university’s Centre for Research in New Music (CeReNeM) from 2017–22. He joined the staff of the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover in October 2022. He holds a PhD in Composition from the University at Buffalo (SUNY), where he studied principally with David Felder as a recipient of a Presidential Fellowship.

François Sarhan (France) studied composition with Jonathan Harvey, Magnus Lindberg, Philippe Manoury, Tristan Murail, and Guy Reibel, as well as music analysis, aesthetics, cello, conducting, and theory. He graduated from the Paris Conservatoire (CNSMDP) in music analysis in 1999 and composition in 2000, and completed the IRCAM Cursus in composition and computer music in 1997–98. He taught at IRCAM from 1998 to 2002 and has taught at the University of Strasbourg since 1999, at the Universität der Künste Berlin since 2015, and occasionally at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden. Sarhan’s diverse catalogue encompasses orchestral, chamber, vocal, electronic, and mixed music. His music has been performed by ensembles including Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Recherche, Ictus, and the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra. He is also active in interdisciplinary work combining music, theatre, video, and visual art, and has collaborated with artists. His projects have been presented at major festivals and institutions across Europe, including the Witten Festival, Autumn in Normandy, and Arsenal Metz.

Vera Ivanova (USA / Russia) studied at the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory, then earned degrees in composition from the Moscow State Conservatory and its postgraduate program. She continued her studies at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (U.K.) and Ph.D. in Composition from the Eastman School of Music (U.S.A.). Since 2007, she has taught at Chapman University (California, U.S.A.), where she is Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition. She also teaches at the Colburn Music Academy (Colburn School) and Chamber Music Orange County. Vera Ivanova’s vocal, instrumental, and electroacoustic works have received awards at numerous international competitions in the U.S., Europe, and Russia, including the Bourges Electro-Acoustic Competition (France), Métamorphoses (Belgium), International Mozart Competition (Austria), International Piano Competition of Orléans (France, André Chevillion–Yvonne Bonnaud Composition Prize), Avanti! (Russia), CORINFESTA (Italy), ASCAP Morton Gould Awards (U.S.A.), and others. Her music has been performed at major contemporary music festivals throughout Russia, Europe, Asia, and the United States. Her works have been published and recorded by international publishers and labels, including Universal Edition, Navona Records, Reference Recordings, Centaur Records, Bandcamp, Ablaze Records, and Melodiya. Vera Ivanova is a member of ASCAP and the Moscow and Russian Unions of Composers. She regularly serves as an adjudicator for international competitions and festivals and appears as a guest composer at masterclasses and educational programs in the United States and Russia. Since 2016, she has been one of the Artistic Directors of the Los Angeles-based composers’ organization Synchromy. Composer’s website: www.veraivanova.com

Anton Svetlichny (Rostov-on-Don, Russia) graduated from the Rostov Conservatory (2004) in the class of prof. V. Khodosh. Participant of the All-Russian Seminar of Young Composers under the direction of Victor Ekimovsky (Moscow, 2004-2006), the All-Russian Seminar on Non-Traditional Performance Techniques at the Moscow Conservatory (2014, 2015). Participated in master classes of Louis Andriessen, Martijn Padding, Roderik de Man (Netherlands), Philippe Hurel (France), Beat Furrer (Austria), Vladimir Tarnopolsky (Russia). He also trained under the guidance of Franc Bedrossian (France), Pierlouigi Billone (Italy), Raphael Cendo (France) and Peter Ablinger (Austria) within the framework of the International Young Composers Academy of MCME (2011, 2015). The music was performed in many cities of Russia, Ukraine, Latvia, Georgia, Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Argentina, the USA, Japan, Hong Kong. Among the performers are the ensembles MCME, Studio for New Music, GAM-Ensemble (Moscow), eNsemble, MolOt-ensemble, {instead} ensemble (Saint Petersburg), Nostri Temporis, Ricochet (Ukraine), Hong Kong Camerata (Hong Kong), Synchromy (USA), ums’n’jip (Switzerland), Platypus and Shallfeld (Austria), Motocontrario (Italy), dissonArt (Greece), Espai Sonor (Spain), Construction Site Contemporary Music Ensemble (Serbia), as well as Ricardo Descalzo (Spain, piano), Peter Katina (Slovakia, accordion), Sergey Chirkov (bayan), Natalia Pshenichnikova (voice), various Russian orchestras and chamber ensembles. Winner of the Pythian Games composers’ competition (Saint Petersburg, Russia, 2007). In 2016, he was shortlisted for the Sobaka magazine award “Top 35. The Most Famous People of Rostov-on-Don”. In 2017 he received II and III prizes at the Resonance music critics competition as part of the Diaghilev Festival (Perm). Lives in Rostov-on-Don. In addition to composition, he is engaged in teaching, gives lectures on contemporary music at various venues in Rostov and in the South of Russia, is published in periodicals, and performs as a keyboard player in the contemporary music ensemble InEnsemble.

Anna Pospelova (Moscow, Russia) was born in 1986 in Moscow. She graduated from the Moscow State Conservatory (+ postgraduate course) where she studied composition with Prof. Tatiana Chudova and Prof. Igor Kefalidis. Since 2015 she has taken part in a number of international courses and festivals, including the Stockhausen Courses in Kürten 2015, where she participated in «Inori» with Alain Louafi and Kathinka Pasveer; the Fifth international Academy of young composers in Tchaikovsky city with Peter Ablinger, Beat Furrer, Raphael Cendo (2015); „Sirga festival“, Spain, Flix, (2016), workshop with Re-Convert ensemble (percussion duo); the Seventh international Academy of Young Composers in Tchaikovsky city with Iannis Kyriakides, Jerome Combier, Dmitry Courliandsky (2017); Courses of New Music in Darmastadt (the harp workshop and the percussion workshop, 2018), the Tenth international Academy of Young Composers in Tchaikovsky city with Andrew Toovey, Oscar Bianchi and Raphael Cendo (2020), the Festival «ReMusik.org» (2021, 2023), St.Petersburg; Baku Contemporary Music Days Festival, 2024, Azerbaijan. Since 2023 she is an artistic director of «The Open Space» — Composers lab aimed at composers who are interested in creating contemporary music for Russian folk instruments. She has also collaborated with MCME, Studio for New Music, GAM ensemble, Kymatic Ensemble, Collective LoveMusic, Broken Frames Syndicate, Morphosis Ensemble, CEAM Artists, etc.

Roman Parkhomenko (Kazan, Russia) is a composer, conductor and artistic director of Synesthesia Lab. He has created chamber, symphonic, and electroacoustic music, as well as music for film, installations, theater, and large-scale multimedia projects. His music has been performed in cities across Russia, Austria, Italy, France, Israel, Switzerland, Spain, Cyprus, Germany, Lithuania, Croatia, China, Azerbaijan, Greece, and the USA; at festivals such as IRCAM ManiFeste, Darmstadt Summer Course and Festival, Impuls – Graz, CEME, Mixtur, reMusik.org, IlSuono Contemporary Music Week, Biomechanics, Newmusic Week, Divertimento Ensemble Academy, ACM in Lucerne, Novalis, Sound of Wander, Hangzhou Contemporary Music Week, Changan International Music Festival, etc. Among the performers: Ensemble Intercontemporain, Klangforum Wien, Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, Meitar Ensemble, Studio for New Music, CEAM Artists, Ensemble SEV, Ensemble Suono Giallo, MotoContrario Ensemble, Cologne Guitar Quartet, ensemble “Russia”, DVOE, Orchestra of the Gubaidulina Center, the Kazan Conservatory Orchestra, the Novosibirsk Orchestra, and others. Roman is a invited resident at GES-2, Peredelkino, the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, Playa (USA), and the New Kamal Theater. Roman Parkhomenko is a member of the Composers Union of Russia, a laureate of the Moskovsky Komsomolets Theater Award, and a nominee for the Chekhov Moscow Art Theater Award, a nominee for the Snob magazine award, a nominee for the Moscow Art Award, and the 2024 Person of the Year award. He is the winner of more than 10 composer competitions, including New Music Generation, Novalis Competition, Score Follower, Open Space, and Notes and Quotas.

Musicologists:

Anna Sokolskaya (Kazan, Russia) — is a musicologist, music critic, and professor at the Kazan State Conservatory. Born in Kazan in 1976, she graduated from the Conservatory’s Theory and Composition and Piano departments in 2000, and completed her postgraduate studies there in 2004. She has been teaching at the Kazan Conservatory since 2000. In 2004, she received her PhD for her dissertation The Operatic Text as a Phenomenon of Interpretation. She became an Associate Professor in the Department of Music Theory and History in 2006 and was appointed Professor in 2025. From 2022 to 2025, she served as Head of the Department of Theory and History of Performing Arts, Music Criticism, and Media Technologies. Sokólskaya is the author of numerous scholarly, critical, and popular articles on music. She regularly gives public lectures on music history, opera, and contemporary approaches to opera direction and theatre.

Yaroslav Timofeev (Moscow, Russia) — musicologist, lecturer, music critic. Candidate of Art Criticism. Editor-in-chief of “Music Academy,” expert of the Moscow State Philharmonic Society. Graduated from Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory. Laureate of the 1^st degree of the All-Russian Young Musical Critic Award “Resonance” (2015). Author of more than 700 publications in newspapers and magazines. Compiling editor of the “Young Russian composers” book (with E. Musaelyan; Moscow, 2010). In 2009–2015—Head of the Musicology Section of the Youth Division of the Composers Union of Russia (MolOt). Since 2010—script writer, since 2015—editor of the “Absolute Pitch” programme on the “Kultura” TV channel. In 2011–2015—music reviewer, in 2014–2015—editor of the cultural section of the “Izvestia” newspaper.

Improvisers: