Smirnov, Dmitri (1948– )

Russian composer. His music draws on eclectic stylistic sources and is often concerned with refinement of instrumental texture. It includes settings of poems by Blake, Pushkin, Coleridge, and Alexander Blok.

He studied with Edison Denisov at the Moscow Conservatory 1967–72. After the collapse of communism he emigrated to the West, and with his wife Elena Firsova was joint composer-in-residence at Keele University, UK, from 1992.

Works Chamber three string quartets (1973, 1985, 1993), two violin sonatas (1969, 1979), piano quintet (1993).

Opera Triel (1983) and The Lamentations of Thel (1986).

Orchestral Symphony no. 1 (The Seasons) (1980), two piano concertos (1971, 1978), concerto for violin and 13 strings (1990), cello concerto (1992), Mozart-Variations for orchestra (1987).

Other Jacob's Ladder for 16 players (1990; premiered under Rozhdestvensky in London, 1991).