Andrey Semenov: biography

Andrey Semenov's Biography

Composer Andrey Valeryevich Semenov (Semyonov) was born in 1972 in the city of Tyumen, Russia. In 1987 he completed eight grades of Intermediary School and a degree in Junior Music School (majoring in Piano) named after S.I. Taneyev in the city of Vladimir, both with academic distinction. In the same year he became a student of Musicological Department of Moscow Conservatory Junior Music College, from which he graduated in 1991. After graduation he served in Soviet Armed Forces, and in 1993 he became a student of Composition Department of Moscow Conservatory. He completed this degree in 1998 with academic distinction; he also completed two years of assistantship in 2000. Andrey Semenov's teachers are composers Gennady Gladkov, with whom he studied privately for over 20 years, Aleksey Nikolayev, Andrey's guide in Conservatory and during assistantship, and Yuri Fortunatov.

Andrey's studies in Junior College and Conservatory were combined with variegated compositional activities. Since 1991 he has had over 50 concerts featuring his music. He has written seven "full-scale" operas and a cycle 27 Operas by Andrey Semenov (mini-operas), over thirty musicals and operettas, two symphonies, various orchestral pieces, concertos for various instruments with orchestra, chamber music (including more than ten sonatas for various instruments), two string quartets, works for various ensembles, Concerto for Choir, cantatas, vocal cycles, indicidental music for over 30 plays. Andrey Semenov's music is regularly performed in concerts and has been released on CDs. Andrey Semenov collaborates with many musical collectives. Among them are: Russian National Orchestra, Novaya Rossia and Russkaya Philharmonia symphony orchestras, Russian State Cinematography Symphony Orchestra, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra named after Sergey Prokofiev, Bolshoy Thratre Wind Quintet, RNO String Quartet, Sirin Ecclesiastical Music Ensemble, Moskova Chamber Chorus, Voskhod music-choral school for children etc. In different years, Andrey Semenov's music was performed by Vladimir Jurowski, Vladimir Ponkin, Sergey Skripka, Evgeny Bushkov, Anatoly Kremer, Анатолий Nazar Kozhukhar, Tatiana Porshneva, Natalya Kovalevskaya, Natalya Voinova, Denis Shapovalov, Oleg Vedernikov, Olga Kalinova, Ilya Ivanov, Elena Evtyukova, Alexey Sizov, Alexey Bogorad, Andrey Lokalenkov, Arkady Shilkloper, Andrey Kharlamov, Alexey Volkov, Leonid Drutin, Igor Grishkin, Andrey Nikitin, Irina Popova, and ither famous musicians; among singers are: Tatiana Monogarova, Olga Shalaeva, Irina Dolzhenko, Svetlana Varguzova, Elena Ionova, Elena Zaytseva, Svetlana Krinitskaya, Lolita Semenina, Ekaterina Scherbachenko, Alexandra Grishkina, Tatiana Tavachuk, Oksana Lesnichaya, Marina Kapuro, Vyacheslav Voinarovsky, Evgeny Polikanin, Maksim Mikhailov, Mikhail Boyarsky, Pyotr Borisenko, Alexey Kosarev, Mikhail Urusov, Vadim Zaplechny, Alexander Tsilinko, Vladimir Ognev, Leonid Serebrennikov, Oleg Shagotsky.

Music for theater occupies a special position in Semenov's creative work. Besides operas and incidental music, he wrote children's musicals for New Year festivities in Kremlin, for plays produced by theaters Hermitage, Satirikon, Theater of Satire, Variety Theater, Romen (Gypsy Theater), Shadow, Tsaritsyno, theaters of Omsk, Norilsk, Saratov, Novokuznetsk and other cities. Among the stage directors who collaborated with Semenov are: Mikhail Levitin, Yuri Lyubimov, Andrey Goncharov, Anatoly Vasilyev, Mark Rozovsky, Alexander Gorban, Leonid Eidlin, Mikhail Kislyarov, Boris Milgram, Alexander Shirvindt, Ilya Epelbaum, Alexander Kanevsky, Yuri Vasilyev, Vladimir Orenov, Alexander Yeshanov, Ilya Vorobyov, Vladimir Khotinenko, Stanislav Mitin, Alexander Zhigalkin, Igor Ugolnikov.

Since 1993 Andrey Semenov is in charge of the musical department of Moscow theater Hermitage, one of the best drama theaters in Russia. Besides writing music specially for this theater, Andrey functions in many performances as an accompanist, conductor, or music director. Besides, it was in Hermitage that Andrey had his debut as a dramatic actor, in the role of Panteleyev (Nikolay Gogol's Marriage). Then, in the course of three years, Andrey Semenov starred as Gardefai in the play Paris Life by Mikhail Levitin. To this day, parallel to his compositional activities, Semenov acts a lot in theater and cinema. Besides roles in Hermitage productions (God is Likely All Around; Goodbye, Dead Ones; A Little Motive; Sonechka and Casanova; Live Corpse; Unmetered Kim-Tango; Leocadia and Ten Indecent Scenes and others), he acted as Mozart in the play Mozart and Salieri (produced by the private theatrical concern Black Box), Sandearl in the play The Journey of Saint Benjamin to The Holy Land (the theater of Yevgeny Gerchakov); he had several roles in the productions by Moscow theater Shadow (doll-maker in Swan Lake, Hamlet in Hamlet, Yevgeny OnegEn in Yevgeny OnegEn and others). In 2002 there was a premiere of Semenov's one-man show entitled 27 Operas by Andrey Semenov (with Ilya Epelbaum as a stage director), where compositional and dramatic domains of his activities combined. Since 2008, Andrey Semenov, parallel with the work in the Hermitage theater, assumed the duties of Chief conductor of the Moscow Academic Theater of Satire.

For many years, Andrey Semenov was a chairman of Actor's Song Festival named after Andrey Mironov; he makes concert appearances as a conductor and pianist and also figures in TV broadcasts. He also participates as an accompanist in the productions of MKhAT (Moscow Art Theater) named after Maxim Gorky; as a conductor – in the productions of Moscow Academic Theater of Operetta, Moscow Academic Theater of Satire, and Novosibirsk Academic Theater of Opera and Ballet. Several significant music productions were realized by Andrey as a director-conductor, in these and other theaters. As a writer, in 2007 Andrey Semenov finished a large monography "Gennady Gladkov. The Book About A Merry Composer", in 2008 a book "Practical recommendations on the work in folkloric expeditions".

During the last fifteen years Andrey Semenov has been participating in many guest performances in Germany, France, America, Israel, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Spain, Czech Republic, Belgium, Poland, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Japan, Korea, and China. Besides, for over ten years Andrey Semenov participated in folkloric expeditions organized by Folk Creativity Studio in Moscow Conservatory. In this capacity Andrey has worked in Altay, Arkhangelsk, Astrakhan, Belgorod, Volgograd, Kursk, and Lipetsk regions.

Andrey Semenov is Honored Artist of Russia, Moscow Government Prize Laureate, Laureate of Golden Mask, Harlequin, and Golden Harlequin Prizes, Laureate of several composers' competitions (including for the best sacred choral work, International competition for the best work for contrabass in Dallas and others), Laureate of Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper Prize for the best male role of the 1999-2000 season, Laureate of 3rd Festival of Actor's Song, Laureate of 4th Festival Dramatic Artists Are Singing in Nuzhny Novgorod, member of Composers' Union of Russia, member of Union of Theater Activists of Russia, member of Composers' Guild.