The Studio for New Music (SNM) is the leading contemporary music group in Russia. The ensemble was founded by composer Vladimir Tarnopolski and conductor Igor Dronov in 1993. Their first concert was given in France with Mstislav Rostropovich as conductor. Every year the ensemble performs about 50 programs in Moscow and throughout the country. Studio is a frequent guest at many Western contemporary music festivals. SNM has performed at such major venues as Berlin Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Wien, Konzerthaus Berlin, Cité de la Musique Paris, Jacqueline du Pre Concert Hall Oxford, Paradiso Amsterdam, Deutschlandfunk Koeln, Schönberg Center Vienna, Festspielhaus Hellerau Dresden and many others. Ensemble has conducted a variety of workshops at the universities of Oxford, Harvard and Boston to name a few and has been the first and so far the only Russian group which was invited as ensemble-in-residence at the Darmstadt International Courses for New Music in 2010.

SNM has premiered about 900 compositions of russian and foreign composers. In collaboration with the Ensemble Modern the group also performed the russian premiere of Requiem by Hans Werner Henze and most recently of “…zwei Gefühle” by Helmut Lachenmann. In cooperation with many others with other ensembles Studio has first performed in Russia works by Andriessen, Boulez, Ferneyhough, Grisey, Hurel, Lachenmann, Ligeti, Murail, Rihm, Nono, Stockhausen, among others.

SNM has presented about 60 concert-portraits of the leading contemporary composers. Many of them such as Ivan Fedele, Nicolaus A. Huber, Enno Poppe, Gérard Zinsstag, Roger Redgate have written new works especially for the group. Particular attention has always been payed to all kinds of collaboration with young composers in competitions, workshops, and various other forms. During last years Studio for New Music focuses on the projects with live electronics, video and multimedia commissioning new works from Russian and European composers. Ensemble have produced in Moscow several contemporary stage works, such as Luci mie traditrici by Salvatore Sciarrino, Le petit chaperon rouge by George Aperghis, Jenseits der Schatten by Vladimir Tarnopolski and several others. Among vast repertoire of the group, special attention is also given to the Early Russian Avant-garde (Nicolai Roslavets, Alexander Mosolov, Ivan Vyshnegradsky, Gavriil Popov and many others). One of the most important events of this kind was the world premiere of the Chamber Symphony No. 2 by Nikolai Roslavets (composed in 1934), which was recently found in an archive.

SNM is the ensemble-in-residence at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory. It is the core ensemble for the Moscow Forum Festival for contemporary music. In 2002, 2005 and 2012 Studio for New Music won the grants of the Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung for several projects, including two-years anthological series of concerts with Russian and German music of 20th in Moscow and Russian regions. Studio for New Music won the grant of European Commission for the realization of the large-scale project “Europe through the eyes of Russians. Russia through the eyes of Europeans” with 18 new compositions by Russian and European composers commissioned.

photo © orlova

Honorary Artist of Russia

Igor Dronov was born in Moscow. In 1992 he graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory where he studied with prof. Boris Tevlin (Choral Conducting) and prof. Dmitri Kitayenko (Opera and Orchestral Conducting). He took part in master classes of Sir Georg Solti and Pierre Boulez.

Since 1991 he has conducted at the Bolshoi Theater, where his repertoire included such operas as Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin, Gounod’s Faust, Verdi’s Il Trovatore and La Traviata, Rachmaninov’s Aleko and The Covetous Knight, Puccini’s Madama Butterfly and Leonid Desyatnikov’s The Children of Rosenthal.

In 2004-2007 he became the musical director of several productions: the evening of one-act ballets Chamber N.6 to the music of Arvo Pärt, Magrittomania by Yuri Krasavin and Lea to the music of Leonard Bernstein (2004); J. Neumeier’s ballet A Midsummer Night’s Dream to the music of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Gyorgy Ligeti and traditional mechanical music (2005); G.Balanchine’s ballets Serenade to the music of P. Tchaikovsky, Ch. Wheeldon’s ballet Miserecordes on music of Simphony N.3 by Arvo Pärt (world premiere, 2006), F. Flindt’s ballet The Lesson to the music of Georges Delerue (2007).

He also performs together with the orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater with orchestral concert programs. He has frequently performed as a guest conductor with numerous well-known
music ensembles and orchestras, including the Russian National Orchestra, the Ensemble Modern (Germany) and numerous others.

Igor Dronov is the chief conductor of the Studio for New Music ensemble, with which he has performed over 500 compositions by 20th century composers, including dozens of world premiers.

Since the time of the founding of the Moscow Forum contemporary music festival Igor Dronov has been the chief conductor of the festival. Since 1994 he has been the chief conductor
and artistic director of the youth chamber ensemble Premiera.

Since 1992 he has taught at Moscow Conservatory at the Department of Opera and Orchestral Conducting (since 2002 he has been a professor).

He has recorded a series of compact discs of contemporary music of Russia and other countries. He frequently tours the countries of Europe, USA and Asia.

photo © orlova