Evgeny Irshai
YEVGENI IRSHAI (1951, Leningrad) comes from a musical background. He finished studies at the Special Music School in 1969, and then studied at the Leningrad Conservatoire – composition with A. A. Tchernov and V. A. Uspenski (graduated in 1975) and piano with P. A. Serebriakov (in 1978). As a pianist he preformed in Spain, Bulgaria and Hungary. He taught at the Special Music School of the Leningrad / Petrograd Conservatoire till 1991. In 1991–1992 he worked as a rehearsal pianist of the State Opera in Banská Bystrica and as composition and piano teacher at the Conservatoire of Ján Levoslav Bella, and as a guest teacher at the Department of Music and Aesthetic Education of the Teachers’ Training College in Banská Bystrica, since 1996 he is a lecturer at the Department of music and aesthetics of the Matej Bel University in the same city. Since 1979 he is a member of the Union of Russian Composers and since 1993 of the Association of Slovak Composers of the Slovak Music Union in Bratislava. His pieces were played at the Academic Little Theatre of Opera and Ballet in Leningrad (Don Juan), in the frame of the international festival Leningrad Spring and in many European countries and the United States. S. Vasenko labeled his music as ”late post-conservativism” (in Sovetskaya muzyka 1990, No. 2). Last year his profile CD called omni tempore (Sedem reflexií in C, Sonáta pre Edvarda Griega, BACH..., Omni tempore, Musical Remake, Concetto rituale) had been released by Slovak Music Fund.
Works (selection): Don Juan, or Love to Geometry by Max Frisch (1973), Improvisations of Kandinsky for bassoon and double bass (1978), Seven Reflections in C, sonata for piano (1983), Sonata-Parting for cello and piano (1985), Epigraphs, cantata on poems by A. Tarkovsky for mixed choir (1985), Travel Symphony for horn and piano (1987), Speak, four romances for soprano and cello (1987), A Prayer for a Deceased Friend for soprano, baritone and chamber ensemble, Anagram on the Name Ernst Bloch for string chamber orchestra (1994), Menuet on the Island for voice, whispering, applause, movement and keyboard instrument on poems by N. Hosťovecká (1994), Die Tage wollen länger werden, 7 songs for mezzo-soprano and piano on poems of Ingeborg Bachmann, Quintet (1996), Toccata for 12 cellos and piano (1996), Exodus (1996), I’m not going to die today, I’m only going again away for organ (1997), Variations for violoncello (1996), Hate, sonata for violin and piano (2003), Star on texts of A. Fet for choir (1996–1997), Omni tempore for violin (1999 - 2000), BACH... for violin, viola, cello and piano (2000), Musical Remake for violoncello and piano (2002), Concetto rituale for accordion (2003).