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About
Edison Vasilyevich Denisov - Soviet and Russian composer, musicologist, public figure, People's Artist of the Russian Federation (1995).
Was born in Tomsk. Father is a radio physicist, who stood at the origins of the Tomsk television and radio broadcasting, mother is a phthisiatrician who worked in the Tomsk tuberculosis dispensary.
As a child, he independently learned to play the mandolin and guitar, and began to seriously study music at the age of 12. In 1946 he entered the Physics and Mathematics Faculty of Tomsk State University and the Tomsk Music College in the class of the famous Tomsk teachers OA Kotlyarevskaya and EN Korchinsky. In 1950 Denisov won the student composer competition and sent his compositions to Dmitry Shostakovich, who replied that he needed to seriously study music. He graduated from the piano class of the school (1950) and Tomsk University (1951).
In 1951 Denisov entered the Moscow Conservatory; After graduating from it in 1956, he remained a teacher in it, his works become known to the general public. In the USSR, his music as "avant-garde" did not receive recognition, and abroad Denisov was called "Mozart of the XX century"
After graduating from graduate school in 1959, Denisov taught orchestration and then composition at the Moscow Conservatory. Among his students are composers Dmitry Smirnov, Elena Firsova, Alexander Vustin, Sergei Pavlenko, Vladimir Tarnopolsky, Ivan Sokolov, Bozhidar Spasov, Juan Gutierrez and others. All of them officially studied with Denisov only instrumentation, since until the end of the 1980s he did not allowed to openly teach the composition class. Later, Yuri Kasparov, Olga Raeva, Anton Safronov, Alexandra Filonenko, Vadim Karasikov and others became Denisov's official pupils-composers.Many young composers, not being Denisov's pupils, consulted with him, among them - Dmitry Kapyrin, Alexander Shchetinsky (Ukraine), Dmitry Yanov-Yanovsky.
In 1979, at the VI Congress of the Union of Composers of the USSR, in the report of the First Secretary of the Union, Tikhon Khrennikov, Denisov's music was subjected to harsh criticism, and Denisov was included in the so-called “Khrennikov's seven” - the “black list” of seven Russian composers. Before the beginning of Perestroika, the official Soviet authorities obstructed the spread of his music.
In 1994, Edison Denisov got into a serious car accident in Staraya Ruza and was taken to France for treatment (where his work had long been known and in demand). There he lived the last two years of his life, periodically visiting Russia. He became an honorary citizen of Paris, was awarded the highest state award of France - the Order of the Legion of Honor.
He died in a Paris clinic from complications of cancer on November 24, 1996. Buried at the South Saint-Mandé cemetery.