Dmitry Smirnov
Dmitry Valentinovich Smirnov (born 7 December 1952 in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg) is a Russian composer, choral conductor, and music teacher. He began his musical education at the Mikhail Glinka Choir School, attached to the Leningrad State Academic Capella.
He graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory in 1972, studying choral conducting with I. I. Poltavtsev, opera and symphonic conducting with E. P. Grikurov, and piano with A. G. Novikova. He led the choir of the Leningrad Music College for ten years.
Smirnov’s work combines vivid imagery and psychological subtlety with a modern approach to choral writing. His techniques include hocket and sonoristic effects, and his compositions are performed by professional choirs.
His works include the opera Yerma, based on a play by Federico García Lorca, and the chamber opera The Little Match Girl, written with Sergei Banevich. Other choral works include A Musical Offering, a Messa brevis in memory of Igor Stravinsky; Midnight Poems, a cantata to words by Anna Akhmatova; Insomnia, to poems by Marina Tsvetaeva; and The Cypress Casket, to poems by Innokenty Annensky. He has also written choral miniatures, chamber and instrumental works, and music for theatre and film.