Igor Egikov
Igor Egikov (12 August 1936 – 23 March 2015) was a Soviet and Russian composer, film composer, and singer. He was born in Baku and died in Moscow; he was buried at Troyekurovskoye Cemetery.
Egikov graduated from the Gnesins State Musical and Pedagogical Institute, now the Gnesins Academy, as a pianist in 1954, studying with Elena Gnesina. In 1959 he completed his composition studies there under Aram Khachaturian.
Until 1975, he wrote music for films, musical theatre, television, radio, and animated films, as well as chamber instrumental, choral, vocal, and children's works. His best-known film score was for the musical film Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Samson Samsonov. His theatre works included the musicals The Bremen Town Musicians and The Snow Queen.
In 1975 he met the singer Irina Vorontsova, who later became his wife. From that point, he concentrated on music connected with literary texts and with Russian poetry of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. His vocal cycle Song of Revelation, to poems by Karol Wojtyła, received a letter of thanks and a personal medal from Pope John Paul II.
Egikov and Vorontsova appeared regularly at the Moscow Autumn festival and other music forums. He also worked as an arranger, orchestrating for symphony and popular-music orchestras and ensembles. In 2005, he received the Order of Friendship for his contribution to culture and the arts and for his long professional activity.
His screen compositions included The Golden Magpie, Orange, The Buzzing Fly, A Gift for an Elephant, Treasure, The White Heron, The Emperor's New Clothes, and What Is Under the Mask?. His recordings with Vorontsova included Two and Song and Love from Nowhere, a collection of vocal cycles to poems by Francesco Petrarch, Osip Mandelstam, Vladimir Davtyan, and Joseph Brodsky.