Sergei Pavlenko
Sergei Vasilyevich Pavlenko (5 May 1952 – 3 February 2012) was a Soviet and Russian composer whose work focused on symphonic and chamber music, including avant-garde music. Born in Sumy, Ukraine, he grew up in Rostov-on-Don. He studied composition with Nikolai Sidelnikov and orchestration with Edison Denisov at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory from 1972 to 1977, and later said that both teachers influenced his work throughout his life. He continued with postgraduate study at the conservatory from 1977 to 1980.
While still a conservatory student, Pavlenko became music director of the Taganka Theatre in 1976, at the age of twenty-four. He held the post until 1982 and took part in productions of The Master and Margarita, Crime and Punishment, Three Sisters, and Vladimir Vysotsky. He wrote the music for The Book of Complaints, based on Anton Chekhov, and created several productions for the theatre's small stage. After leaving the theatre in 1982, he concentrated on composition.
Pavlenko received commissions from the International Saxophone Ensemble of Jean-Marie Londeix, Henri Bok's Dutch clarinet quartet, the German Westdeutsches Hornen horn ensemble, clarinetists Harry Sparnaay and Jacques Merrer, harpsichordist Petya Kaufman, and the wind orchestra of Tallahassee University in Florida. His Pastoral for saxophone quintet won first prize at the International Composers' Competition in Paris in 1988, and he was a prizewinner in several international composition competitions. In 2010, his orchestral work St. Petersburg Dreams reached the final of the YouTube Composers Competition, where it was one of thirteen finalists but did not win a prize.
His works include Sonata No. 1 (1974–1975), music for the 1979 film Something Is Wrong with the Telephone, Sonata No. 2 (1981), In the Manner of Gauguin for clarinet, violin, cello and piano (1994), The Imperfect, an offering to the memory of Edison Denisov, for flute, clarinet, string trio and piano (1997), s.pavlenko@scherzo.ru for ensemble (2001), Portrait of a Composer in an Interior for seven performers (2007), Vector Space for ensemble (2008), and St. Petersburg Dreams for symphony orchestra (2010). He belonged to the Union of Composers of the USSR, the Union of Composers of Russia, the board of the Union of Moscow Composers, and the Association for Contemporary Music-2. Pavlenko died of cardiac arrest in Moscow on 3 February 2012 and was buried at Nikolo-Arkhangelskoye Cemetery in Moscow.