Yuri Falik (July 30, 1936–January 23, 2009) was a Soviet and Russian composer, conductor, cellist, and teacher. He was born in Odessa and died in St. Petersburg, where he was buried at Smolensk Orthodox Cemetery.
Falik studied at the P. S. Stolyarsky Odessa Special Music Boarding School and graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory, studying cello with A. Ya. Sht rimer and composition with B. A. Arapov. He later completed postgraduate study under Mstislav Rostropovich. He led the conservatory’s student chamber orchestra and became a professor of composition and orchestration at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In 1991–1992, he was a visiting professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
As a conductor, Falik performed in Russia and abroad, including with the Chicago and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras. His music was widely performed, published, and recorded. His works include the comic opera Scapin’s Deceptions, the choreographic tragedy The Oresteia, three symphonies, two concertos for orchestra, a Mass for soloists, choir, and chamber orchestra, and concertos for violin and cello. His output also includes eight string quartets and a range of vocal and chamber works.
Choral music held a particular place in Falik’s work. It includes Liturgical Hymns for soloists and unaccompanied choir, choral concertos setting poems by Igor Severyanin, Marina Tsvetaeva, Boris Pasternak, Alexander Pushkin, Anna Akhmatova, and Nikolay Gumilyov, and The Book of Cansons, based on poems by European writers of the 11th to 17th centuries. His choral style challenged established conventions and expanded expressive resources, treating the choir at different times as a single voice, an ensemble, or an orchestra. Falik was named People's Artist of the Russian Federation in 2002 and received the Golden Pushkin Medal in 1999.