Edison Denisov

Edison Vasilievich Denisov (Russian: Эдисо́н Васи́льевич Дени́сов, 6 April 1929 – 24 November 1996) was a Russian composer in the so-called "Underground", "alternative" or "nonconformist" division of Soviet music. Denisov was born in Tomsk, Siberia. He studied mathematics before deciding to spend his life composing. This decision was enthusiastically supported by Dmitri Shostakovich, who gave him lessons in composition.

In 1951–56 Denisov studied at the Moscow Conservatory: composition with Vissarion Shebalin, orchestration with Nikolai Rakov, analysis with Viktor Tsukkerman and piano with Vladimir Belov. In 1956–59 he composed the opera Ivan-Soldat (Soldier Ivan) in three acts based on Russian folk fairy tales.

He began his own study of scores that were difficult to obtain in the USSR at that time, including music by composers ranging from Mahler and Debussy to Boulez and Stockhausen. He wrote a series of articles giving a detailed analysis of different aspects of contemporary compositional techniques and at same time actively experimented as a composer, trying to find his own way.

After graduating from the Moscow Conservatory, he taught orchestration and later composition there. His pupils included the composers Dmitri Smirnov, Elena Firsova, Dilorom Saidaminova, Vladimir Tarnopolsky, Sergey Pavlenko, Ivan Sokolov, Yuri Kasparov. He supported and encouraged Dmitri Capyrin and Alexander Shchetynsky who have never been his pupils. See: List of music students by teacher: C to F#Edison Denisov.

In 1979, at the Sixth Congress of the Union of Soviet Composers, he was blacklisted as one of "Khrennikov's Seven" for unapproved participation in a number of festivals of Soviet music in the West.

Denisov became a leader of the Association for Contemporary Music reestablished in Moscow in 1990. Later he moved to France, where after an accident and long illness he died in a Saint-Mandé hospital in 1996.