Victor Ekimovsky
Russian composer and musicologist Victor Ekimovsky was born in Moscow on 12 September 1947. He began to study music at the age of six and began composing in 1960. He studied composition at the Gnessin School, becoming acquainted with Prokofiev's music, and then at the Gnessin Institute, where respect for his conservative teacher Aram Khachaturian didn't last long.
Ekimovsky was known for his musical experimentation and innovation, formalism, his musicological research into the output of Olivier Messiaen and for various difficulties and scandal during his career as a left-wing experimental Russian composer.
By the 1990s he began to become well-known throughout Europe, and after 2000, he was one of the recognised leaders of new Russian music, who also edited the collected works of Shostakovich and was secretary of the Russian Composers' Union, a member of the board of the Union of Moscow Composers.
Victor Ekimovsky died in Moscow on 6 January 2024, aged seventy-six.