PROVOCATIVE THOUGHTS:
The late Patric Standford may have written these short pieces deliberately to provoke our feedback. If so, his success is reflected in the rich range of readers' comments appearing at the foot of most of the pages.
VIDEO PODCAST: Women Composers - Our special hour-long illustrated feature on women composers includes contributions from Diana Ambache, Gail Wein, Hilary Tann, Natalie Artemas-Polak and Victoria Bond.
Russian composer, writer and painter Grigori Frid was born in Petrograd (St Petersburg) on 22 September 1915 to a literary journalist father and pianist mother. He began his musical studies in Irkutsk, graduating in 1935 from Heinrich Litinski and Vissarion Schebalin's composition class at Moscov Conservatory.
He taught music theory in Moscow (1936-9) and composition at the Conservatory's music school (1947-61), and also worked as a composer for radio. During World War II he drove an ambulance and was in the music corps.
In 1965 Frid founded the Moscow Youth Music Club, ad continued to organise and lead it for the rest of his life.
His music combines serial and tonal composition techniques, and includes music in many different genres, including the chamber operas The Diary of Anne Frank and Van Gogh's Letters.
Awards include the Creative Artist of Merit in 1986 and the Moscow Prize (1996).
Frid died in Moscow on 22 September 2012, aged ninety-seven.
Ensemble. Eternal optimism - Kelly Ferjutz reviews the Anne Frank double bill at Cleveland Opera