Yuri Falik
Russian cellist, composer and conductor Yuri Alexandrovich Falik was born in Odessa on 30 July 1936 into a family of orchestral musicians, so he attended many orchestral rehearsals and opera productions when a young child.
Family tragedy and trauma - his father died in action in World War II, and he and his mother were evacuated to Kyrgystan - influenced Yuri Falik's output as a composer.
After returning to Odessa, he began to learn the cello, and began composing at school. He developed a special interest in writing string quartets, organising his own group to play his own music and that of other Soviet composers.
He studied cello at the Leningrad Conservatory and developed a busy career as a solo cellist, but still continued to compose. He was greatly inspired by meeting Igor Stravinsky.
Yuri Falik died in St Petersburg on 23 January 2009, aged seventy-two, leaving much choral, chamber, symphonic and piano music.
A selection of articles about Yuri Falik
Echoes of Oblivion by Robert McCarney - Four by Four by Five fff