Vladimir Genin

Russian-German composer, conductor, pianist and teacher, Vladimir Genin was born in Moscow in 1958 into a family with ties to the arts.
His father, Mikhail Genin, was a musician and writer. His grandfather, Iosif Shpinel, painter and professor of the Institute of Cinema, contributed to more than 60 films as Mosfilm Studio’s art director, acknowledged masterworks of Russian cinema, including Sergei Eisenstein’s Ivan the Terrible and Alexander Nevsky, among them.

Genin graduated from the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, studying composition with Roman Ledenev and piano with Ilia Klyachko. A decisive influence was his long-standing friendship with Georgy Sviridov, pupil of Dmitri Shostakovich.

The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Oxford devoted an article to the works of Vladimir Genin.

His music has been performed by leading orchestras including the Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre and the Rotterdam Philharmonic under Valery Gergiev, the Graz Philharmonic and Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna under Oksana Lyniv, the Boulez Ensemble Berlin, Menuhin Academy Soloists, INSO Lviv, and Kyiv Camerata. His works have featured at festivals such as Pietrasanta in Concerto, Hohenloher Kultursommer, Moscow Autumn, MozArt Lviv, Contrasts, and Gori Choral Festival.

Among the performers of his work are violinists Valeriy Sokolov, Simon Smith, Hawijch Elders and Rebekka Hartmann; cellists Tim Hugh and Guido Schiefen; pianist Olga Domnina; organist Hansjörg Albrecht; countertenor Christopher Ainslie; the Henschel String Quartet; and the Rudersdal Chamber Players.

His chamber operas Alkestis and Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes (texts by R. M. Rilke) premiered in 2023 at the Pierre Boulez Hall in Berlin. His Accordion Concerto was first performed at the Berlin Philharmonic in 2024. Earlier stage works include the opera Malafemmina (2013), and the chamber opera Das Knabenherz von Pyrmont, released as a film opera on DVD in 2020 and premiered in 2021.

In 2012, Olga Domnina recorded his piano cycle Seven Melodies for the Dial (Challenge Records), praised with top ratings by Piano News for performance and sound. His 2013 vocal cycle based on Baudelaire’s Les fleurs du mal was named “Disc of the Month” by MusicWeb International in 2015.

His multimedia memorial Threnody for the Victims in Ukraine (2014), created with the Nodelman Quartet, received attention throughout Germany. Together with filmmaker Stefan Nacke, Genin has received multiple international awards for music films including Dreams, Punto Coronata, Coronata in Blue, and Ukrainian Madonna.

His music is published by Ries & Erler Berlin, Doblinger Wien (Wise Music Group), Sikorski  (Boosey & Hawkes), UMP (United Music Publishing, UK), and others. 

He lives in Munich, teaches composition, orchestration, piano and chamber music, and prepares young musicians for conservatory study. He regularly teaches at the Austrian Master Classes in Zell an der Pram and is the artistic director of the concert series erstKlassiK, founded in Hallbergmoos in 2008.

^{(Source: Владимир Генин - Vladimir Genin: composer & pianist & pædagogue – biography)}