Dmitri Smirnov, composer
Dmitri Nikolaevich Smirnov –a Russian-British composer and academic teacher, who also published as Dmitri N. Smirnov and D. Smirnov-Sadovsky – died on 9 April 2020 due to Covid-19.
He wrote operas, symphonies, string quartets and other chamber music, and vocal music from song to oratorio. Many of his works were inspired by the art of William Blake.
Smirnov was born in Minsk into a family of opera singers: his parents were Nikolay Senkin-Sadovsky and Eugenia Smirnova. His family moved to Ulan-Ude and then Bishkek, where he spent most of his childhood. He studied at the Moscow Conservatory from 1967 to 1972, composition with Nikolai Sidelnikov, instrumentation with Yuri Kholopov, and analysis with Edison Denisov. He also studied privately wit...