Vladimir Mikhailovich Genin (born 31 March 1958 in Moscow, Soviet Union) is a Russian-German composer, pianist and piano teacher. Since 1997 he lives in Munich.
Life, career, compositions
Vladimir Genin is the son of the writer and musician Mikhail Genin and Elena Spinel. His grandfather Jossif (Joseph) Spinel was a painter and stage designer.
After graduation 1977 from the Tchaikovsky Academic Music College at the Moscow State Conservatory for one year he studied piano at the State Pedagogical University with Alisa Kezheradze, then composition with Prof. Roman Ledenev and piano with Prof. Ilya Kljachko at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. His compositional development was influenced also by his long friendship with Shostakovich's pupilGeorgy Sviridov.
Works by V. Genin have been published by Sikorski Music Publishers, Musikverlag Ries&Erler Berlin and Challenge Records International and have been performed in Europe, Russia, South Korea and in the US, among others with the with Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Opera Theatre "New Opera" under Yevgeny Kolobov, Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Opera Theatre St. Petersburg under Valery Gergiev, Rotterdams Philharmonic Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, The Menuhin Academy Soloists Switzerland, Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna and Graz Philharmonic Orchestra under Oksana Lyniv, INSO Lemberg unter V. Protasov.
They were performed at the International Review of Composers in Belgrade, the International Festival Moscow Autumn, the International Gori Choral Festival Georgia, the 'Musikfest der Münchner Gesellschaft für Neue Musik, The Hohenloher Kultursommer et al.
The mystery play Plaint of Andrei Bogolubski, Great Prince of Vladimir was performed during the celebration of the Millennium of Christianity in Russia and on a concert tour in the USA and has since seen over 70 performances. Over 20,000 copies of this work have been sold on records and CDs.
Performances of his orchestrations of Modest Mussorgsky's vocal cycles Songs and Dances of Death and Without Sun commissioned by baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky took place under the baton of Valery Gergiev in St. Petersburg (Kirov-Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra), Rotterdam and Brussels (Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra).
The feature film The Cosmonaut's Letter (D, 2001) with Genin's original music was presented in cinemas and broadcast by Premiere TV. The Suite from the Film Music was performed by Camerata Nova in the Carl Orff Hall of the Munich Philharmonic under the baton of Vladimir Genin and at the Night of Film Music by the Münchner Rundfunkorchester under Frank Zacher in the Great Concert Hall of the Münchner Musikhochschule.
In 2001, commissioned by the music library Sonoton (Creative Sound Solutions, Munich), he composed six pieces for chamber ensemble together with Roman Raithel, which were released on the CD "Abstract Images" and have since been broadcast as background music by television stations in Europe, Australia, Japan and the USA.
The piano cycle Seven Melodies for the Dial, composed for the pianist Olga Domnina, was released in 2012 by Challenge Records International on a CD, which received positive reviews. A glance at the press review reveals the success of performances of this cycle in Concertgebouw Amsterdam, in the International House of Music Moscow and at Moscow's Stanislavsky Music Theatre.
The CD of the great vocal cycle Les Fleurs du Mal, inspired by Charles Baudelaire, was named CD of the Month in January 2015 by the portal MusicWeb International.
A multimedia project by Vladimir Genin together with the Nodelman Quartet Threnody for the Victims in Ukraine to commemorate the dead of the protests in Kiev in February 2014 (Euromaidan) has generated a lot of attention provided in Germany.
V. Genin also occasionally orchestrates film scores for important German film composers, such as for the ZDF two-parter "Die Pilgerin" (2014), for the feature films "Insoupçonnable" (Switzerland/France 2010), "Lippels Traum" (D 2009).
Since 2015 V. Genin has been working closely with the Ukrainian star violinist Valeriy Sokolov. Sonata for violin and piano (2015) and chamber concerto Pietà (2017) were commissioned by him.
In May 2022, Genin won the "Best Musical Short Film" award for "Dreams" at the International Music Video Awards.
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians dedicated an article to the work of Vladimir Genin.