Sergei Slonimsky
Illustration — Sergei Slonimsky in October 2017 Sergei Mikhailovich Slonimsky (12 August 1932 – 9 February 2020) was a Russian and Soviet composer, pianist and musicologist.
Also recorded as Sergey Mikhaylovich Slonimsky · Sergei Mikhailovich Slonimsky
Sergei Slonimsky

Moscow Conservatory · Sergey Slonimsky about melody, timbre, music history and innovation. (frame grab, 13:44) · CC BY 3.0
- Born
- 1932 · Saint Petersburg.
- Died
- 2020 · Saint Petersburg.
- Nationality
- Soviet Union · Russia
- Occupation
- composer · university teacher · pianist · musicologist · music educator · musicographer · musician
- Fields
- music · musicology
- Education
- Saint Petersburg Conservatory
- Teachers
- Vissarion Shebalin
- Honours
- Order For Merit to the Fatherland and 4th class · People's Artist of the RSFSR · Honored art worker of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic · Order of Honour · Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland · Medal for Merit to Culture
- Languages
- Russian
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Illustration — Sergei Slonimsky in October 2017 Sergei Mikhailovich Slonimsky (12 August 1932 – 9 February 2020) was a Russian and Soviet composer, pianist and musicologist.
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Note VALÉORINE
Sergei Slonimsky (1932–2020) was a composer, music educator and musician, among other activities, of Russian and Soviet nationality. The composer was born and died in Saint Petersburg.
Sergei Slonimsky was educated at Saint Petersburg Conservatory. The composer worked for Saint Petersburg Conservatory and was a member of Union of Soviet Composers. Activity centred on music and musicology.
The work spans opera and symphony. Languages used include Russian. Honours include Medal for Merit to Culture, Order of Honour and Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland, among others.
Composed from admitted, traceable facts · 27 September 2026
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wikidata · Q959291 · wikipedia · Sergei Slonimsky
In this article
Biography
Biography
Sergei Slonimsky studied at Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Training under Vissarion Shebalin is recorded. Alexandros Kalogeras is recorded as having studied under Sergei Slonimsky. The recorded working language is Russian. The field of work recorded is music and musicology. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are opera and symphony. Employment is recorded with Saint Petersburg Conservatory. Distinctions recorded are Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class, People's Artist of the RSFSR, Honored art worker of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and Order of Honour.
He was the son of the Soviet writer Mikhail Slonimsky and nephew of the Russian-American composer Nicolas Slonimsky. He studied at the Musical College in Moscow from 1943 until 1950. From 1950 Slonimsky was at the Leningrad Conservatory. He studied composition under Boris Arapov, Vissarion Shebalin and Orest Yevlakhov, polyphony under Nicolai Uspensky and piano under Anna Artobolevskaya, Samari Savshinsky and Vladimir Nielsen. Slonimsky was a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. While the majority of his students were Russian, Slonimsky taught a large percentage of the international composition students at the Conservatory from countries including: Colombia, Korea, China, Italy, Germany, Israel, Iran and the United States. Among Slonimsky's notable students is Daniel Kidane. Slonimsky died in Saint Petersburg on 9 February 2020 after a long illness.
Music and style
Music and style
Sergei Slonimsky composed more than a hundred pieces: 5 operas, 2 ballets, 34 symphonies and works in all genres of chamber, vocal, choral, theatre and cinema music, including Pesn' Volnitsy (The Songs of Freedom, for mezzo-soprano, baritone and symphony orchestra based on Russian folk songs, 1962), A Voice from the Chorus, a cantata set to poems by Alexander Blok, Concerto-Buffo, Piano Concerto (Jewish Rhapsody), Cello Concerto, 24 preludes and fugues, etc. Mostly eclectic, he experimented with a folkloric style as well as with 12-tone techniques and new forms of notations. He also used forms and styles of jazz and neo-romantic music.
Operas
Operas
• Virinea, an opera in 7 scenes. Libretto by S. Tsenin after the novel by Lidiia Seifullina (1967) • Ioann the Terrible's vision Russian tragedy in 13 visions with 3 epilogues and overture. Libretto by Ya. Gordin after historical documents (1970) • Tsar Iksion monodical drama after ancient myth and tragedy by Innokenty Annensky. Libretto by S. Slonimsky (1970) premiered January 31, 1981, Kuibyshev. • Mary Stuart, a ballad opera in 3 acts. Libretto by Y. Gordin after the novel by Stefan Zweig (1980) • Master and Margarita, a chamber opera in 3 acts. Libretto by Y. Dimitrin and V. Fialkovsky after the novel by Mikhail Bulgakov (1970), (1985) 25' • Hamlet, dramma per musica in 3 acts. Libretto by Ya. Gordin and S. Slonimsky after Shakespeare's tragedy translated by Boris Pasternak, (1990)
Ballets
Ballets
• Ikarus, a ballet in 3 acts. Libretto by Y. Slonimsky after an ancient Greek myth (1971) • Magic nut, ballet, libretto by Michael Shemjakin, 2005, premiere May 14, 2005, Mariinsky Theatre
Selected filmography
Selected filmography
• The Republic of ShKID (1966) • The Mysterious Wall (1967) • Summer Impressions of Planet Z (1986) • Tomorrow Was the War (1987)
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
2020
Sergei Slonimsky died at Saint Petersburg.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Daniel Kidane – Biografie.
- 2.Alfred Schnittke, Alexander Ivashkin - 2002 A Schnittke Reader - Page 90, 0253109175. The polystylistic method employed in Slonimsky's oratorio Golos iz khora [A Voice from the Chorus] similarly lifts us philosophically out of the time of the story. In it the inspired and anxious reflections of Blok about the fate of the world are expressed by various means, from the choral episode in the spirit of the sixteenth century to serial and aleatoric devices from the twentieth century.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 11
- Grove Music Online, Slonimsky, Sergey Mikhaylovich, article by Larisa Danko.
- G. Abramovsky: ‘Simfoniya Sergeya Slonimskogo’, Sovetskaya simfon iya za 50 let, ed. G. Tigranov (Leningrad, 1967), 336–43
- D. Pabinovich and others: ‘Na obsuzhdenii “Virinei” S. Slonimskogo’ [In discussion of Slonimsky’s ‘Vireniya’], SovM (1968), no.4, pp. 31–46 [incl. contribution by Slonimsky, 43–4]
- V. Smirnov: ‘“Virineya” S. Slonimskogo’, Voprosï teorii i ėstetiki muzïki, ed. L. Raaben, xi (Leningrad, 1972), 50–67
- A. Stratiyevsky: ‘Kantata S. Slonimskogo “Golos iz khora”’, Blok i muzïka, ed. M.A. Elik (Leningrad and Moscow, 1972), 229–45
- L. Rappoport: ‘Nekotorïye stilevïye osobennosti muzïki S. Slonimskogo i yego baleta “Ikar”’ [Certain particular stylistic features of the music of Slonimsky and of his ballet ‘Icarus’], Muzïka i zhizn′, ii (1973), 80–97
- Ye. Ruch′yevskaya: ‘O metodakh pretvoreniya i vïrazitel′nom znachenii rechevoy intonatsii, na primere tvorchestva S. Slonimskogo’ [On the methods of realization and the expressive significance of speech intonation, with examples from the work of Slonimsky], Poėziya i muzïka, ed. V. Frumkin (Moscow, 1973), 137–85
- A. Milka: Sergey Slonimsky, monograficheskiy ocherk [Slonimsky, a monographic sketch] (Leningrad and Moscow, 1976)
- A. Klimovitsky: ‘Opernoye tvorchestvo Sergeya Slonimskogo’ [The operatic work of Slonimsky], Sovremennaya sovetskaya opera, ed. A.L. Porfir′yeva (Leningrad, 1985), 24–59
- M. Rïtsareva: Kompozitor Sergey Slonimsky, monografiya (Leningrad, 1991)
- L.N. Raaben: O dukhovnom renessanse v russkoy muzïke 1960–80kh godov [About the spiritual renaissance of Russian music during the 1960s–80s] (St Petersburg, 1998)
References
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
reference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q959291: Sergei SlonimskyWikimedia Foundation
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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