Valentin Vasilyevich Silvestrov ( Ukrainian Valentin Vasilyovich Silvestrov ; born 1937 ) is a Soviet and Ukrainian composer . People's Artist of the Ukrainian SSR ( 1989 )

Born September 30 , 1937 in Kiev in the family of an engineer and a teacher of the German language. Parents tried to give him a versatile education, not focusing on music. He graduated from a music school and from the age of 15 tried to compose music, but entered the Kiev Civil Engineering Institute . After three years of study, he left the institute in the middle of the academic year and in 1958 entered the Kiev Conservatory (composition class of Boris Lyatoshinsky ). He graduated from his studies in 1964 . In the 1960s, he was a member of the informal Kiev Avant-Garde group ( Leonid Grabovsky ,Vitaly Godzyatsky , Vladimir Zagortsev , Vladimir Guba , Igor Blazhkov and others), whose activities were contrary to the official cultural policy ^[2] . In 1961 he wrote his first dodecaphonic works - Five Pieces for Piano and Quartetto piccolo. In 1970 he was expelled from the Union of Composers of Ukraine because of his views on creativity.

Silvestrov owns eight symphonies, three string quartets , vocal and choral compositions. He also worked in the cinema - among other things, he wrote the music for Kira Muratova's films " Three Stories " ( 2002 ), " Chekhov's Motives ", " Two in One " and " Adjuster " ( 2004 ). In addition, Silvestrov was invited by Sergei Parajanov to create a soundtrack for the film " Kiev Frescoes " ( 1966 ) ^[3] , but this film remained unfinished and was subsequently dubbed using the music of another composer - Vladimir Selivanov.

Closely and intricately connected with the musical tradition, especially with German romanticism ( Robert Schumann ), with a sounding poetic word, Silvestrov's work is one of the most profound examples of modern, post-avant-garde melodic language.