Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko

Born Mar. 23, 1939, in Leningrad. Soviet composer.

In 1962, Tishchenko graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory, where he studied composition with D. D. Shostakovich; in 1965 he studied with Shostakovich as a graduate student. He is the composer of four symphonies (1961–74) and the Sinfonía Robusta (1970); the ballets The Twelve, based on the poem by A. A. Blok (1964, Leningrad Theater of Opera and Ballet), and Yaroslavna, based on The Tale of Igor’s Campaign (1974, Leningrad Malyi Theater of Opera and Ballet); and three works on themes by K. I. Chukovskii—the ballet The Chatterbox Fly, the opera Stolen Sun, and the operetta The Giant Cockroach (1968). Other compositions include Requiem (1966, words by A. A. Akhmatova), two cello concerti (1963 and 1969), and concerti for piano (1962), violin (1958), and flute and piano (1972). Tishchenko has written many pieces for instrumental and vocal chamber ensembles as well as music for the theater and motion pictures.

Tishchenko favors large-scale compositional forms embodying complex ideas and images. The epic tradition of Russian music is continued in many of his works.