Biography
Russian composer Andrei Petrov entered the world on September 2, 1930, in Leningrad, later renamed St. Petersburg. After completing studies at the Leningrad Conservatory in 1954, he produced a range of instrumental works that included the symphonic poem “Radda and Loiko” along with the ballets “The Station Master” and “The Shore of Hope.” During the 1960s he gained recognition as a writer of popular songs and film music, supplying notable scores for Beware of a Car in 1966, Taming of Fire in 1973, The Office Romance in 1976, Autumn Marathon in 1978, and The Cruel Romance in 1983. At the same time he maintained an output of concert music, creating the ballets The Creation of the World in 1971 and Pushkin in 1978 as well as the opera Peter the Great in 1975. Through the 1980s and 1990s he continued with concertos for violin and piano plus additional symphonic pieces, among them “The Master and Margarita” from 1984 and “Russia of the Bells” from 1990—the latter offering variations on a theme by Modest Mussorgsky—together with the rock ballet Memory. Since 1964 he has served as chairman of the St. Petersburg Composers Union and, since 1992, as president of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society. His honors include the title People’s Artist of the Soviet Union awarded in 1980 and the State Prize received in both 1967 and 1976. For his work on the 1992 film Promised Heaven he was presented with a Nika, the Russian counterpart to the Oscar.