Yuri Falik

Yury Aleksandrovich Falik
(b Odessa, 30 July 1936). Russian composer, cellist and teacher. At the age of nine he entered the Stolyarovskiy Music School in Odessa, where he studied the cello and composition.

He began to compose when he was 11, producing a string quartet and some orchestral pieces. In 1955 he entered the Leningrad Conservatory to study the cello with Strimmer, made his début in 1958 and later pursued postgraduate work under Rostropovich. In the late 1950s and early 1960s he performed with success in Moscow and other cities of the USSR, and he won the gold medal in the cello competition at the Eighth World Festival of Youth and Students in Helsinki in 1962. Since then, however, he has given his attention more to composition than to performing. He was accepted into the composition department of the Leningrad Conservatory in 1959, and he graduated from Arapov's class in 1964. For some years he directed the chamber orchestra of the conservatory, where he taught the cello and orchestration. He has been a board member of the Leningrad branch of the Composers' Union. Falik runs a composition class at the conservatory, becoming a senior lecturer in 1980 and professor in 1988. He was nominated Honoured Representative of the Arts of the RSFSR in 1981.

The distinctive features of Falik's compositions are clear and logical thinking, high artistry and economy of means; the influences which formed his style include those of Stravinsky, Hindemith, Webern, Lutosławski, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. He has used serial technique and traditional modality, both freely treated and frequently in the same work. Though several of his works are concerned with ethical or emotional matters, elements of the picturesque are no less important.