Vladislav Shoot


Vladislav Shoot was a Russian-British composer of contemporary classical music. Born in Voznesensk, Soviet Union, now Ukraine, he moved to the United Kingdom in the early 1990s, settling on the artists' estate of Dartington Hall.

Biography

He was born Vladislav Shut in Voznesensk, Soviet Union, to Valentina and Alexei Shut, an officer in the navy. He was raised in Sevastopol, where he attended School N14.
Shoot studied composition with Nikolai Peiko at the Gnessin Music Institute in Moscow, graduating in 1967. From 1967 to 1982 he worked as the music editor at the Sovetsky Kompozitor publishers in Moscow. In 1982, he turned to freelance composing, earning his living by writing film scores. In 1990, Shoot – together with a small group of Moscow composers headed by Edison Denisov – founded the Association for Contemporary Music, a revival of a post-Revolutionary avant-garde composers' association of the same name.
In 1992 he came to Dartington Hall, England, as a composer-in-residence, in which capacity he served until 1995, and remained a resident of the estate. Shoot's music is published by M.P. Belaieff – Edition Peters /Schott. Individual works have also been published by Boosey & Hawkes and Hans Sikorski.
He married the artist Irina Karpey in 1970. His son Eliahu Shoot is also a composer, teaching at Tulane University, and his daughter Veronika is a pianist.
Shoot died on 9 March 2022.

Music

Shoot's works met with much admiration in the West from the 1980s onward. He preferred smaller ensembles, up to a chamber orchestra, which he tied into sound compositions or groups of overlapping sound layers. Even his symphonies, excepting the High Cross Symphony, are chamber symphonies. He retained serial processes, used post-Romantic elements, and quoted composers of the past, with Alban Berg as the clearest influence. Shoot allowed performers of his works a certain freedom of interpretation within the bounds of a controlled aleatoric technique.
His music has been performed at numerous venues and festivals throughout Europe, as well as in South Korea and the United States. The music written in the UK has been performed by leading British ensembles and orchestras, including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and Sinfonia 21. An 80th birthday celebration concert took place on 29 June 2021 at St George's, Bloomsbury in London.

Selected works

Orchestral

Sinfonia da Camera No. 3, flute, oboe, 2 ensembles, 1978Romantic Messages, flute, bassoon, prepared piano, string orchestra, 1979Largo Sinfonia, organ, small orchestra, 1981Warum? , small orchestra, 1986Ex Animo, large orchestra, 1988Sinfonia da Camera No. 4, tam-tam, strings, 1992Sinfonia da Camera No. 5, small orchestra, 1992Serenade, string orchestra, 1995Divertimento, recorder, vibraphone, string orchestra, 1997High-Cross Symphony, large orchestra, 1998Sinfonia da Camera No. 6, string orchestra, percussion, 2005

Chamber music

Sonata-fantasia, violin, piano, 1969, revised 2001Cuckoo's Rhymes, violin, piano, 1969, revised 1999
  • Sonata, cello, 1970, revised 1999Youth Album, violin, piano, 1971, revised 1999Sinfonia da Camera No. 1, 4 celli, double bass, timpani, 1973Sinfonia da Camera No. 2, flute, oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, viola, cello, double bass, 1975Five Easy Pieces, French horn, piano, 1976, revised 2001Sonata Breve, flute, 1977
  • Trio, bassoon, cello, percussion, 1978Solo per Fagotto, bassoon, 1978Metamorphosis, saxophone, harp, double bass, percussion, 1979
  • Trio, 2 clarinets, bass clarinet, 1982Parable, 6 percussion, 1983Espressivo, flute, oboe, violin, cello, piano, 1984Epitaph, French horn, 2 trumpets, trombone, tuba, 1984Mini-partita, viola, piano, 1987Four Versions, bassoon, string quartet, 1990 Offering, violin, cello, piano, 1991Serenade, string quartet, 1994Pantomime, flute, harpsichord, 1995Con Passione, string quartet, piano, 1995Amoroso, clarinet, string quartet, 1996Chaconne, accordion, 1999Pastorale, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, piano, 2002Eternal Rest, 3 percussion, 2002
  • Suite, string quartet, 2003Three Encounters with Shostakovich, clarinet, horn, string quartet, piano, percussion, 2006

Choral

She came and went, mixed chorus, 2001 ;Two Holy Sonnets, mixed chorus, 2003

Vocal

Two songs of Robert Burns, mezzo-soprano, piano, 1964, revised 2002;Six Poems by Sergei Gorodetsky , high voice, piano, 1970Gleam of Light, middle voice, piano, 1988Vorgefühl, high voice, 2 clarinets, viola, cello, double bass, 1993Four Songs on Words by P.B. Shelley , soprano, string quartet, 1994Three Songs on Words by Osip Mandelstam , high voice, flute, clarinet, string quartet, 1994Day and Night, high voice, recorder, string quartet, 2000The Miller's Daughter, soprano, clarinet, percussion, 2001

Piano

Silhouettes, 1973Sonatina, 1974, revised 2002Children's Album, 1975, revised 1995

Organ

Confession, 1993, revised 2000

Films scored

  • Privet s fronta Привет с фронта "Note from the Front"
  • Tayna zemli ''Тайна земли "The Earth's Secret"
  • Karusel na bazarnoy ploshchadi Карусель на базарной площади "Carousel at the Bazaar Square"
  • Pro lyubov, druzhbu i sud'bu Про любовь, дружбу и судьбу "Of Love, Friendship and Fate"
  • Amulanga
  • Korabl Корабль "The Ship"
  • Mest Месть "Revenge",
  • Karyer Карьер "Sand-Pit"
  • Garem Stepana Guslyakova Гарем Степана Гуслякова "Stepan Ghusliakov's Harem"
  • Tsareubiytsa Цареубийца "The Assassin of the Tsar"
  • Lyuk Люк "The Hatch"
  • Serebryannye Lozhki Серебряные Ложки "Silver Spoons"
  • Sumashedshaya Liubov Сумасшедшая Любовь'' "Crazy Love"

Discography

  • Romantic Messages. Valery Popov, bassoon; Valery Polyansky/Moscow Conservatory Orchestra
  • Four Versions. Valery Popov, bassoon; Vladimir Ponkin/Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble
  • Warum? Alexey Vinogradov/Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble
  • Trio. Valery Popov, bassoon; Natalia Savinova, cello; Alexander Suvorov, percussion
  • Three Songs on Words by Osip Mandelstam. Katia Kichigina, soprano; Oxalys Ensemble
  • Ex Animo; Sinfonia da Camera No. 5; High-Cross Symphony. Vladimir Ponkin/Rachmaninov Symphony Orchestra
  • Four Songs on Words by P.B. Shelley. Elena Vassilieva, soprano; Quatuor Sine Nomine
  • Miniature Partita. Filip Davidse, saxophone; Naomi Tamura, piano. in "The Soviet Saxophone"