Pyotr Gekker

The composer Pyotr Gekker was born in Rostov on Don in 1945. In 1971 he graduated from the Leningrad State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire having specialised in composition (class of V. I. Tsyytovich).
Gekker currently works in highly diverse genres. His works include the ballets Khaya-Mergen (1979), Spring Games (1981), Bogatyr Games (1981), Ballet Scenes (1981), and Tsam (1984), the opera The Damned Apostle (2012) and works for symphony, chamber and popular orchestra such as the concert fantasia Niggun (2005), Legends of the Kurmansk Caves (2009), concerti for violin, strings and harpsichord (1992) and clarinet, strings and percussion (2003), the cantatas Jerusalem (1991) and Three Jewish Songs (2007), the song cycles Four Yellow Ballads (1971), Five Quatrains of Omar Khayam (1973) and Lyrical Pages (1986) among other pieces.
Gekker frequently works in theatre. He has written music for numerous productions at the Maly Drama Theatre – Theatre of Europe, the St Petersburg Comedy Theatre, the Theatre on Liteiny and the “Buffo” Theatre. Gekker’s music is performed by leading Russian orchestras and choruses including the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St Petersburg State Philharmonic, the St Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra, the Symphony Orchestra of the St Petersburg Cappella, the “Amadeus” chamber orchestra, the Youth Chamber Chorus of St Petersburg and the Lege Artis chamber chorus. Among those to have worked with the composer are the conductors Mariss Jansons, Ravil Martynov, Vladislav Chernushenko, Stanislav Gorkovenko and Eduard Serov and such acclaimed musicians as Mikhail Gantwarg, Mikhail Bezverkhny and Zinovy Vinnikov. Pyotr Gekker’s symphony and chamber music has been performed at the Great and Small Halls of the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the State Academic St Petersburg Cappella, the “Oktyabrsky” Great Concert Hall and the Glazunov Concert Hall of the of the St Petersburg State Conservatoire in addition to various concert venues in Moscow and throughout Russia, Spain, Germany, Canada, the USA and Israel.
The composer’s music has frequently been broadcast on TV and radio in Russia. His ballet Masks with choreography by Georgy Aleksidze has been performed on Central Russian Television.