12 Facts About Andrey Kasparov

Andrey Rafailovich Kasparov is an Armenian-American pianist, composer, and professor, who holds both American and Russian citizenship.

Andrey Kasparov began his musical studies at the age of six, and he moved to Moscow at fifteen.

Andrey Kasparov later entered the Moscow State Conservatory, graduating with honors in Music Composition and Piano, in 1989 and 1990, respectively.

Andrey Kasparov pursued subsequent doctoral studies in composition at the Jacobs School of Music and the Indiana University at Bloomington, with Claude Baker, Wayne Peterson, Harvey Sollberger, and Eugene O'Brien, and conducting instructor, Thomas Baldner.

Andrey Kasparov participated in Courses for New Music in 1996, in Darmstadt, Germany.

Presently, Dr Andrey Kasparov serves as a Professor of Music at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate music composition, piano, and all levels of undergraduate music theory, as well as leading the new music ensemble.

Between 1998 and 2008, Andrey Kasparov led Creo, the Old Dominion University's resident ensemble for contemporary music.

Andrey Kasparov had previously worked with the Second Wind Dance Company in 2005, in collaboration with choreographer Jelon Vieira, on Iao, an original work for dance, mezzo-soprano, and percussion, which incorporated elements of traditional Afro-Brazilian dance and Capoeira, the Brazilian martial art.

Besides his career as a composer and academic, Andrey Kasparov is a concert pianist and recording artist, whose discography encompasses several record labels including Albany Records and Naxos Records.

In 1994, Andrey Kasparov was soloist with the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic in the world premiere of the revised edition of Bela Bartok's Piano Concerto No 3.

Andrey Kasparov has asserted that Schmitt experimented with a method of composition based on the first five notes of the diatonic scale, an approach later adopted by the likes of Igor Stravinsky in both his Five Easy Pieces for piano duet, published in 1917, and his Les cinq doigts for solo piano, published in 1921.

Andrey Kasparov restored the original manuscripts which enabled these duets to be recorded for the very first time.