Rodion Shchedrin

Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin (Russian: Родион Константинович Щедрин, IPA: [rədʲɪˈon kənstɐnʲˈtʲinəvʲɪtɕ ɕːɪˈdrʲin]; 16 December 1932 – 29 August 2025) was a Soviet and Russian composer, pianist, and music teacher. He wrote in a wide range of genres, including operas such as Lolita and The Left-Hander, and ballets such as the Carmen Suite, created for his wife, the ballerina Maya Plisetskaya of the Bolshoi Theatre. His orchestral works includes five concertos for orchestra and six piano concertos, in which he often appeared as soloist. He also composed vocal works such as The Sealed Angel, as well as chamber music and film scores, including Anna Karenina. His works have been widely performed and commissioned internationally, particularly in the United States and Western Europe. Shchedrin is regarded as one of the leading composers of the late Soviet period and an important figure in Russian contemporary music in the decades that followed.

Shchedrin was born in Moscow on 16 December 1932, into a musical family: his father was a composer and teacher of music theory, and his grandfather was an Orthodox priest. He was exposed to spiritual independence and critical awareness at an early age. He studied at the Moscow Choral School and Moscow Conservatory, where he studied composition with Yuri Shaporin and piano with Yakov Flier, graduating in 1955.