contact
Theremin Center
Moscow State Conservatory
Bolshaya Nikitskaya 13
Moscow, 125009
Russia
Andrey Smirnov (1956) is an interdisciplinary artist, curator, collector, writer. He is the founder of the Theremin Center in Moscow, a research fellow at the Centre for Electroacoustic Music at Moscow State Conservatory, the head of the Rodchenko Sound Lab and a lecturer at the Rodchenko Art School in Moscow. In 1992-2012 he was the founding director of the Theremin Center in Moscow and artistic director of the Moscow Laptop Cyber Orchestra. Since 1992 he teaches courses on on history and aesthetics of electroacoustic music, sound design and composition, new musical interfaces and physical computing at the Theremin Center at Moscow State Conservatoire, in 2003-2006 he taught a course 'Acousmatics and Interaction' at the Pro Arte Institute in St.Petersburg and since 2006 a course on Sound Design at the Moscow University for Psychology and Education.
Since 1976 he is conducting research and developments in electronic music techniques, physical computing, gestural interfaces, hardware and software sensor technology with particular interest in design of the HCI systems with complex relationships between the performer’s actions and the interpretation of this information in non-linear methods using custom software.
He has conducted various workshops and master classes in the U.S., Europe and Russia, including CCRMA at Stanford Univ., Bregman Studio at Dartmouth College (USA), Sibelius Academy (Helsinki), STEIM (Amsterdam), Berclee College of Music (USA), TIMARA Dept. at Oberlin College Conservatory of Music (USA), Ithaca College (USA), Princeton Univercity (USA), Univ. Central Oklahoma (USA), EMS at University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign (USA), Music Academy in Basel (Switzerland), Podewil (Berlin), TESLA (Berlin), Academy of Media Arts, Koeln (Germany), Conservatorio di Musica Giuseppe Verdi, Milano (Italy), EMS, Stockholm (Sweden), Institut fuer Elektroakustik, Experimentelle und Angewandte Musik, Vienna (Austria), Institut fur Elektronische Musik at Hochscgule fur Musik und Dartstellende Kunst, Graz (Austria), C3 Center for Culture and Communication, Budapest (Hungary), Media Laboratory at University of Art and Design, Helsinki, (Finland), Dom in Berg, Graz (Austria), Okno, Brussels (Belgium), A=V Workshops, Munich (Germany), Center for Contemporary Arts, Briansk (Russia), Ural State Conservatory, Ekaterinburg (Russia), Hangar (Barcelona), Institute of Media Archeology (Austria) etc.
He is collecting and keeping unique archives on the history of Audio Computing and Music Technology in the early 20-th century Russia as well as a collection of original historical electronic musical instruments, combining deep research into the history of music technology with extensive experience of interactive composition and performance.
His is the author of interactive performances and installations. His compositions for computer-processed and computer-generated sound have been composed for a variety of media including theatre, radio-theatre and dance. Among his most recent works are the Sonograms for tape (1999), performances Sonochronotop (2000) and Brain Jazz for interactive brain-wave biofeedback system (2001), Laser Bugging for the laser monitoring system (2005), Vetro-Touchless (2005) and Windowpane Theremin Installation (2006), Correlations for two performers and t-sensor based interactive system (2006).
He has won grants and sponsorship from IREX, Rockefeller Foundation, DAAD, Soros Foundation and Open Society Institute and produced over 15 International Festivals of electroacoustic music and multimedia in Moscow, Ekaterinburg, St.Petersburg, Kazan as well as Actions/Interactions concert series, electroacoustic parts of Alternativa Festival and Moscow Autumn Festival.
He has won the 1-st Prize at the 3-rd International Forum of Radio Art Pro Arte Acustica "MACROPHONE 94", Poland, 1994 and the Prize for the best experimental mini-drama at 1-st international competition Ostankino Prize'95.
In 1987-1992 he was the head of the Sound Department at the Theatre Workshops Association, Moscow, experimenting with interactive and live electronic music systems for stage, collaborating with different experimental theatres, having particular interest in Russian Avant-Gard and Futurism from 1910-20-s., working as a sound director at the Chet-Nechet Theatre (Moscow) until 2000.
In 1982-1987 he worked at the Psychology Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Collaborating with the group of psychologists and programmers, he was developing computercontrolled sound synthesizer for Emosaurus Project - brainwave biofeedback system, based on interactive audio-visual environment.
In 1980-1982 he worked as a senior engineer and developer of the multichannel digital sound spatializing systems in the audio-visual team of the the Astronautics Memorial Museum, Moscow (the remainder of the ruined by communist government Electronic Music Studio at Skriabin Museum).
In 1980 he founded one of the first private companies in Russia, manufacturing electronic music equipment. His Studio-1 Synthesizer won the Silver Medal at the Exhibition of National Achievements, Moscow in 1981.
In 1978-1981 he worked in the Laboratory for Musical Acoustics at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatoire under the leadership of Professor Andrei Volodin, developing modules of the experimental sound synthesizer.
In 1976-1982 he was playing the 2-nd oboe in the Symphony Orchestra of the Central House of Scientists, Moscow. In 1979 he graduated from Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology (MS)
He was born in Moscow in 1956. [pdf]
====================================================================
Instruments and instrumental design since 1978