Yuri Sergeyevich Kasparov (born 8 June 1955, Moscow, Russian: Юрий Сергеевич Каспаров — his name is variously transliterated as Yury Kasparov, Juri Kasparow, Yuri Kasparoff, Yury Kasparoff, Yury S. Kasparov, Youri Kasparov) is a Russian-Armenian composer, music teacher and a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Kasparov graduated from the Moscow Power Institute in 1978 and the Moscow Conservatory in 1984 where he studied for his post-graduate doctorate under Edison Denisov from 1984-91. Between 1985 and 1989, he worked for the Russian State Central Studio of Documentary Films as editor-in-chief for music. Under the patronage of Denisov, he founded the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble in 1990 and is its Artistic Director. He is the chairman of the Russian section of the International Society for Contemporary Music. Kasparov has argued "that the whole tradition of Russian music is too dependent on extra-musical symbolism and association (whether religious, political or nationalistic) and that Russian music of time would benefit from becoming 'purer', more concerned with itself for its own sake, as in Kasparov's opinion, Western music is. This, Kasparov argues, would lead to Soviet musicians being less isolated." Ensemble Modern, Radio France and the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra have all commissioned works from Kasparov and his music has featured in the Tokyo Summer Festival, the Warsaw Autumn festival and Radio France's Festival Présences. His music has been recorded by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the National Radio Orchestra of Romania, and Ensemble Contrechamps of Switzerland, and has featured on CDs released on the Olympia and Harmonia Mundi labels. In 1985, his Symphony No. 1, Guernica, was awarded first prize in the All-Union competition in Moscow and in 1989, Ave Maria was awarded first prize in the Guido d'Arezzo competition. In 1996, Effet de nuit was awarded Grand Prix in the Henri Dutilleux competition. In 2007, Kasparov was awarded Honored Art Worker of Russia by order of the Russian President; in 2008, he was awarded Chevalier dans L’ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Minister of Culture of France. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.