Gennady Banshchikov

Gennady Banshchikov (1943-2025) was an outstanding Soviet and Russian composer, teacher, Honored Art Worker of the RSFSR (February 18, 1991). He was awarded the Order of Friendship (November 18, 2004).


Banshchikov studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Sergei Balasanyan (1961-1964) and then at the Leningrad Conservatory with Boris Arapov (1965-1966), under whom he also did postgraduate studies (1966-1969). In 1967 he became a member of the USSR Union of Composers. From 1974 he taught at the Leningrad Conservatoire, where from 1983 he held the post of Associate Professor and from 1998 Professor of Orchestration and Composition.


The composer died on March 7, 2025 in St. Petersburg at the age of 82 after a long illness. He is buried at the Serafimovsky Cemetery.


During his years of study at the Conservatory and postgraduate studies Banshchikov created a number of mature works, including a vocal cycle on Lorca's poems, four cello concertos and the chamber opera Lubov and Silin based on the works of Kozma Prutkov. The composer even jokingly referred to himself as a “Russian-speaking German composer”.


Banshchikov's work was greatly influenced by the music of Richard Strauss, in whose honor he dedicated his opera On How Ivan Ivanovich and Ivan Nikiforovich Quarreled and his concerto for chamber orchestra The Telephone Book.


Banshchikov's style combined the technical skill, professionalism and academic restraint characteristic of the Leningrad school of composition with impulsiveness and emotional intensity. He did not abandon modern methods of composition, but at the same time avoided excessive modernization of his musical language. Works such as the parody opera Love and Silin based on Kozma Prutkov, the opera About... based on Nikolai Gogol and Woe from Wit based on Alexander Griboyedov demonstrate the composer's inherent sense of humour, wit and irony.


Banshchikov had a bright compositional personality. His work was dominated by tragic emotions, a special tension of intonation and rhythmic sphere, rigidity of harmonic structure. However, his music is also characterized by a special lyricism and chamber-like expression. It was always a first-person statement, an expression of a subjective and often tragic worldview.


In his textbook “The Laws of Functional Instrumentation” Banshchikov reflected his many years of experience in teaching and creative activity. In it, he revealed the general laws underlying classical instrumentation.