Alissa Firsova is a British-Russian pianist, composer and conductor. She made her Wigmore Hall and Proms debuts in 2009 and has enjoyed collaborations with Camerata RCO, Daniel Rowland, Tim Hugh, Andrew Marriner, Mark Padmore and many others.
Since winning the BBC Proms Young Composer Competition in 2001, she received three commissions for the Proms, writing for the Royal Philharmonic, Bergen Philharmonic and Southbank Sinfonia together with the National Youth Choir of Great Britain. Her music was also performed by the NTO Mannheim, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, Netherlands Blazer Ensemble, Dante and Tippett quartets, Henning Kraggerud, Imogen Cooper and conductors, Andrew Litton, Mark Wigglesworth, Alexander Soddy, Leo McFall and Jessica Cottis, to name a few.
Alissa recorded her debut solo piano (Russian Émigrés) and composer portrait (Fantasy) CD’s on Vivat and her Stabat Mater, recorded by The Sixteen, was featured in Gramophone’s Top 10 Compositions by Women. Her recital for the Amsterdam Piano Series, including her transcription of Mahler’s Adagietto, was released on Vinyl by Gutman Records in 2020. She enjoyed her triple debut with the English Chamber Orchestra as conductor, composer and pianist in 2013 in the Cadogan Hall and is currently Artistic Director of the Lincolnshire International Chamber Music Festival.
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Biography
Reviews
High res images
Concerts
Residency at Buxton Festival
D. Smirnov To Be Or Not To Be
D. Smirnov Ophelia Songs
Langer Stay O Sweet
A. Firsova To the Evening Star
D. Smirnov Piano Quintet
D. Smirnov Into the Light
Gubaidulina Pantomime
E. Firsova Hymn to Spring
Shostakovich Piano Quintet
Dan D’Souza, baritone
Jane Burnell, soprano
Will Duerden, double bass
Alissa Firsova, piano
Belinfante String Quartet
- Concert
- St. John’s Church, Buxton
Albums
Lugubre Gondola
Chopin, Bartók, Liszt, Wagner/Liszt, Mahler/Firsova, Beethoven
Fantasy – Alissa Firsova
Tippett Quartet, Mark van de Wiel clarinet, Tim Hugh cello, Ellie Laugharne soprano, Nicholas Crawley bass, Simon Mulligan piano, Alissa Firsova piano
Russian Visions
20th-Century Music for Cello & Piano
Bozidar Vukotic, cello - Alissa Firsova, piano
Songs of the World
Track 15, 16, 17. Alissa Firsova, Psappha, Stepen Barlow, Daisy Brown.
News
Buxton Festival
Alissa is very honoured to make her debut in one of UK’s top festivals in July 2025: she will be teaming up with rising stars, double-bassist Will Duerden, the Belinfante String Quartet and singers, Dan D’Souza and Jane Burnell in two intense programmes dedicated to her father, Dmitri Smirnov, commemorating 5 years after his passing. As well as performing four of his works, including the world premiere of his To Be Or Not To Be setting, she is looking forward to performing Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet and Britten’s Song and Proverbs of William Blake, as well as her own setting of William Blake, To the Evening Star, adapted from her song-symphony, Spell of Creation, which saw its premiere at Manchester Festival in July 2023 by the BBC Phil.
Amsterdam Piano Series
After her Concertgebouw solo debut in 2018, recorded live onto double LP for Gutman Records - Alissa returns to the Amsterdam Piano Series next season for a Rachmaninoff feast, teaming up with one of the world’s most dazzling cellists, David Cohen. She was recently delighted to be part of a very unique and beautiful promotion event of the series along with four other APS colleagues, where a Steinway piano was placed in Five Ways café in Amsterdam - perfectly described here: Read more.
To purchase her Lugubre Gondola album on LP or digitally, please click here.
Back in Barcelona
After a most heart-warming welcome and response from the Spanish premiere of Die Windsbraut by the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra under Gemma New in Jan 2024, Alissa is welcomed back in L’Auditori, Barcelona in March 2025 by members of the orchestra, who give the Spanish premiere of her string quartet, Tennyson Fantasy. She is so excited to return to one of the most exciting cities in the world and build on this wonderful musical relationship.
Gemma New has since conducted Die Windsbraut in Indianapolis and brings it to Kansas City also in March 2025.
Media
Click on the image to play the video.
Alissa Firsova, Fantasy
Alissa Firsova, Russian Émigrés
Mahler Adagietto, Alissa Firsova piano
Alissa Firsova, Songs of the World
Shostakovich Trio No. 2 Mvts 3 & 4
Elena Firsova, Violin Concerto
COMPOSITIONS
Click on the titles for more details.
Op.1 – Les Pavots for Solo Piano
Op.2 – Strength Through Joy for Symphony Orchestra
Op.3 – Three Pieces for cello and piano
Op.4 – The Entire City for String Quintet
Op.5 – I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in heaven for Wind and String Ensemble
Op.6 – Rhapsody for Solo Violin
Op.7 – Lyrisches Stuck for Viola and Piano
Op.8 – Prophet for Mixed Chorus
Op.9 – ‘Expressions’ Eternity & Awaiting for clarinet and piano / Victory for bass clarinet solo
Op.10 – Loss for Clarinet and String Quartet
Op.11 – The Endless Corridor for Piano
Op.12 – Birth of Remembrance for Flute, Clarinet, Violin and Cello
Op.13 – Lune Rouge for Piano
Op.14 – Age of Reason for String Quartet
Op.15 – Celebration for Clarinet, Flute, Violin and Cello
Op.16 – Tamaris for two cellos
Op.17 – Bluebells for piano solo, clarinet, horn, string quartet and percussion (3rd mov of Family Concerto, In memory of Dmitri Shostakovich – family project)
Op.18 – Paradiso for String Quartet (3rd mov of Divine Comedy – family project)
Op.19 – Freedom (Clarinet Concerto)
Op.20 – Zhivago Songs to Boris Pasternak’s poems for voice and piano
Op.21 – Moonlight over the Sea based on Munch’s painting for Solo Violin
Op.22 – Chateau de Canisy for Voice and Piano
Op.23 – Souvenir Melancolique for Clarinet and Horn
Bach Allegro for large symphony orchestra (transcription of the 3rd mov of Bach’s 3rd Viola da Gamba Sonata BWV 1029)
Op.24 – Kubla Khan for tenor, bayan, violin and cello (5th mov of family project)
Op.25 – Gallo Variations for chamber orchestra
Op.26 – Unity for bass-baritone and piano
Op.27 – Serenade for Strings for string orchestra
Op.28 – Paradisi Gloria for SATB choir a cappella
Op.29 – Fantasy for cello and piano
Op.30 – Stabat Mater for SATB choir a cappella
Op.31 – Bergen’s Bonfire for Symphony Orchestra
Op.32 – Tree of Hope for 4 Harps
Op.33 – Le Soleil de Conques for 2 solo cellos and string orchestra
Op.34 – Bride of the Wind for piano-duet
Op.35 – Asiago Concerto for piano trio and chamber orchestra
Op.36 – Tennyson Fantasy Op. 36 for string quartet
Op.37 – Ascent to Freedom & In search of…Paradise for soprano and piano
Op.38 – Die Windsbraut for symphony orchestra
Op.39 – Spring Haiku for soprano and piano (part of family cycle)
Op.40 – If a thing loves, it is infinite… for string quartet
Op.41 – The Good Morrow for choir a cappella
Op.42 – Algarvia for violin and piano
Op.43 – Red Fox for choir and symphony orchestra
Op.44 – Songs of the World for soprano and ensemble
Op.45 – Pastorale for piano solo
Op.46 – To Spring for choir and orchestra
Op.47 – Lilacs for soprano and piano
Op.48 – Te amo for mezzo-soprano and piano
Op.49 – Reunion for clarinet, cello and piano
Op.50 – Stages for trumpet and strings
Op. 51 – Spell of Creation – A Symphony in Four Songs for contralto and symphony orchestra
Contact
For bookings, information, copies of the scores and parts, please send a message.