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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Concerts

April 2025
Fri 25 April 2025 Thu 27 February 2025

Burgundy Chateau Residency

A weekend of chamber music including world premiere of new song cycle for Alessia Schumacher soprano.

July 2025
Thu 24 July 2025, 11:15 Fri 25 July 2025, 15:00

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

Albums

News

February 2025

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.

February 2025

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.

February 2025

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

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COMPOSITIONS

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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)