with which she embraces emotional extremes’
Alissa Firsova is a British-Russian pianist, composer and conductor. She made her Wigmore Hall and Proms debuts in 2009 and has performed in numerous concert halls and festivals throughout the world.
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
High res images
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.
COMPOSITIONS
For copies of the scores and parts, please contact me.
Media
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News
An Algarvian Affair
Alissa is honoured to be invited back to the Amigos de Musica of the Algarve for the 4th time to play chamber music with Tim Hugh and Andrew Marriner in June. After an inspire-trip leading to her Algarvia for violin and piano in 2019, Alissa is looking forward to strengthening her musical friendship further with this very special and warm group of music lovers in such a beautiful part of the world, run by their delightful president, Helga Hampton. Here is an article about Algarvia in German.
75th Anniversary of WPO
As president of the Worthing Philharmonic Orchestra, Alissa is looking forward to celebrate their 75th Season as pianist, composer and conductor in March. She will be joining the orchestra for the 4th time under the baton of her dear friend and colleague from the Royal Academy of Music, Dominic Grier, in Beethoven’s Emperor concerto and will be taking over the baton for her own To Spring for choir and orchestra, a composition she wrote in memory of her father, Dmitri Smirnov, set to a poem by William Blake. Here is an extract from their Rachmaninoff Paganini Rhapsody in 2017
Bride of the Wind
Alissa’s orchestral tone-poem, Die Windsbraut is being truly swept up around the world this Season: inspired by the stormy love-story of Kokoschka and Alma Mahler, as well as his painting, bearing the same title as the composition, it will see its Spanish, Swiss and Canadian premieres with the Barcelona, Bern and Vancouver Symphony Orchestras, conducted by Gemma New and Alexander Soddy. Here is an article about it during its performances by the Houston Symphony in 2022.
Contact
For bookings, information, copies of the scores and parts, please send a message.