Biography

Igor Drukh was born in Leningrad, USSR (now St. Petersburg, Russia), where he successfully completed his studies at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire in 1992, graduating with a degree in composition under the tutelage of Prof. A. D. Mnatsakanyan.

Igor Drukh has participated in a number of international masterclasses held in Germany, Poland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Russia. These have been conducted by a number of highly esteemed composers, including P. H. Dietrich, H. Lachenmann, M. Kopytman, E. Denisov and S. Slonimsky. Together with E. Denisov, he composed the musical score for the film Tsar’s Hunt, directed by A. Melnikov.

His principal area of composition is chamber music. A significant proportion of Drukh’s compositions are inspired by works of painting, architecture and sculpture. Drukh’s music has been performed at a number of international contemporary music festivals, including those held in Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland, the USA and Russia. He has also written music for dramatic plays (Mironov’s Entreprise, Comedy Theatre), and circus performances.

In 1995 he was awarded the Grand Prix at the UNESCO competition in Paris (for Frescoes of the Cappella Scrovegni, a suite for two pianos based on frescoes by Giotto di Bondone). In 2007 Igor Drukh won first prize at the International Chamber Music Competition announced by the Millennium Chamber Players (Chicago, USA). He collaborates with chamber ensembles and soloists: with the Alea Ensemble of Boston University (Boston, USA), Ensemble Alpha (Denmark), the Mozarteum String Quartets (Salzburg, Austria), theN. A. Rimsky-Korsakov String Quartet (St. Petersburg, Russia), with ensemble ‘Musica da camera’ (St. Petersburg, Russia), with ensemble QuARTru (St. Petersburg, Russia), with ensemble IN-TEMPORALIS…

Igor Drukh is Diploma winner of the 6th (2012) and winner of the 1st prize of the 8th (2014) Andrei Petrov All-Russian Composition Competition in the category of symphonic music;  winner of the 2nd prize of the first Shostakovich All-Russian Composition Competition (2015) in the category of chamber music; winner of the 1st and 3rd degree in two categories (music for ensemble and music for solo instrument) of the First AVANTI All-Russian Competition in composition among professional composers (Moscow 2018); winner of the 3rd AVANTI-competition in composition (3rd prize / 2020) and award winner of the D.D. Shostakovich-Prize (2020) for his significant contribution to the development of academic genres of instrumental music.