short vita

Anton Safronov was born in Moscow in 1972. He studied at the P. Tschaikowsky State Conservatory with Edison Denisov (Composition) and Yuri Cholopov (Musiktheorie), followed by studies in Germany with Walter Zimmermann (UdK Berlin) and Wolfgang Rihm (Staatliche Musikhochschule Karlsruhe), Prizes at international competitions, stipendia (including DAAD, Berliner Kultursenat, the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung des SWR) and artistic residencies (including the Deutsche Akademie Villa Massimo in Rome, Akademie Schloss Solitude Stuttgart, Künstlerhof Schreyahn, Baldreit-Stipendium of the city Baden-Baden). Anton Safronov's works have been performed at many international festivals und projects (including MaerzMusik Berlin, Münchener Biennale, ISCM World Music Days and ECLAT-Festival in Stuttgart, Dresdener Tage für Zeitgenössische Musik, The Gaudeamus Music Week in Amsterdam, Schnittke Festival in London, Musikbiennale Zagreb, Moskauer Biennale für zeitgenössische Künste, „Another Space“ of the Moscow Philharmonie), including numerous CD recordings. The composer has worked with the symphony orchester of the St. Petersburg Philharmonie, the London Philharmonic, the Belgian National Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, the Scharoun-Ensemble Berlin, the Ensemble UnitedBerlin, the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart, the London Sinfonietta, the Schönberg Ensemble (Amsterdam), the Ensemble Divertimento (Milan), the conductors Vladimir Jurowski, Reinbert de Leeuw, Matthias Pintscher and other well-known interpreters. In addition to his own compositions Anton Safronov is also working often with works of othersr: for example his completion, based on original sketches, of Schubert's "Unfinished" Symphony in b minor, his reconstruction of the ballet entr'acte from Mozarts „Ascanio in Alba“ and his composed transitions to Wagners „Ring des Nibelungen“ (for the production „Die Ring-Trilogie“ of Theater an der Wien) were played under direction of Vladimir Jurowski, Andrey Boreyko und Constantin Trinks. 

Anton Safronov teaches composition and analysis (Seminar „Strukturen hören“) at the Universität der Künste and Julius-Stern-Institut Berlin, as well as giving master classes and guest lectures internationally (in Russia, Latvia, Finland, Italy, Brasil and Kazakhstan) and organising contemporary music projects in his homeland.

The composer on his work:

"For me composing is largely a capacity for sounding metaphor. This requires an ongoing search for an appropriate language demanded by each concrete working situation . To be contemporary, for me, means, rather than following the profusion of clichees in current music, to begin where these may be left behind."