Alissa Firsova
About the composer
Alissa Firsova, born in 1986, is a Russian-British classical composer, pianist and conductor. Born in Moscow into a family of composers (Elena Firsova and Dmitri Smirnov), she moved to the UK in 1991. In 2001 she won the BBC/Guardian/Proms Young Composer Competition with her piano piece “Les Pavots”. She graduated from Purcell School as a composer and pianist in 2004, and Royal Academy of Music as a pianist in 2009, where she also developed her conducting studies with Paul Brough. In 2009 she entered the Conducting Postgraduate Course in Royal Academy of Music under the tuition of Colin Metters.
Her piano teachers included Tatiana Kantorovich, Valéria Szervánszky, James Gibb, Simon Mulligan, Hamish Milne, Ian Fountain, and Stephen Kovacevich. Among her composition teachers were Jeoffrey Sharkey, Richard Dubugnon, Jonathan Cole and Simon Speare. She also participated in workshops and master classes with composers Nicholas Maw, Simon Holt, Anthony Gilbert, David Bedford, David Matthews, and Mark-Anthony Turnage. She had her Wigmore Hall debut in May 2009, followed by a Royal Albert Hall debut playing Stravinsky’s Les Noces in the Proms festival in August. Her “Bach Allegro”, commissioned by BBC Proms, was premiered in Royal Albert Hall in August 2010 by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Andrew Litton. (From Wikipedia)
About the Stabat Mater
| Date: | 2014 |
| Performers: | SATB choir a cappella |
| Length: | 8.32 minutes |
| Particulars: | Alissa Firsova was commissioned by the Genesis Foundation to compose this Stabat Mater. I love it very much. |
| Textual variations: | Only 7 stanzas are sung: 1, 9, 10, 17, 18, 19 and 20. The Analecta-version of the text has been used. |
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Information about the recording
| CD1: | COR16127 Spirit, Strength & Sorrow |
| More info: | This CD, Spirit, Strength & Sorrow is the result of the Sixteen’s third major commissioning collaboration and features three new Stabat Mater compositions, by Alissa Firsova, Tõnu Kõrvits and Matthew Martin. |
| Choir: | The Sixteen |
| Conductor: | Harry Christophers |
| Other works: | Plainsong Stabat Mater |
| Code: | 2018 KOR-01 |
| CD2: | UNITY: May they all be one (2018) |
| More info: | Philip O’ Rawe is one of the singers of Cappella Caeciliana. They performed Firsova’s Stabat on Palm Sunday 2017, with the composer present. The CD takes its title from the composition Ut omnes unum sint by Sir James MacMillan – May they all be one. The rest of the CD contains a selection of works from Cappella’s current repertoire. Philip was kind enough to inform me about the recording of Firsova’s Stabat Mater and sent it to me for free, thank you so much! |
| Choir: | Cappella Caeciliana |
| Conductor: | Donal McCrisken |
| Other works: | Ut omnes unum sint, Sir James MacMillan |
| Code: | 2020 FIRS-01 |
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