Compositional integrity, technically complex and yet accessible musical language, stylistic unity, careful treatment of quoted material, and attentiveness to the sound possibilities of the instrumental structure – these are the main features of this composer’s art.
Elena Dubinets, Moskovsky muzykalny vestnik (“Moscow Music Herald”), 2000
Léonid Karev was born in 1969 in Moscow. Graduated from the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, where he studied organ under Natalia Gureyeva, composition under Konstantin Batashov, orchestration under Yuri Butsko, piano under Elena Nathanson (Chichelnitskaya). In 1992 Léonid Karev moved to Paris, where he trained at the Conservatoire de Paris (organ class of Michel Chapuis, composition class of Alain Bancquart, orchestration class of Jacques Charpentier). From 1992 to 1994 the artist improved as an organist with Jean Guillou in Zurich; he also took organ lessons from André Isoir in Boulogne. In 2001 Léonid Karev graduated from the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot (composition class of Michel Merlet). For more than ten years he was Jean Guillou’s assistant at Paris’ Church of St Eustache.
His Dulce memoriae for symphony orchestra was awarded the SACEM Prize and a prize at the Gino Contilli Competition in Messina (2001), and his piece for choir Ave Maria was awarded at the Guido d’Arezzo Competition in Arezzo (2002). He is also the 1st prize of honor winner of the UFAM in Paris (1996) and the 1st prize winner of the Marcel Dupré Organ Competition in Chartres (1998).
Léonid Karev repeatedly performed with singers as an accompanist; he worked at the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia with Galina Vishnevskaya’s students and improved his skills under the guidance of Françoise Tillard and Anne Le Bozec. In 2008 he received a master’s degree from Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, defending a thesis on Russian melody.
Gives recitals at festivals in Europe, Russia and the USA. Performs at the Mariinsky Theatre, the Moscow and Yaroslavl philharmonic societies among other venues. Collaborated with the Ensemble La Fenice (Auxerre, Burgundy) and such musicians as Éric Aubier, Agnès Mellon, André Cogné, Serge Delmas, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Jean Tubéry, Philippe Bernold, Emmanuelle Bertrand and Jean Belliard. Accompanied the actors Marie-Christine Barrault and Michael Lonsdale.
Léonid Karev’s works as a composer include Mots interrompus for organ and symphony orchestra, La Chanson des pierres for narrator and orchestra, 3 Nuovi sonetti religiosi for narrator, organ and ensemble, Amoroso for string quartet, Manteau noir for bass clarinet and organ, the opera L’Affaire eurêka for soprano, mezzo-soprano and piano, the poem for choir and orchestra Die Engel to verse by Rilke. He created numerous transcriptions of works by Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Schnittke among others.
He is currently Titular Organist at Paris’ Notre-Dame-de-l’Assomption and Brunoy’s Church of St Médard as well as Professor at the Conservatoires de la Ville de Paris (seventeen municipal conservatoires and Conservatoire à rayonnement régional de Paris) and the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Départemental du Val d’Yerres.
Information for October 2023
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