16 pp., $12.95, Presser Order number 494-02463 (PWYS-50)
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Nikita
Koshkin was born in 1956 in Moscow. He studied the classical guitar with Georgi
Emanov at the Moscow College of Music and later with Alexander Frauchi at the
Gnessin Institute. He studied composition there with Victor Egorov. Music by
Nikita Koshkin entered the world’s stage with the first performance of the
“Prince’s Toys” suite by Vladimir Mikulka in Paris in 1980. It attracted
the attention of audiences and critics almost instantaneously. The list of
Koshkin’s compositions for the solo guitar and for the guitar with other
instruments (double bass, violin, flute, etc) is extensive and now forms part of
the concert repertoire of many important concert guitarists such as John
Williams, Vladimir Mikulka, Ricardo Cobo, María Isabel Sievers, Elena
Papandreou and many other. Koshkin also had written several guitar duos and
trios, a guitar quartet and a suite for mezzo soprano and guitar, works that
have been performed to great acclaim by leading ensembles such as the the Assad
brothers and the Zagreb and Amsterdam guitar trios.
Koshkin’s music is deeply dramatic and at the same time witty and playful,
forceful and imaginative. Numerous extra-musical references to legends, fairy
tales and literary figures, as well as musical forms of other cultures,
innovative sound effects, and patterns of popular music, give rise to a rich
texture full of surprises. In addition, Koshkin offers the distinctive Russian
blend of romantic fervor, passionate feeling and verve and melancholy that, even
more than his exquisite craftsmanship, accounts for the appeal of his
compositions to audiences everywhere. 
An active concert artist himself, Koshkin has toured in Russia, the Netherlands,
France, Germany, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, Poland, and the United
States. He recorded his first CD in 1997, “The Prince's Toy’s—Koshkin
Plays Koshkin” and, in collaboration with American guitarist Frank Koonce, he
returned to the United States to make a second album entitled “The
Well-Tempered Koshkin” and to tour in 1999-2000. Mr. Koshkin lives in Moscow
where he divides his time between composing, performing and teaching.
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