LEONID DESYATNIKOV was born in 1955 in Kharkiv, Ukraine. He is a graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory and a member of the Composers Union. He has been a freelance composer since 1984. Desyatnikov has penned four operas, several cantatas, and numerous vocal and instrumental compositions. The composer defines his style as â??the emancipation of consonance, the transformation of the banal, minimalism with a human faceâ?; his favorite genre is the â??tragically naughty bagatelleâ?. His principal compositions include Rosenthalâ?s Children (an opera in two acts; Vladimir Sorokin, libretto), Poor Liza (a chamber opera in one act; Leonid Desyatnikov, libretto, after the novella by Nikolai Karamzin); Gift (a cantata based on the verses of Gavrila Derzhavin); A Leaden Echo (a piece for voice and instruments based on the verses of Gerard Manley Hopkins) and The Rite of Winter 1949 (a symphony for choir, soloists and orchestra). Since 1996 Desyatnikov has worked closely with Gidon Kremer, both as a composer (Wie der Alte Leiermann..., the chamber version of Sketches for â??Sunsetâ?, Russian Seasons) and as an arranger of compositions by Astor Piazzolla. He has also composed the music for such films as Sunset, Lost in Siberia, Moscow Nights, Hammer and Sickle, Giselleâ?s Mania, His Wifeâ?s Diary, The Prisoner of the Mountains and Moscow (Grand Prix, 4th Biennial Film Music Festival, Bonn, 2002).