Alexander Knaifel

Alexander Knaifel (; also Alexandr Knaifel; 28 November 1943, Tashkent – 27 June 2024, Berlin) was a Soviet and Russian composer, often described as one of the most prominent Russian composers of his generation

Music From the very beginning of his composing career he associated himself with the group of so-called "avant-garde" Soviet composers that include Andrey Volkonsky, Edison Denisov, Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Valentin Silvestrov, Leonid Hrabovsky, Arvo Pärt, Tigran Mansuryan, and others. The works of the 1990s and 2000s were strongly influenced by religious themes and showed dramatic changes in his musical language.

He wrote more than 80 compositions in various genres and also more than 40 scores for feature films and documentaries.

His music often surprises by its extravagant ideas, strange combination of the instruments or incredibly long duration. For example, his very slow and quiet Agnus Dei (1985) written for four instrumentalists (each of whom plays several instruments including keyboards, percussion, electronics, saxophones and double bass) lasts exactly 120 minutes.

Alexander Knaifel had a performance dedicated to his music in Ireland on 1 May 2009 as part of the Drogheda Arts Festival. The event entitled The Rest is Noise : the music of Alexander Knaifel featured the world premiere of a new work, the string trio " EF and the three calling cards of the poet".