Alexey Shor

Alexey Vladimorovich Kononenko (born 1970) is an American composer. He is the Composer-in-Residence for the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra and an associate composer at the Yehudi Menuhin School. In 2018 he was awarded an honorary professorship at the Yerevan Komitas State Conservatory.

Early life and mathematics career Alexey Vladimorovich Shor was born on 20 May 1970 in the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine). In 1991, he left the Soviet Union for Israel with his parents. Subsequently, he moved to the US for his graduate studies and obtained a PhD in mathematics in 1996. He worked as a mathematician until 2016 (in geometry and dynamical systems). From 1999 until 2016 he worked for the Long Island hedge fund Renaissance Technologies. Shor is a citizen of Israel, US, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Malta. His works have been published by several publishers and showcased in many venues. The overture to his ballet "Crystal Palace" was performed at the 40th Gramophone Classical Music Awards event in London. In 2019, a documentary about Alexey Shor was showcased on Medici.tv.

An investigation by German Van Magazine showed that Shor built an extensive promotional ecosystem to promote his music, including festivals and competitions in Malta and, after 2022, Dubai. A central figure in this ecosystem is businessman and philanthropist Konstantin Ishkhanov, whose organizations (including the European Foundation for Support of Culture, EUFSC) staged at least 144 events from 2014 to 2023, frequently featuring Shor's works, and mounted his ballet "Crystal Palace" at the Kremlin Palace in 2018. The report explores alleged ties between Ishkhanov's network and Russian cultural diplomacy while noting Shor's denial of Russian funding or connections. The investigation also describes contractual leverage—such as requests that star performers play Shor's pieces from memory—and portrays a well-financed system that integrates festivals, competitions, and artist fees to secure performances.