Alexander Knaifel

The composer Alexander Knaifel (Russian: Александр Кнайфель) was originally a cellist but had to give up the instrument due to a nerve inflammation. Thus Knaifel, born in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) in 1943, turned to composition. His teacher was Boris Arapov, with whom he studied in Leningrad from 1964 until 1967. Since then Knaifel has been living in St. Petersburg as a freelance composer and music editor. Knaifel evades "valid" rules of the official musical aesthetic already in his first works.