Alexey Retinsky was born in 1986 in Simferopol, Crimea. Retinsky began his musical training with playing wind instruments. He graduated from the Simferopol School of Music, mastering the oboe, saxophone and trumpet. In parallel, he began to study composition autodidactically. Later on, he studied composition and electroacoustic composition at the Kiev Music Academy and the Zurich University of the Arts. He completed his postgraduate studies with Prof. Beat Furrer at the University of Arts in Graz. Since 2014, he has been living and working in Vienna. OEUVRE Retinsky’s oeuvre is broad and diverse; he creates symphonic, chamber and electronic music, as well as music for theatre, film, installation and performance art. He has collaborated with such musicians and collectives as MusicAeterna and Teodor Currentzis, Vladimir Jurowski, Antoni Baryshevski , Luigi Gaggero, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. MUSICAL LANGUAGE His musical language seems peculiar in that it is distant from the tradition of the avant-garde and the so-called ‘minimalism’, despite the fact that the formal characteristics of the two can be found within his oeuvre. Retinsky sees it as self-evident to try to revert the musical expression in all genres back to its original ritual meaning and create a connection between the listeners and musicians. « … ALEXEY RETINSKY IS A FASCINATING YOUNG COMPOSER. THIS IS A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CATEGORY OF MUSIC … » — Teodore Currentzis