Viktor Suslin

Viktor Yevseyevich Suslin (; 13 June 1942 – 10 July 2012) was a Russian composer. An associate of Sofia Gubaidulina’s, together with her and Vyacheslav Artyomov he formed the improvisatory ensemble ‘Astraea’ in 1975. He emigrated to Germany in 1981. Biography At the age of four (1946) Suslin began to study piano and made his first attempts at composition. From 1950 to 1961 he attended Kharkiv Music High School, and from 1961 to 1962 the Kharkiv Conservatory where he studied composition with Dimitri Klebanov and piano with V. Topilin. From 1962 to 1966 he studied composition with Nikolay Peyko and piano with Anatoly Vedernikov at the Gnessin Institute in Moscow. He worked as an editor at the publishing house Muzyka in Moscow (1966–1980). Suslin became a member of the Union of Soviet Composers in 1967. In 1969 his piano sonata was given an award at the Young Composers Competition. In 1971 his music was performed outside of Russia for the first time at the Festival de Royan, France. Suslin taught instrumentation at the Moscow Conservatory (1972–1975). In 1975 he founded the ‘Astraea’ improvisation ensemble together with Vyacheslav Artyomov and Sofia Gubaidulina. In November 1979 after