Biography
Alfred Schnittke was born in 1934 in Engels on the Volga, the son of a German-Jewish journalist and a Volga German mother. From 1946 to 1948 the family lived in Vienna, where he received his first piano and theory lessons; he later studied and taught at the Moscow Conservatory. Schnittke developed what became known as polystylism, collaging together contrasting musical styles and eras, while also writing more than sixty film scores for Soviet cinema. He only became internationally known from the mid-1980s, championed by performers such as Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet and Mstislav Rostropovich. Despite suffering several strokes, he kept composing until the end and died in Hamburg in 1998.
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