About Ilya Demutsky

photo by Leonid Sorokin

   Ilya Demutsky is a multi-award-winning composer, performer, and conductor. His body of work spans orchestral, choral, chamber, piano, vocal, electronic, and film music. He holds a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting from the Saint Petersburg State Conservatory and a Master of Music in Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied with David Conte as a Fulbright Scholar.

   Demutsky’s score for the full-length ballet A Hero of Our Time (choreography by Yuri Possokhov, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov) at the Bolshoi Theatre of Moscow earned him Russia’s most prestigious theatre honor, the Golden Mask Award for Best Composer in Musical Theatre, while the production itself was named Best Ballet Production of the 2015/2016 season. In January 2017, the San Francisco Ballet opened its season with the world premiere of his ballet Optimistic Tragedy, and that same year concluded with the highly anticipated premiere of Nureyev at the Bolshoi Theatre (choreography by Yuri Possokhov, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov). Nureyev went on to receive four Prix Benois de la Danse 2018 awards, including Best Composer Work in Ballet.

   In 2019, the Joffrey Ballet and The Australian Ballet commissioned from Demutsky a new full-length orchestral score for an entirely original story ballet based on Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina — the first full-length commission in the Joffrey’s history. The production has been presented to great acclaim in Chicago, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Berkeley, Sydney, Adelaide, and Melbourne.

   Demutsky is also the composer of the full-length ballet Gabrielle Chanel, created in collaboration with the House of CHANEL. The work explores the life and legacy of the legendary designer and was praised for its refined musical language and the seamless interplay between fashion and dance.

   In 2026, Demutsky’s music will be featured in several major ballet premieres, including Eugene Onegin at San Francisco Ballet and The Joffrey Ballet Chicago, and STANDBY, choreographed by Paul Lightfoot and Sol León for The Royal Ballet in London, in co-production with The Norwegian National Ballet.
   His full-length ballet The Seagull, commissioned by the Bolshoi Theatre and premiered in July 2021, received both the Golden Mask and the BraVo Award for Best Ballet.

   For his film score to The Student (directed by Kirill Serebrennikov), Demutsky was named European Composer of 2016 by the European Film Academy. His film work also includes the score for The Disappearance of Josef Mengele, directed by Kirill Serebrennikov and selected for the Cannes Film Festival in 2025.

   Ilya Demutsky lives in France.

 

SELECTED AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS

 

2021 - BraVo Award (Best Ballet for the Seagull)

2021 - Golden Mask Russian National Theater Award (Best Ballet for the Seagull)

2020 - BraVo Award (Best Ballet for Nureyev)

2019 - Golden Mask Russian National Theater Award (Best Ballet for Nureyev)

2018 - Benois de la Danse Award (Best Composer)

2016 - European Film Award (Best Composer)

2016 - Golden Mask Russian National Theater Award (Best Composer, Best Ballet for Hero of Our Time)

2017 - San Francisco Conservatory Hoefer Prize

2013 - The Medal of the President of the Italian Republic

2013 - 1st Prize at the International Composition Competition «2 Agosto» (Bologna)

2008 - Jim Highsmith Composition Competition (San Francisco)