Born in 1960, he graduated in 1984 from the Gnesin State Musical Pedagogical Institute (now the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music), completing two faculties: the Historical, Theoretical, and Composition Faculty (Department of Harmony and Solfeggio, under Professor N. S. Gulyanitskaya) and the Piano Faculty (class of Professor V. B. Nosina). His diploma thesis was entitled «The Style of Olivier Messiaen’s Piano Works of the 1930s–1940s».
In 1992 he defended his PhD (Candidate of Art Criticism) dissertation at the State Institute for Art Studies on the topic «The Piano Works of Olivier Messiaen», supervised by Doctor of Art Criticism, Professor N. S. Gulyanitskaya.
After military service in the Armed Forces of the USSR, he joined the laboratory of D. B. Kabalevsky at the Research Institute of Schools of the RSFSR Ministry of Education (later the Institute of General Education of the RF Ministry of Education and the Federal Institute for Educational Development), where he progressed from Junior Research Fellow (1987) and Head of the Laboratory of Music Education (1995) to Head of the Department for Content and Standards of General Secondary Education (2006).
Under his supervision, four postgraduate students have successfully defended their Candidate of Art Criticism dissertations.
He is the head of the federal educational and methodological complex «Music, Grades 1–8», created in collaboration with T. I. Naumenko (published by Drofa from 1998 to 2020 and by Prosveshchenie since 2020), which includes textbooks for comprehensive schools and a wide range of teaching aids; these textbooks are included in the Federal List of the Russian Federation and are used in music education in schools across almost all regions of Russia and abroad.
In recognition of his contributions to pedagogical science, he was awarded the K. D. Ushinsky Medal in 2007.
In 2010 he joined the Department of Music Theory at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music (appointed Associate Professor in 2011 and Professor in 2014), and in 2015 he became Head of the Department of Pedagogy and Methodology while continuing to teach in the Department of Music Theory.
He has organized the International Academic and Practical Conferences «The Gnesin Pedagogical Schools: History and Modernity» (2017, 2019, 2021) and has authored the dictation materials for the international educational initiative «The All‑Russian Musical Dictation» (2019, 2020, 2021).
Since 2022, alongside his teaching, he has headed the Centre for Modern Technologies in Science, Education, and Pedagogy (Priority‑2030 project).
He is the author of more than three hundred publications, including school textbooks, teaching aids, and numerous articles on music education, the theory of twentieth‑century music, and piano performance practice.
Selected publications:
Music pedagogy
- Music, Grade 1, in 2 parts. Part 1: textbook, co‑authored with T. N. Kichak, 20th stereotype edition, Prosveshchenie, Moscow, 2022.
- Music, Grade 1, in 2 parts. Part 2: textbook, co‑authored with T. N. Kichak, 20th stereotype edition, Prosveshchenie, Moscow, 2022.
- Music, Grade 2, in 2 parts. Part 1: textbook, co‑authored with T. N. Kichak, 17th stereotype edition, Prosveshchenie, Moscow, 2022.
- Music, Grade 2, in 2 parts. Part 2: textbook, co‑authored with T. N. Kichak, 17th stereotype edition, Prosveshchenie, Moscow, 2022.
- Music, Grade 3, in 2 parts. Part 1: textbook, co‑authored with T. N. Kichak, 17th stereotype edition, Prosveshchenie, Moscow, 2022.
- Music, Grade 3, in 2 parts. Part 2: textbook, co‑authored with T. N. Kichak, 17th stereotype edition, Prosveshchenie, Moscow, 2022.
- Music, Grade 4, in 2 parts. Part 1: textbook, sole author, 16th stereotype edition, Prosveshchenie, Moscow, 2022.
- Music, Grade 4, in 2 parts. Part 2: textbook, sole author, 16th stereotype edition, Prosveshchenie, Moscow, 2022.
- Art: Music, Grade 5: textbook, co‑authored with T. I. Naumenko, 11th stereotype edition, Prosveshchenie, Moscow, 2022.
- Art: Music, Grade 6: textbook, co‑authored with T. I. Naumenko, 10th stereotype edition, Prosveshchenie, Moscow, 2022.
- Art: Music, Grade 7: textbook, co‑authored with T. I. Naumenko, 9th stereotype edition, Prosveshchenie, Moscow, 2022.
- Art: Music, Grade 8: textbook, co‑authored with T. I. Naumenko, 8th stereotype edition, Prosveshchenie, Moscow, 2022.
Music theory
- V. V. Aleev, 300 Musical Dictations (Monophonic, Two‑Part, and Three‑Part), Moscow, Muzyka, 2017.
- V. V. Aleev, Problems in Harmony: A Study Guide, Muzyka, 2021.
- V. V. Aleev, «On the Harmony of Rachmaninoff in Large‑Scale Works: The Third Piano Concerto», in Scholarly Notes of the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, no. 4, 2019, pp. 39–46.
- V. V. Aleev, «On the Harmony of Claude Debussy: Selected Emphases in the University Course in Harmony», in Musical Scholarship in the Context of Culture: Musicology and the Challenges of the Information Age, Proceedings of the International Academic Conference, Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, Moscow, 27–30 October 2020, ed. T. I. Naumenko, Moscow, 2021, pp. 289–298.
