Mikhail I. Imkhanitskii

Scholar, teacher, methodologist, bayan performer and composer.

After graduating from the Kharkiv Secondary Special Music School in 1964, in the same year he entered the Kharkiv Institute of Arts, Faculty of Folk Instruments, and in 1965 the Faculty of Musicology and Composition.

In 1969 he graduated with honours from the Folk Instruments Faculty as a concert bayan performer (class of L. M. Gorenko) and conductor of a Russian folk instrument orchestra (class of V. F. Savinykh). In 1970 he graduated from the Musicology and Composition Faculty (class of M. D. Tits and I. N. Dubinin in music theory). For five years he studied composition with Professor D. L. Klebanov. From 1971 to 1973 he taught score reading and analysis, organology and orchestration at the Kharkiv Institute of Arts.

In 1973 he entered the postgraduate programme at the Gnesin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute (now the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music) under Professor O. M. Agarkov and in the same year began teaching at the Faculty of Folk Instruments there. In 1976 he completed his postgraduate studies, and in 1977 he defended his PhD thesis at the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music and Cinema on the topic «Music for the Russian Folk Instrument Orchestra at the Present Stage».

Since 1977 he has been a full‑time member of the Folk Instruments Department of the Gnesin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute, becoming Associate Professor in 1983 and Professor in 1990.

In 1989 he defended his doctoral dissertation at the Kyiv Conservatory on «The Formation and Development of Written Tradition in Russian Folk Instrumental Culture». In 1999 he became a Full Member of the International Academy of Informatization. Since 1977 M. I. Imkhanitsky has served as Deputy Head of the Folk Instruments Department for Research and Methodological Work.

He is the author of a number of musical works, including a symphony, a string quartet, a sonata for bayan, a concertino for bayan and piano (also arranged for bayan duo), vocal compositions and other pieces. He has written more than three hundred and fifty scholarly and methodological works, articles in periodicals, curricula and teaching materials.

Among his most important works are the monographs:

• «History of Bayan and Accordion Art»;
• «Music by Foreign Composers for Bayan and Accordion»;
• «History of Performance on Russian Folk Instruments»;
• «At the Origins of Russian Folk Orchestral Culture»;
• «New Trends in Music for the Russian Folk Orchestra»;
• «The Works of Yuri Shishakov», «New Insights into Articulation and Bowings on the Bayan»;
• «The Formation of Plucked String Folk Instruments in Russia».

Selected articles:

• «The Bayan Works of A. Repnikov»;
• «A. Repnikov’s Works in the Pedagogical Repertoire of Bayanists»;
• «Articulation and Bowings in Bayan Intonation».

The series of collections «Accordion Duo: Issues of Theory and Practice» has been incorporated into teaching programmes at higher education institutions in the arts and culture throughout Russia, as well as in Ukraine, Belarus and other countries.

M. I. Imkhanitsky is also the author of degree programmes for music universities, including courses in the history of performance on Russian folk instruments, the bayan performance class and others.

Over the course of his academic career he has taught a wide range of subjects: bayan and accordion, ensemble and collaborative piano, organology, score reading and analysis, supervision of undergraduate theses, postgraduate research supervision and work with assistant trainees.

He developed the course «Introduction to the Specialisation», which for many years was taught at the Gnesin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute, and since 1984 he has designed and taught the course «History of Performance on Russian Folk Instruments».

The most significant scholarly achievements of M. I. Imkhanitsky include: the identification of images of Old Russian domras of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the historical and theoretical substantiation of the deep‑rooted nature of domra‑balalaika culture in Russia, the description of its contemporary forms and future prospects, and the discovery of numerous previously unknown sources on the history of the bayan, accordion and Russian folk instrument orchestras.

M. I. Imkhanitsky regularly gives lectures, masterclasses, conference papers and open lessons, serves as an official opponent at doctoral and PhD defences and sits on several academic councils, including at the Gnesin Russian Academy of Music.

Among his pupils are eight laureates of international performance competitions (students in his class G. Guryev, Ya. Meisl, K. Shtybin; assistant trainees A. Mishchenko, I. Snedkov, Ya. Ramich; trainees Ye. Omelnitskaya and O. Parfentyeva). Under his supervision nine PhD theses have been defended (by S. Platonova, A. Motuzas, V. Galaktionov, V. Novozhilov, S. Kulibaba, V. Vasilyev, K. Yunoki‑Oie, Z. Rakich and R. Rakhimov, the latter now a Doctor of Art History). Many of his students are now Professors and Associate Professors at various music universities.

Many of his published works and collections of scholarly and methodological articles have become part of teaching practice and are widely used in courses on the history of performance, methods of teaching bayan, organology, orchestration and seminars on contemporary music.

Selected major publications:

• «History of Performance on Russian Folk Instruments», a textbook for music universities and colleges in Russia, Moscow, 2002;
• «History of Bayan and Accordion Art», a textbook for higher and secondary institutions of arts and culture, Moscow, Gnesin Russian Academy of Music;
• «Music by Foreign Composers for Bayan and Accordion», a textbook for music universities and colleges in Russia, Moscow, Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, 2004;
• «The Formation of Plucked String Folk Instruments in Russia», Gnesin Russian Academy of Music Press (368 pages);
• «Modern Music for the Russian Folk Orchestra and the Tasks of Training Performers», in Questions of Musical Performance and Pedagogy, Gnesin Institute Proceedings, vol. 24, Moscow, 1976;
• «The Works of Yuri Shishakov», monograph, Moscow, Sovetsky Kompozitor, 1976;
• «New Trends in Contemporary Music for the Russian Folk Orchestra», Moscow, Gnesin State Musical and Pedagogical Institute, 1981;
• «Arrangements of Classical Music in the Contemporary Repertoire of the Russian Folk Orchestra», in Musical Classics in Contemporary Performance and Pedagogy, Gnesin Institute Proceedings, vol. 53, Moscow, 1981;
• «Working on A. Repnikov’s Concertos in the Bayan Class», in Musical Pedagogy and Performance on Russian Folk Instruments, Gnesin Institute Proceedings, vol. 74, Moscow, 1984;
• «At the Origins of Russian Folk Orchestral Culture», monograph, Moscow, Muzyka, 1987;
• «The Bayan Works of Albin Repnikov», in Bayan and Bayanists, vol. 7, Moscow, Sovetsky Kompozitor, 1987;
• «Improving Ensemble Skills of the Bayanist», Moscow, Republican Methodological Office of the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR, 1989 (co‑authored with A. V. Mishchenko);
• «Developing Intonation Skills on the Bayan», Moscow, Republican Methodological Office of the Ministry of Culture of the RSFSR, 1989 (co‑authored with A. V. Mishchenko);
• numerous biographical and analytical articles on leading bayanists and folk instrument performers, including Yury Kazakov, Vyacheslav Semyonov and Friedrich Lips;
• the degree syllabus «History of Performance on Russian Folk Instruments» for music universities, Moscow, Gnesin Russian Academy of Music, 2005;
• «The Gusli in the Contemporary Musical Space», in Gusli. Multi‑String Fretless Instruments, 2007;
• «Articulation and Bowings in Bayan Intonation (after reading I. A. Braudo’s Articulation)», in Questions of Contemporary Bayan and Accordion Art and Pedagogy, Gnesin Russian Academy of Music Proceedings, vol. 178, Moscow, 2010.

Among the most significant edited collections:

• «V. V. Khvatov. Memoirs, Articles, Letters», Moscow, Sovetsky Kompozitor, 1985;
• «Musical Pedagogy and Performance on Russian Folk Instruments», Gnesin Institute Proceedings, vol. 74, Moscow, 1985.